August 2004

Fort Wayne Metals Adopts New Lean Manufacturing Techniques

Atlanta, GA—Using Ross Systems’ enterprise software solutions, Fort Wayne Metals, a market leader of precision fine wire for medical products in the U.S., has reduced time-to-market for some custom orders from 14 weeks to just 2. With Ross’ iRenaissance enterprise resource planning system, Fort Wayne Metals has streamlined manufacturing processes, complied with quality control standards and built a flexible foundation to support company growth.

Plagued by soaring industry prices and critical quality control regulations across the healthcare industry, manufacturers like Fort Wayne Metals, who provide the wire used in medical devices such as pacemakers, guide wires, surgical needles and catheters, face many distinct challenges. First, it was difficult for Fort Wayne Metals to respond quickly to customers about their orders due to the inflexible and limited nature of its production cycle. In addition, the company’s legacy system hindered its ability to implement new technology installments vital to support company growth. Lastly, the company needed to address key quality regulations to comply with the Good Manufacturing Practices mandate by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Reviewing the leading solutions on the market, Fort Wayne Metals was concerned that most systems were too generalized and could not address the requirements of a specialized metals manufacturer. Ross Systems stood apart from other solutions by demonstrating the intimate knowledge, deep experience and focused solutions for the metals markets, according to Mark Michael, company president and chief operating officer.

With iRenaissance, Fort Wayne Metals has adopted a new method of manufacturing scheduling and has significantly reduced time-to-market for custom orders. Due to enhanced visibility, the company can produce a “stock” or sub-set of material as a base, enabling it to trim the time to produce a custom order to less than two weeks.