Luxury Yacht Company Upgrades its Infor Technology to Standardize Operations for 15 Business Units
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Viking Yachts uncovers real-time production costs, slashes warranty expenses by 35 percent with ERP capabilities from Infor
ATLANTA, June 28 / -- Infor, the largest global enterprise software provider exclusively focused on developing solutions for the manufacturing and distribution industries, today announced that luxury-boat builder Viking Yachts will implement Infor's most advanced enterprise resource planning technology. Viking Yachts has both reduced costs and improved customer satisfaction dramatically with its current Infor solutions and will build on its results to date with even leaner production methods.
Viking Yachts, a $250 million privately held company, is adopting Infor's ERP SyteLine 7 technology to extend the remarkable results it has gained from Infor SyteLine 6. The company, which manufactures yachts ranging from 45 to 74 feet long and priced as high as $4 million, began using Infor SyteLine in 2001 to control operations at its production facility in New Gretna, N.J., and its customer-exclusive marina and service center in Riviera Beach, Fla.
Viking employs Infor SyteLine, part of Infor's Manufacturing Essentials suite of solutions for discrete manufacturers, to manage product configuration, inventory control, production, procurement, and financial management, while it uses Infor's Field Service-Plus (FSPLUS) software for service history, scheduling and execution. With Infor SyteLine 7, Viking will take advantage of new functionality for controlling operations in multiple sites.
With its Infor ERP solution, Viking has achieved major improvements in its operations. "Islands" of IT programs and information have been eliminated, now that everyone throughout the organization uses SyteLine for all functional areas. "All the information is processed the same way and is available to everyone based on access levels," explains John Kasinski, vice president of finance for Viking Yachts.
Options and wording on work orders have been standardized. Every option has the same name, description and number every time. "We feel that this standardization has decreased the time our supervisors spent chasing paper and following up on questions by about 40 percent," Kasinski says.
Costing has become more accurate. Managers now can review real-time costing for any boat in the manufacturing process or in the field, improving profitability-based decision-making relating to its product line. For example, Kasinski recounts, "Once we were able to accurately capture the costs through SyteLine, we were disappointed in the low margins on our 43-foot product line. We discontinued that product and replaced it with a newly-designed 45-footer that became more profitable and is still in production today."
Customer satisfaction has soared as a result of coupling SyteLine with FSPLUS software that allows Viking Yachts to capture every repair and incident by type. Top field-service issues can be reviewed by both cost and frequency to get at root causes quickly and to handle repairs rapidly. Warranty costs have plummeted 35 percent as a result.
Viking has expanded to 15 business units, all using SyteLine. "All business units operate in the same exact way, and the financial reporting is consistently the same from one site to the next," Kasinski reports, resulting in more accurate and timely reporting.
Kasinski estimates that Viking Yachts enjoyed a full return on its investment in less than one year, with higher profitability resulting from lower costs for warranty, production and administrative work, as well as from improved brand loyalty and faster decision-making.
Infor's ERP solutions integrate every aspect of discrete manufacturing production, including master production schedules, firm planned order processing, material requirements planning, production scheduling and execution, detailed lot tracking, inventory management, multiple production reporting methodologies. Equally advantageous for both low and high volume manufacturing, Infor ERP technology raises financial management to a new standard of accuracy, through detailed control of manufacturing costs and real-time labor and materials reporting.
About Infor
Infor is the largest global software provider exclusively focused on delivering world-class enterprise applications to select verticals in the manufacturing and distribution industries. Infor delivers integrated solutions that address the essential challenges its customers face in areas such as supply chain planning, relationship management, demand management, ERP, warehouse management, marketing-driven distribution, and business intelligence. With more than 2,300 employees in 47 global offices, Infor provides enterprise solutions to almost 18,000 customers in over 70 countries. For additional information, visit www.infor.com.
About Viking Yachts
Founded in 1964, the Viking Yacht Company, a $250 million privately held company, is located on the Bass River, in New Gretna, N.J. Building a better boat every day has been Viking's philosophy for over 42 years, and this is why Viking leads the industry today in performance, innovation, engineering and luxury. The 550,000 square foot manufacturing facility is equipped with the latest technology and machinery. All Viking Yachts are NMMA Certified Using ABYC Standards.
Source: Infor
CONTACT: Sharon Sulc of Infor, +1-614-523-7037, or
Sharon.sulc@infor.com; or Jennifer Radivoj, Airfoil Public Relations,
+1-248-304-1421, or radivoj@airfoilpr.com
Web Site: www.infor.com/
