Cablecraft SAP Implementation:

Cablecraft was a division of Tuthill, Inc, (Oakbrook Ill). located in rural St Matthews, South Carolina, with 22 million in revenue and about 90 employees.

Cablecraft manufactured cable control systems. In many ways it resembled a bicycle hand brake, where you push or pull one end of the cable, and it pushes or pulls something on the other end of the cable. Control cables were used as secondary controls from Boeing and Cessna aircraft, and primary controls for Caterpillar heavy equipment.

Cablecraft controlled all manufacturing, accounting, and hr functions except for general ledger.

The workforce averaged a 4^th grade education level, yet I found them to be humble, hard working, eager to learn new things, and determined to be excellent in everything they did.

The division President resided in Tacoma Washington at their sister location. The revenue, and workforce size was about the same as St Matthews, but most of their workforce sported an associates or bachelors degree, and the labor was much more expensive. Competition between the locations was huge. Many times needed resources were not provided to St Matthews in a timely manner.

The General Manager possessed vast manufacturing knowledge and experience, and was eager to test and implement new ideas. This charismatic leader was loved by his employees. However, Tacoma artificially burdened St Matthews with production and labor costs which affected St. Matthew's profitability. In addition, it was rumored that SAP experienced a 45% implementation failure rate. He felt that an implementation failure in St Matthews might adversely impact his career with Tutill.

I met the General Manager when he came to benchmark our systems and processes at Williams Technologies. He was impressed with my successful implementation of ProNET shop-floor system and Epicor ERP system. A year later I was invited by him to manage the implementation of SAP, and roll out their new network hardware and infrastructure at St Matthews Cablecraft, as a consultant.

Tacoma soaked up nearly all of the training budget for the project. St Matthews received very little in the way of training material. I found a company in Kansas City that was in the process of producing SAP CBTs. The cost for a full set was over $5000, AND the release date was several months out. I ask them if we could become a beta tester for their CBTs. They agreed and received the full set, as they were released, at no charge.

We immediately setup classes conducted during lunch and after-hours. Countless times we received new CBTs one day, digest it overnight, and train the next day. In addition, we conducted computer literacy classes and Microsoft Office classes after hours. What was really impressive is that a high percentage of the workforce was willing to attend the evening classes without pay.

Whilst training our people, we documented every process for every position, in accounting, and plant-wide. What was amazing about this exercise, it that employees, while explaining what they did, could see waste and unnecessary steps. With management approval, a lot of changes were implemented that made production much more efficient. Management, Supervisors, and Leads further refined processes, to the point that Cablecraft was able to eliminate second shift, resulting in big cost savings.

Next came a week of intensive raining for both St Matthews and Tacoma management in Chicago. We were nervous about our abilities, given the education level of our workforce. At the same time, those from Tacoma displayed a some-what hi-minded attitude towards St Matthews people. However, on the final day of testing, when the test scores were tallied, Cablecraft's test scores were the highest of any of the divisions tested thus far, and St Matthews test score average was only 1 percentage point lower than Tacoma. Tacoma manages were visible shaken, whilst the St Matthews managers were elated,

After training, we began collecting and combing through our data. This gave us an opportunity to streaming our use of raw materials, eliminate redundant assembles, and to refine our bill of operations. This data was sent to Oakbrook to be uploaded into SAP.

Then came the hard part. We had to Waite a week for “Go Live”. Several expressed doubts and fears about ou efforts. But when “Go Live” came, ... it was uneventful. Our training and preparation was good, our data was good, and production ran on “Go Live” day just like any other,.

The insight into the system gained from digesting the SAP CBTs brought about planned changes after the “Go Live” date.:

Previously, each person on the assembly line updated the work order with operation start time, end time, and notes at every position. We reduced work order updates to three key mile-stones, which made the process faster whilst producing more useful data.

Sales was tasked with scheduling production, thus eliminating a position, and making the schedules more meaningful. Lead times were reduced, and promised delivery dates became much more accurate.

Improved planning resulting in lower inventory levels less shortages.

Change from build-build-to-stock to build-to-order nearly eliminated production waste and greatly lowered finished goods levels.

Receivables, Payable, and Hr could be performed by one person.

Both plants could see what their true cost is.

However, the data received from the new system allowed Cablecraft to improve precess and cut costs in very creative ways

While I have been given credit for a successful SAP “Go Live”, It was the people of Cable Craft St Matthews that really made it happen.