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Vol 28 - No 09 - November 2002 Visit to Marshalls plc On Tuesday,17 September, Marshalls plc gave the branch a presentation on their ERP implementation at their Hall Ings Head Office and works visit at their West Lane Works. The main offices were reached up a narrow steep winding road past two other Marshalls'factories in the middle of the small Yorkshire village of Southowram. Not the expected location of a £328 million turnover public limited company, but not unreasonable once one heard that the company still quarries this hill to provide some of the aggregate used in making its famous block paving and other products. The company now consists of four divisions, of which by far the biggest is the Landscape Products Division which makes products used in landscaping and walling and has 19 sites, and the company 32 in all. Anne Marriott, Manufacturing Support Manager, explained that the main reason Marshalls had decided to implement ERP(BaaN) was that their previous systems were not millennium proof and that if they had to be replaced, the company decided to go for the most advanced. However, this was to be a step change since their previous systems covered only sales and finished stock and they had no company purchasing or production computer systems. Like much of the construction industry, Marshalls had been rather 'rough and ready'with its systems and the biggest problem for Anne, who had come from the automotive industry to help the implementation, was pushing the necessary culture change -the business just did not understand MRP, had no change procedures and had many variables, eg. BS tolerances on flagstones were 20% between highest and lowest. Her biggest problem had been (and still remained) data accuracy. It was typically that problem which we all face, how to get everyone to understand that the accuracy of the information that they provide is important to other users of the system. The project had been started 2 years before the millennium and they had just managed to install in time and had then continually developed the systems. Indeed they had a full workload installing the systems at each new company which the group bought. Andy Gittens, Technical and Development Manager, explained how he had taken the company on from simple ERPimplementation into providing full MIS. He had created a Data Warehouse to allow the user base to receive relevant reports from all the data held and a 'drill down'facility allowed users to look at the data in detail wherever they needed to investigate elements of their reports. He had been able to do this using standard Microsoft tools rather than expensive specialist offerings. Unusually for manufacturing, the system ran on mirrored servers, normally only used in the banking sector, which meant that two computers were continually running, and hence if one failed or was taken out for updating, the other took over. This allowed them to achieve a maximum downtime of 8 hours per annum. Thus it could be seen that IT had moved from being peripheral to the running of the company to being a core competitive advantage. We crossed a very large yard (beautifully block paved!) with significant stocks to the adjacent West Lane Works. One of the problems the company inevitably has is that of seasonality, with many of its products selling well in spring and summer. Forecasts are generated, but Sales Director know how (and early warning of what Ground Force will be using) allows stocks to be built up in quieter periods. Two sections of the factory, which work 24 hours per day making paving, were visited. Manufacturing time can be 7 days, ie.the paving is stored in its rubber mould for up to days whilst setting fully. Mixing and feeding of the concrete was automated, but one line had mould removal and palletising manually;the other automated. Automation is continually being introduced into the various lines and cost of transportation is minimised by many of the plants over the country making paving blocks using local aggregate. However, great care had to be taken to ensure colour match. Overall, an interesting visit and talk on an industry which is not usually perceived as high tech but showing how modern systems and automation can make a winner. Many thanks to Neil Runkee, Operations Manager, for allowing us to visit the site and to Anne and Andy for their talks. Peter Catton, FIOM Page number: 10 Word count: 450 Related Topics:
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