Harte-Hanks Trillium Software, Bombardier Transportation Wins Award For Supply Chain Harmonization
Wednesday, 27 September 2006
Harte-Hanks Trillium Software, an enabler of Total Data Quality solutions, has announced that its client Bombardier Transportation has won a 2006 Best of British Manufacturing IT Award for creating in 2005 a harmonized view of its supply chain. Honored within the "IT and Network Infrastructure" category of the awards, the initiative makes extensive use of data quality software solutions from Trillium Software and, according to Bombardier, is expected to enable the company to save 3-5% annually from its $1.3 billion procurement operation.
"The Manufacturing Computer Solutions annual Best of British Manufacturing IT challenge is aimed at recognizing the very best IT strategies and implementations in British manufacturing industry," said Brian Tinham, chairman of the awards. "The 2006 Awards are about promoting the critical business value of IT, across functions and departments, in underpinning and enabling superior business processes, competitiveness and profitability for UK enterprises."
According to Kevin Carrick, project director for SAP services at Bombardier, the challenge at Bombardier was a significant one. "Getting a harmonized view of our supply chain was a major driver," he said. After years of mergers and acquisitions, Bombardier faced profound disarray in its supply data having more than 70 databases in eight legacy systems containing an apparent 2.8 million parts from some 200,000 suppliers. What’s more, those parts were distributed as more than 9 million records in five languages.
According to Bombardier, the company sought a data quality solution that could improve critical product and inventory data, including orders, parts, and materials in addition to name-and-address data, much of it buried in free-form text. It chose TS Quality from Trillium Software, to cleanse and standardize the data and to link disparate records together.
The benefits to the procurement operation are forecast to be won through negotiating better contracts based on a business-wide view of supplier relationships. Inventory reductions, through having an up-to-date unified view, are expected to contribute further significant savings and efficiencies, Carrick reported.
"This recognition of Bombardier Transportation and Harte-Hanks Trillium Software shows the strong results that can happen from applying a data quality strategy to supply chain management," said Ed Wrazen, vice president of marketing international for Trillium Software at Harte-Hanks. "Bombardier turned raw, chaotic data into usable, reliable information and maximized the value of that information in business processes."