In 2004 Outokumpu acquired the brass foundry and mill of Boliden MKM. Established more than 90 years ago, Boliden MKM was the UK-based operation of one of Europe's leading manufacturers of extruded brass products. Located in the West Midlands, it supplies items such as brass rod, profile/section, hollow bar and wire to customers in building, engineering, electrical and consumer markets around the world, using state-of-the art production technologies.

When replacing its bespoke mainframe solution with a package running on an open systems platform, Boliden MKM knew it would have to sacrifice some of the highly tailored functionality which had been developed over many years. However, the flexibility of SSI's TROPOS? Supply Chain solution, coupled with the power of the TROPOS ‘Developer Toolkit’, has allowed Boliden MKM to meet almost all of its needs through a packaged solution without compromising the integrity of the core product.

Boliden MKM began looking at implementing new information systems in 1995. At that time, it relied on an ICL mainframe running bespoke applications. Over many years of development, these had evolved to provide excellent support for Boliden MKM's business practices, but the cost of leasing and maintaining the mainframe had become prohibitive.

The company also felt its technical infrastructure was now preventing it from moving forward with future developments. "We wanted something less proprietary, which we could integrate more easily with other applications," explains Peter Hackett, logistics director at Boliden MKM. Stuart Rushbury, project manager, adds "We felt moving to a system based on a relational database would allow us to achieve that goal and would also give us better, easier access to our data."

The lease on Boliden MKM's mainframe expired in July 1999, so this was the deadline for introducing any new system. At the time the project was initiated, the Millennium Bug had not yet become a headline issue for companies. However, as the project progressed, the need to address Year 2000 issues meshed neatly with the time scales and objectives of the mainframe replacement project.

Boliden MKM initiated the project by putting together a skilled cross functional team. However, once the specification had been drawn up, the team realised guidance would be required in understanding the products available and selecting a system. When selecting CCL as the consultancy to guide Boliden MKM through the selection process it was recognised as essential that the consultants should dovetail with the existing skills and structure

CCL was engaged after a rigorous evaluation during which it demonstrated its strong understanding of the selection process, coupled with range and depth in the expertise of its personnel. This was backed up by a clear action plan for identifying and evaluating products and the reassurance of CCL's status independent of any software vendor. Following the award of the contract to SSI, CCL has remained involved with the project, providing independent monitoring of the progress of the implementation phase.

With CCL's help, Boliden MKM evaluated three products in depth, eventually selecting TROPOS over offerings from Baan and Intentia. According to Hackett, key factors in this choice concerned "the strength and depth of the company, whether we could work with their people, whether the product could do what we wanted and whether we could make changes to the way the system operated without rewriting the core product."

SSI scored highly in all these areas, but Hackett says the decision swung firmly in SSI’s favour because of the TROPOS? Developer Toolkit. This allows customers to mould TROPOS to their processes not by making changes to the core modules but by reconfiguring the way they fit together. According to Hackett, "TROPOS gave us the right mix between a bespoke product and package, giving us flexibility without compromising the core system."

He adds that Boliden MKM also welcomed the fact that SSI had relationships with key partners such as Coda for financials, Spex for export handling and FormScape for design of printed documents. While TROPOS' open architecture would allow it to be interfaced to a range of other applications which Boliden MKM was planning to introduce. On top of that, TROPOS runs on Windows NT, the operating system which Boliden MKM's IT staff had already identified as the most suitable platform for new applications.

Once TROPOS had been selected, Boliden MKM followed SSI's Talisman four-stage implementation methodology. They were aware that they faced a stiff implementation timetable, but were confident the pre implementation analysis and preparation would see them through. Boliden MKM launched the implementation phase in early November 1998 for completion by 30 June 1999. In the event, Boliden MKM decided to pull forward the go-live target to 9 June - to allow for project slippage - and actually went live with all modules in a big-bang rollout on 7 June.

The implementation phase saw Boliden MKM not only undertake the standard configuration work needed during any Supply Chain system implementation. But, it also used the ‘Developer Toolkit’ and a small amount of bespoke development to customise the system in six key areas:- three major developments were needed to support sales order entry, item copying transactions and consignment stock, while a further three areas in the raw material receiving process - which is fundamental to Boliden MKM's business operations - required minor customisation. This initial customisation work was carried out by staff from SSI so as to allow the project to be completed within the short time scales available. According to Hackett, "SSI delivered this work on time and within budget and we've been very pleased with the quality of the work provided."

In parallel with the implementation of TROPOS, Boliden MKM also undertook a number of tasks, such as developing external links to other systems, designing forms and loading and validating data from its legacy systems. On top of that, the implementation of TROPOS? required Boliden MKM to make some significant changes to its infrastructure. Moving away from mainframe and Unix systems serving dumb terminals to Windows NT servers, an Oracle relational database and PC clients, with the rollout of a structured network also completed at this time.

The solution now handles almost all of Boliden MKM's operations, including: sales order processing; production planning and shop floor management; quality assurance; warehouse management; despatch and transport; raw materials receipt; and financials (through Coda). The system is currently used by around a hundred of Boliden MKM's 400 employees, with around 70 using the system at any one time.

Because TROPOS and its associated infrastructure are much cheaper to run than the mainframe, there is a clear financial benefit from making the switch. However, Hackett points out that there have been a number of other benefits. In particular, end users now find it much easier to access and use data because it is held in an Oracle relational database rather than mainframe file formats. "Rather than relying purely on canned reports developed by programmers, we have given managers tools which allow them to get into the database and develop their own management reports," he explains.

On top of that, the ease with which TROPOS can be reconfigured through the ‘Developer Toolkit’ means that Boliden MKM can implement changes to working practices which would have been too complex or simply impossible to achieve through development of the mainframe legacy system. This is one benefit which offsets the temporary step back in terms of functionality in a few areas (where the bespoke legacy system had become highly specialised over time). Another is the fact that, by making concessions in some areas, Boliden MKM has not compromised the integrity of the package. This has allowed it to upgrade to the latest version with the minimum of effort following its initial implementation.

"We knew that we would initially go backwards for a period in some areas, but would then be able to go forwards in a way we couldn't with the mainframe system," Hackett explains. "A key factor in our choice of TROPOS was that we would have a system that we could change to meet our needs."

Boliden MKM is continuing to work on its current TROPOS implementation and to develop the system to meet new needs thrown up by the company's ongoing business improvement programme. It also has plans to implement a number of third-party software solutions - a foundry management system, shop floor data collection and control, and activity-based costing - all of which will be tightly integrated with TROPOS.