Business Challenge – Finding a Way to Streamline Multiple ERP Systems
Bel Fuse is a global electronics manufacturer with over 7,000 employees. The firm has three major business groups, which includes Bel Power. They specialize in providing power conversion devices. However, several acquisitions made it difficult for Bel Fuse to manage multiple enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. These different systems made it challenging for the company to handle financial processes and manage inventory. So, they needed to implement a new Microsoft ERP system to streamline these activities.
Initially, Bel Power attempted to use a more modern ERP system from an existing company after merging with them. But, many issues with the system made this process impossible. Some of these issues involved expensive licensing fees for each user. It was a standalone product outside of any ERP system. This made it difficult to use with other platforms.
During this transition period, Bel Power Solutions was trying to keep up with its vast number of products. This was including 10,000 finished goods and anywhere between 300 and 3,000 components on each of the bills of materials. Finding a PLM system that could handle all of this inventory was a top priority. It was essential to improving inventory management and communication between different departments.
Software Solution – Bluestar PLM for Financial & Inventory Management
Bel Power Solutions chose to use a new PLM system from Bluestar PLM, a Microsoft partner. This system made it possible for Bel Power Solutions to easily integrate with computer-aided design (CAD). This was due to its engineering-focused solution for managing products, parts, and lifecycle management.
Bluestar PLM also connected the engineers with the Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform. Everything was in one place. Changes could happen in real-time to ensure everyone was aware of these modifications.
The company provided support in helping Bel Power Solutions implement a Dynamics-based PLM solution while transitioning away from its previous system. Bel Power Solutions is 85% fully deployed with Bluestar. This new system manages all of the product documentation and change management from the firm. The CAD integration process is the only remaining item left to finish.
A compliance module is now available, as it gathers data about the content for each item while putting a list together to give customers detailed reports for each product based on the restriction of hazardous substances. Bluestar played a crucial role in helping to strengthen this feature by making changes to the product to best suit their needs.
The Results
The PLM transition has offered many different benefits for Bel Power Solutions. Now the company can access financial information related to components and costs while keeping track of inventory and the history of purchase transactions. The engineering data easily flows across multiple systems. This saves everyone a lot of time, as they don’t have to create hand-written reports for all of this data.
Using Bluestar PLM provides a more holistic approach to business intelligence. It can easily interact with the ERP systems. Being based on Microsoft Dynamics, this system creates many cost savings in licensing fees. Additionally, Bel Fuse plans to implement this system across other areas of Bel Group in the upcoming years. This will have a major impact on the entire company.
Implementing Bluestar PLM in the remaining areas of the company will create even more cost savings. For instance, it will improve the organization by preventing many errors and offering greater control over inventory management. Before implementing a PLM, the company attempted to manage all of these various activities manually, which created a lot of issues with documentation and employees not using the latest version of the software. This manual process was ineffective, more expensive, and resulted in a lot more work for all of the employees. On the other hand, the implementation of Bluestar and Dynamics helps to solve all of these problems while helping the company thrive and become even more successful.
Bel Fuse hopes to implement Bluestar’s solution across its 50 engineering locations by the year 2025. Implementing this system offers a bright future for the company in helping them make well-informed business decisions using this innovative system.
