Whitehouse India Select FastReact
The Company
WHITEHOUSE INDIA based in Chennai, South India have been exporting knit casual wear to Europe and USA since 1982. Currently producing 4 million pieces per year, they are a vertical company with around 2000 employees.
Why FastReact?
The company’s competitive edge is illustrated by their chairman’s attitude to change: “In a business that changes its mind over the weekend we have aptly been changing to stay constantly state of the art” says Abdul Bari, Chairman
Mohamed Mukthar, Director of Marketing commented: “We first saw FastReact at the IMB 2006 show and went ahead with implementation early in 2007. The existing ERP system was not dynamic enough to respond quickly to changes and handle line plans to the levels of accuracy required”.
Implementation
“We started using it within a week of implementation. It took close to 6 months for ALL our personnel to understand and adapt to this system but in comparison with other software it has been easy to use. We have an internal ERP and we had no problem in interfacing between the systems thus saving time and improving data accuracy. We have been able to centralise planning for four production centres with effective control. After FastReact was installed, everyone realised that we were way behind our potential and there is a huge scope for improvement in productivity” added Mr. Mukthar.
The Benefits
“FastReact has brought discipline to the production planning process and all operations. Through better direction, monitoring of WIP and quicker and easier comparison of plan vs. actual we have been able to reduce bottlenecks in feeding the sewing lines resulting in improved productivity. With the FastReact plan we have percolated the info right from planning through to packing and hence expect to increase business (sales turnover) as we are now able to quickly and accurately assess availability of capacity for repeat or additional orders” commented Mr. Mukthar further.
General Manager, Mr. D Suresh Kumar commented on the benefits he has seen on account of FastReact on a day to day basis:
1. The number of idle machines at any given point in time can be seen. This has helped in efficient utilisation of machines
2. Clarity in priorities has enabled us to communicate more effectively between departments meaning less time spent in meetings and on the telephone chasing deliveries
3. Performance with respect to plan is transparent. Targets are live and realistic and deviations are measured on a day to day basis. Orders on the Lines are not changed due to the whims and fancies of Production Managers. This has brought a lot of discipline in the production floor which in turn allows us to make more accurate commitments to our buyers
Return on Investment and Future Plans?
“After being convinced of the benefits after 12 months we upgraded to the top of the range Evolution version and added high level planning for our sales and marketing team. Future plans include Material Planning (MRP) and Vertical Planning to improve control, coordination and visibility in our fabric production divisions” concluded Mr. Mukthar.
