Ceat Tyres gets on to the SAP platform

Becomes one of the first in the industry to have deployed a Business Intelligence application.

Ceat Tyres "" the Rs 2,500-crore flagship company of RPG Enterprises "" recently automated its business processes on the Software Application Protocol (SAP) platform, displaying yet another example of how technology is proving integral to businesses.

At Ceat, SAP implementation covers the entire office network that consists of corporate office, two manufacturing plants, 34 regional offices, 28 RDCs, 125 clearing and forwarding (C&F) agents, 3,500 dealers, a warehouse, 15 outsourcing locations, 8 RPD & Mixing locations.

The unique aspect of the project has been the implementation time. Unlike in most manufacturing companies, where it is preferred to have a phased IT deployment, Ceat opted for complete implementation of all modules in over 180 locations. Arnab Banerjee, vice-president, Ceat Tyres has a simple, yet crucial reason behind it.

"If we look at the industry most of our peers have used a phased approach. We were advised to follow it too. However, in this kind of implementation there is resistance to change and opposition to new systems and process. So, we thought that instead of going through these issues in phases lets take the problem head-on and implement it in one go," he says.

The project was implemented in eight months.

While Ceat choose SAP as a technology platform, IBM was the implementation partner. These two were decided after eliminating some very reputed IT majors. The company spent Rs 10 crore (including hardware and software) for the implementation of the project, it is now confident of recovering the investment within a year.

Competition and pressure from global businesses to streamline were some of the reasons for the automation. The most important was to provide better service to the customer.

"While we were reacting to customer requirements, we were not doing it fast enough. Besides there was duplication of work," says Banerjee.

Earlier, the company took three to four days to respond to a customer query. It will now be able to do the same within 24 hours. The system allows Ceat to have greater control on inventory management. Planning processes have already improved and Banerjee is confident that there will be a positive affect on the financials too.

The system integrates 500 SAP users across multiple locations in India, automates the supply chain and replaces distributed legacy applications, enabling Ceat to seamlessly migrate to a centralised and unified IT environment.

The solution includes SAP SCM components of Demand Planning and Supply Network Planning apart from Business Intelligence (BI), SAP HR/Payroll and other conventional SAP modules like Financial Accounting & Controlling, Sales & Distribution, Materials Management, Plant Maintenance, Quality Management and Production Planning.

While the company might be late in automating its processes, it will be among the few ones in the industry to have deployed a BI application. Banerjee feels that BI is one of the most crucial element for the growth of the company.

"BI is a key element in the application. It will not only sustain the whole process but also create more business. We would like each one of us to be able to access information through BI and take quick decisions," he adds.

However, Banerjee believes that this might just be the beginning of adoption of new technology. Moving ahead the company wants to invest in customer relationship management system.

It also plans to extend SAP integration to the dealer level and is also exploring if these applications should be made available to the sales force of the company.

IMPROVING CONNECTIVITY

SAP goes live in over 180 locations of CEAT Tyres

Implementation covers 500 SAP users across all locations

Implementation brings standardised business process

This will avoid duplication of work