Not quite eight months after implementing Microsoft Business Solutions-Dynamics AX, Convex CEO Owen Embling says in productivity terms his company is running 16% ahead of this time last year – an increase he says would not have been achievable before the Dynamics AX installation.

Since it was established in 1976, Convex Plastics has centred its value proposition on delivering custom-made solutions – everything from pallet wraps to courier bags and rain coats – for its customers. All clients need to do is specify their desired product’s application, price point and the type of printing required, and Convex can make it.

“All of our products are unique and made-to order,” says Embling, “and we’ve always believed in going the extra mile for our customers to help them be successful.” Despite his assertion, however, by late 2001 ‘going the extra mile’ was getting tougher – as Convex’s legacy ERP system was slowing the company’s growth.

Limited future with existing business solution
The three distinctive processes required for manufacturing packaging products each posed unique planning and scheduling challenges for Convex and the company needed a customisable and integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution. For more than 14 years, Convex had been running disparate financial and manufacturing systems – the latter developed in-house and based on an outdated Unix platform.

While Convex had a significant investment in developing its manufacturing application (and at one time even considered selling the solution), the company soon recognised the system inhibited its growth. According to Embling, the problem lay in the programming code being fundamentally flawed and not object-oriented – which meant that significant IT resource was needed every time the system was modified. “We restructured our manufacturing division and ended up spending a significant amount of time and money modifying the system,” he says. “It took a whole new code rewrite to add or modify existing functionality – rather than just adding a new object.”

Time delays
Convex’s legacy manufacturing system was very process-oriented, requiring staff to complete one process before being able to start another. “Some of our sales representatives were spending up to four hours a day trying to get a quote and specifications for a product they knew we could make,” says Embling. “People were spending far too much time entering information into the system to achieve a simple result. The other danger was people running their own systems outside of the main system, which led to errors and disparate files stored across individual departments.”

While Convex had a significant investment in developing its manufacturing application (and at one time even considered selling the solution), the company While Convex Plastics considered re-developing its existing manufacturing solution, the project would have taken at least two years – and ultimately the company wouldn’t have been much further ahead. Once he recognised their future was limited with the existing system, Embling says Convex decided to adopt a new, integrated ERP solution to help drive growth and accommodate everchanging business needs. “We were looking to grow the company by 18% per annum,” he says. “That means developing many new products and entering a number of new overseas markets. This was only achievable with a new system.”

Integrated solution from Microsoft provides the growth platform Convex Plastics first started evaluating its options early in 2002, with cost being “irrelevant” according to Embling. Instead, his main concern was finding “the best ERP solution that delivered leading-edge manufacturing capabilities”. After shortlisting four ERP vendors, in June 2002 Convex chose Microsoft Business Solutions-Dynamics AX.

“We chose Dynamics AX because it’s a future-proof product that can grow with us,” says Embling. “It offers a very flexible, object-oriented platform, which enables us to change underlying processes easily should the business change. It will help us get things done today, but without the heavy cost.” Another important factor contributing to the decision was that Dynamics AX is supported by a Microsoft SQL Server 2000 database. “From an IT perspective, having the product run on SQL Server is really important. It provides us with the flexibility to write code directly to and from the database, and will be a huge advantage as we grow in the future and require changes to the system.” Solution Partners was selected as Convex’s implementation partner.

Customising Dynamics AX for business value
Microsoft Dynamics AX went live at Convex on April 1st, 2003, and is being accessed by 35 concurrent users across the organisation to manage financial, distribution and manufacturing processes – including production planning and scheduling. Convex and Solution Partners also worked closely to customise the new solution by leveraging Microsoft Dynamics AX Product Builder, which is both a product configuration tool and development environment.

Using Product Builder, Convex can accurately construct complicated multilevel bills of material, without any manual intervention, and easily provide a quote for made-to-order product. Solution Partners’ Debbie Altham, says Convex is using Product Builder in a very innovative way. “The amazing thing is that Product Builder is not only constructing the products with rules-based flexibility but also assigning production to machines in the same manner. A product cost is derived, which is then used for quoting.”

Embling says he’s impressed with the new functionality. “We can deliver a customer a quote for any product we make within 15 to 30 seconds at the most,” he says. “If it doesn’t come up in the system automatically and we can’t make it, we can do a manual product build in half an hour. Staff who would normally have spent hours loading jobs into the system can now build and define products quickly and easily.” A good example is loading repeat jobs, says Embling. “It was taking sales consultants 45 minutes to load a single repeat job into the system,” he says. “Today that can be done in less than five minutes, which means they’re spending a lot more time actually selling.”

Microsoft Business Solutions’ David Guy, says Convex Plastics has made a significant investment in developing Microsoft Dynamics AX’s product configuration capabilities so that the system delivers increased benefit to the company. “Convex are making more extensive use of Product Builder than any other company in New Zealand,” he says, “and perhaps even the world. This is a great example of how the flexibility of the solution combined with the customer’s commitment can greatly enhance the business value the solution delivers.”

Dynamics AX integration
While Convex Plastics are yet to take full advantage of the integrated Microsoft Dynamics AX solution, Embling says the results have been immediate. “Having an integrated ERP solution for the first time,” he says, “has led to a new thinking paradigm within the company. Dynamics AX is delivering excellent cost analysis for the company and we’re able to complete our month-end accounts quickly and efficiently. At the moment, getting people up to speed with the system is our only challenge.”

The greatest value in using the new solution so far has been in manufacturing says Embling. Dynamics AX’s supply chain management integration features support the synchronisation of planning and scheduling, enabling accurate feedback from jobs through to inventory, labour and overheads. This accurate costing information also points to potential areas for improvement.

“From a master planning and scheduling point of view Dynamics AX is very efficient,” he says. “We know exactly what stock we have and can account for the cost of every single product we manufacture, which we weren’t able to do before.” The company also recently purchased the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) module, which Embling says will take Convex into a “whole new world” when it comes to servicing its customers.

Further ahead, the company is looking at deploying other Microsoft technologies, including Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, to leverage the benefits of an integrated front-office and back-office technology platform. “Our business vision is for sales people to be able to quote on the fly using their PDA,” says Embling, “and have the information link back into the back-office database. We’re also looking to enable customers to obtain a quote for a made-to-order item online and be able to order that product online. An integrated Microsoft Dynamics AX platform will help us achieve this.”

The results
Six months after implementing Microsoft Dynamics AX, Convex has achieved its highest-ever production month and is realising Embling’s export driven growth – securing a major new deal with Japan-based Ocean Trading. Supplying the Japanese market with a wide range of fresh imported perishable products, Ocean Trading plans to use Convex Plastics’ re~fresh modified atmosphere packaging to differentiate its fresh produce by extending its shelf life and freshness, and improving its visual appeal.

For more information on Convex go to: www.convex.co.nz

For information on Microsoft Business Solutions
Contact: Anne Frith
09 362 5865
askdynnz@microsoft.com
Microsoft New Zealand
PO Box 8070, Symonds Street, Auckland

For more information on Solution Partners
Contact: Roger Clearwater
09 366-3920
roger.clearwater@solutionpartners.co.nz
www.solutionpartners.co.nz

January 2004

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