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COMPANY BACKGROUND
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ACK Controls, Inc. supplies automotive cables to manufacturers of
automobiles and light trucks, as well as industry OEMs. From company
headquarters in Glasgow, Kentucky, ACK Controls ships 20 million cables
annually-including brake, release, accelerator, shift and panel cables-to
customers across the United States, Canada and overseas. ACK customers
include General Motors, Honda, Toyota Motor Manufacturing of North America,
NUMMI, Ambrake, CAMI, GECOM, and Dura Mechanical. ACK Controls, Inc. has more
than 400 employees and is a joint venture of ACCO Controls Group, CHUO Spring
Co., Ltd. and KOKOKU Steel Wire, Ltd.
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BUSINESS NEED
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The automotive industry,
a pioneer in just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing, is known for using E-Business
technologies to streamline supply-chain processes. This industry has been so
successful in reducing excess inventory that auto manufacturers today
typically have fewer than five hours of materials on hand for their
production lines. They've been able to achieve this reduction through fast,
accurate electronic communication with suppliers, which ensures that
inventory continues to flow smoothly through the supply chain.
"Because of the importance of JIT and efficient supply-chain management
in the automotive industry, our customers require electronic communication
capability as a condition of doing business," observes Tracy Connor,
network administrator at ACK Controls, Inc. "We must be able to send and
receive various electronic business documents, while maintaining a high level
of fast, accurate and reliable customer service."
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STERLING COMMERCE AND EDIBAR SYSTEMS, INC., MEET INDUSTRY
NEED
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To meet these customer
demands, ACK has implemented solutions from Sterling Commerce and its
alliance partner, Edibar Systems, Inc. With 250 installations in the United
States, Mexico and Canada, Edibar Systems, Inc., is a leading provider of
integrated bar-code inventory tracking software for the auto industry, as
well as solutions designed to integrate E-Business technologies such as
electronic data interchange (EDI) with bar-code printing.
Through their alliance partnership, Sterling Commerce and Edibar Systems,
Inc., jointly provide ACK Controls with offerings tailored to meet the needs
of automotive OEM's for integrated software, bar-coding capabilities and value-added
E-Business services in a JIT environment.
Solutions from Sterling Commerce provided as part of the alliance include
GENTRAN:Director, PC-based software for E-Business message management, and
COMMERCE:Network, Sterling's E-community management and E-Business processing
service. Offerings from Edibar Systems, Inc., include the Automotive Release
Management System (ARMS), which performs numerous functions such as managing
daily shipping schedule applications and producing data for an electronic advanced
ship notice. Edibar Systems, Inc., is also delivering automotive OEM template
kits designed to be used with GENTRAN. These kits provide suppliers such as
ACK Controls with the print and screen templates required by their E-Business
partners in the automotive industry, and they include sample automotive
partner profiles and communication scripts.
"We recognize Sterling Commerce as a leader in its industry, and so do
automotive OEMs," explains Wayne Metcalfe, president of Edibar Systems,
Inc. "Because of Sterling's reputation and name recognition, this
alliance assures our OEM customers that we are providing reliable,
leading-edge solutions, and that we are positioned to pursue the direction
the industry takes in the future. For example, Sterling Commerce is making a
dynamic presence with the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) to promote
the Automotive Network eXchange® (ANX®)."
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E-BUSINESS SOLUTIONS AT WORK
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Thanks to the solutions
provided by Sterling Commerce and Edibar Systems, Inc., ACK Controls is able
to meet its customers' requirements and support their JIT operations. Connor
reports that his company manages a total of seven E-Business transaction
types with various customers, for hundreds of documents a month. These
transactions include the planning schedule, shipping schedule, invoice and
advance ship notice.
The advance ship notice is a key document for ACK Controls because it is
vital to the support of customers' JIT programs. Edibar Systems, Inc.,' ARMS
package takes data from purchase orders, forecasts and shipping schedules,
and feeds this information to Sterling's GENTRAN's E-Business message
management solution. In conjunction with the Edibar Systems, Inc., template
kits, GENTRAN creates an electronic advance ship notice that may be sent to
COMMERCE:Network, to another service, or directly to the customer. The data
in the advance ship notice alerts the customer about what is coming and when,
and can be used in place of an invoice as part of an automated receipts
settlement process.
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COST AND TIME SAVINGS
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The fact that advance
ship notices are created automatically through ARMS, GENTRAN and the template
kits is a great time savings for ACK Controls. "If we had to key in this
information manually, it would be a full-time job," reports Connor.
"That means that we are saving one full-time staff member with the
automation of advance ship notices alone."
Automated processing for outbound invoices is another area of time savings
for ACK Controls. "It used to take us more than an hour a day to create
the invoices for just two customers," says Connor. "Now, thanks to
business process integration based on the Sterling and Edibar Systems, Inc.,
products, we've dropped that time from 60 minutes a day to five minutes
maximum."
The company has also substantially reduced the number of errors it used to
experience from re-keying. "For example, we've integrated the invoicing
process," Connor says, "As a result, our errors have dropped by 95
percent. That translates to a savings of time and money for us, and better
service for our customers."
Connor feels that he has become more valuable to his company as a result of
implementing the Sterling Commerce / Edibar Systems, Inc., system. "The
time I personally save allows me to use my hours more productively," he
observes, "so I can improve my job performance, and enhance my value to
the company."
He has great praise for both Sterling Commerce and Edibar Systems Inc.
"Sterling and Edibar Systems, Inc., do a very good job of meeting our
needs," he notes. "The ARMS system is great, and Edibar Systems,
Inc., did an excellent job of developing the template kits. They came through
for us very quickly once they knew what we needed, and the implementation
went quite smoothly."
He continues, "Sterling's GENTRAN solution has been easy to learn and
easy to use. I like it. And it performs well with COMMERCE:Network, where we
get a connection the first time, all the time, and where the transmission
speeds top the competition."
He sums up his experience with the two companies this way: "Together,
Sterling Commerce and Edibar Systems, Inc., help us get the job done."
Edibar Systems
Inc. 51520 Regency Center
Dr. Macomb MI 48042
Office: (586)
677-8800 or (800) 633-3210
Fax: (586)
677-8801
www.edibar.com
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