CARPINTERIA, CA — Dura Automotive Systems has announced it will standardize its North American manufacturing operations on QAD MFG/PRO eB2 and related applications. QAD Inc. is a provider of enterprise applications for global manufacturers.
QAD Global Services will work together with Dura to provide consulting and implementation services. Dura will deploy MFG/PRO eB2 at nine production sites and upgrade 11 other locations in North America. Dura said it expects QAD applications will help streamline manufacturing and enterprise functions shared by multiple locations, enable more efficient financial management and accelerate information transfer along the supply chain.
“Our vision is for Dura to function as a truly global company, one that is customer-focused and leverages advanced concepts in lean manufacturing and supply base management,” said John Knappenberger, vice president, sales, marketing, quality, IT and materials. “QAD provides the opportunity for a single platform for Dura’s manufacturing enterprise operations worldwide. Gartner Research and EDS determined QAD solutions would deliver the best return on investment – confirming our success to date with QAD deployments at specific sites.”
Dura is a $2.38 billion supplier to the automotive and light truck industry in 14 countries. The company provides products from door modules to glass systems and engineered assemblies for nearly every major car model worldwide. Growth through acquisition left Dura’s U.S., Canada and Mexico operations with a multitude of legacy ERP and enterprise systems. Creation of a unified platform for global manufacturing became an executive priority for 2003. QAD was evaluated against some of the largest ERP vendors in the market, and it was found that QAD applications are better suited for automotive manufacturing, offered lower total cost of ownership, are implemented faster and accommodated local deployment requirements.
“Automotive suppliers like Dura who embrace lean manufacturing and streamline collaboration with suppliers are positioned for significant competitive advantage,” said Pamela Lopker, QAD president and chairman of the board. “For more than two decades QAD has combined the best thinking in manufacturing theory and an understanding of real-world manufacturing conditions, to provide solutions that all trading partners can easily adopt for greater efficiency across the supply chain.”
According to Knappenberger, “We’ve been most impressed by QAD applications’ immediate functionality, and the open, standards-based architecture that makes them easy to deploy and maintain. Now we’re looking forward to those benefits as we begin our multi-site upgrade in North America and our roll-out across Dura’s European Control Systems Operations. We have targeted completion of the roll-out in just 20 months.”
QAD Global Services will assist Dura with design and deployment of software and shared services for financials. QAD MFG/PRO eB2 will serve as the centerpiece of DURA’s integrated ERP platform, and financial processes common to all facilities will be centralized and streamlined for greater productivity. Dura also will deploy QAD modules for lean manufacturing, inventory management and electronic data interchange. Finally, Dura will use QAD Supply Visualization to better collaborate with trading partners and automate the replenishment process.
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