Industry Summary Articles

Infor today announced the success seen at Ring Container Technologies with Infor EAM, Infor LN and Infor Ming,le. Infor EAM is an enterprise asset management solution that helps improve asset performance, and uses predictive and preventive technologies to help extend asset life and increase efficiency. It is accessible on any mobile device, deployable in the cloud, and built on modern architecture. In addition, Infor LN, a leading ERP system, is helping Ring Container simplify business operations, offering one solution for multiple industry needs.

Ring Container has 17 plant locations spread across the U.S., Canada, and England, and, prior to working with Infor, was utilizing 18 databases from a software vendor to keep up with maintenance across all those locations and its headquarters. Ring Container was not happy with the visibility between those databases control over who could set up new maintenance parts, or the tracking of maintenance costs or invoice processing, as teams had to manually enter information, ultimately creating redundant steps and delays. The teams needed an efficient way of managing how many parts and inventory were on hand, and removing the silos between these locations with a new technology system was the answer. Ring Container turned to Infor to implement an EAM solution that was flexible and highly configurable.

Ring Container had six goals it wanted to achieve with its Infor EAM system: create a common parts list, receive volume purchase discounts, control inventory levels, share parts between plants, control system access so only select users can set up parts, and streamline the invoice process. Ring Container has implemented Infor EAM at all 18 of its facilities, and is pleased with the results. Employees of the organization appreciate that the system is highly configurable and that every screen has multiple user-defined fields. Users can set up shortcuts for KPIs and set alerts and hyperlinks to streamline activities. They also appreciate that the system can be configured with just limited knowledge of SQL. "The advanced reporting is SQL-based, but you don't have to be a developer to write reports in here," says Brandon Busick, EAM project manager, Ring Container. "You just need a basic to intermediate knowledge of SQL. We like that a lot."

Ring Container is also using Infor EAM to generate part requisitions, preventive maintenance schedules with tasks and checklists, and invoicing—which helps to match invoices in the system and sends them straight to accounts payable if they match, streamlining the payment process. The organization is also using Infor EAM Mobile on iPads to replace its old PDAs. The maintenance teams use them to create work orders and set a timer, stopping it when the work is complete. Three plants also are using the iPads and EAM Mobile with scanners to do physical inventory.

"With Infor EAM, the company can now compare maintenance costs across all plants, compare maintenance tasks, and make decisions that help them increase uptime and operate more efficiently. This is a very powerful system that can do a lot of things," said Busick. "There's a lot of room to grow into this system."

Since rolling out Infor EAM, Ring Container has seen big improvements in its maintenance parts inventory and purchasing process. With an enterprise-wide system, any one of the plants can go in and look at the part and see which other plant may have that part. They don't have to order it from scratch and can just ask that other plant to send it over. Ring expects to reduce inventory by 25 percent, largely by eliminating duplication, eliminating obsolete parts, and sharing parts between plants, rather than each plant carrying all parts. The organization has also seen a reduction in data entry because Infor EAM is connected to its Infor LN ERP system, where suppliers have already been entered. Being able to set up a part once for all plants has also helped in this regard. Infor EAM is giving Ring Container insight it lacked when it was running 18 different databases.

"Infor EAM is a purpose-built asset management software that's ready to scale and transform with an organization as it grows and evolves," said Kevin Price, Technical Product Evangelist, Infor EAM. "Infor is proud that organizations such as Ring Container Technologies trust us to modernize their operations and help them better support daily business operations. The great results seen at their organizations are a testament to our commitment to developing leading edge, industry-specific applications."

To view the original press release, please click here.

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