Industry Summary Articles

Infor announced French shipbuilder Piriou has chosen Infor LN software to help transform its global production, repair, and maintenance operations. Piriou, which builds mid-sized boats for private and public use, military and commercial fishing, has decided to implement a modern enterprise resource planning (ERP) software system in a quest to double its revenues over the next five years.

Previously, Piriou used an AS/400-based ERP system that offered limited functionalities, only supported the French language and was not user friendly. This inhibited Piriou’s growing number of production and servicing operations users at its shipyards in Africa and Vietnam.

After a thorough review of eight vendors including IFS, Microsoft and SAP, Piriou chose Infor LN, supported by French systems integrator Hélyad.

"We’ve engaged in an ambitious international program to modernize our information systems through the implementation of Infor LN,” said Vincent Faujour, CEO of Piriou. “We want to improve the service we provide to our customers, but also the management of our sites and the productivity of our staff. Our key users helped select Infor LN as the closest match to all our requirements. Overall, I feel Infor and Helyad had the closest match in personalities, too — sharing the same values that we hold so dearly as a company. Together, we value commitment, proximity to our customers, and speaking the same language."

Piriou plans a steady roll-out over the coming years, wishing to avoid a “big-bang” deployment approach. Its biggest facility — Chantiers Piriou in Concarneau, Northern France — should be the first site to go live, forecast for 2021. Its other sites in France, Africa and Vietnam will follow.

Infor LN is ideally suited to Piriou’s complex ordering, production and supply chain processes. Piriou holds no product stocks; it builds ships to customers’ unique requirements. Some designs take up to four years to fully scope and test to a customer’s requirements.

Using Infor LN, Piriou expects to increase its production volume by better optimizing its production and giving users direct visibility to component parts ordering. This will be particularly beneficial to system users in Vietnam, who are faced with increasing complexity when ordering parts through various layers of suppliers or intermediaries, which currently hampers visibility and speed.

“In our pursuit of growth over the next five years, we expect to double our revenue. This ambition would have been impossible using our old ERP system,” says Jean-Michel Veauvy, CIO of Piriou. “The biggest part of our business is shipbuilding, of course, and we can see how Infor LN will help us double our production output. But the repair and maintenance side is also significant and growing. Infor LN will help us better manage our margins where we need help in keeping close to our customers globally. We anticipate the mobile capabilities of Infor LN will really boost our service teams’ effectiveness, as they are often required to work remotely on our customers’ fleets of vessels all over the world.”

“Successful projects are largely due to great teamwork between all parties,” said Laurent Jacquemain, VP Southern Europe at Infor. “Although one of our competitors has quite a dominant position in the shipyard industry, we were chosen together with our excellent partner Helyad. Our team of people set out to truly understand and meet Piriou’s unique requirements, which, together with our market-leading ERP solution, is a winning combination.”

Involved in shipbuilding and ship repair since 1965, Piriou specializes in producing medium-sized vessels up to 120 meters in length with high added value through a combination of high-performance engineering and a global network of industrial sites in Europe, Africa and Asia. With over 500 ships built and delivered worldwide, Piriou provides bespoke solutions as well as a complete range of standardized or customized vessels that satisfy the requirements of international ship-owners, whether they be private or public, civilian or military.

To view the original press release, please click here.

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