Solution: Infor ERP

Product: Infor Syteline

Platform: Microsoft

Database: Microsoft SQL Server

Industry: High Tech and Electronics

Employees: 35

Country: U.S.A.

About the company.

New Scale Technologies, Inc. is a global manufacturer of disruptively small ultrasonic

motors. Headquartered near Rochester, New York, the company was founded in 2002 to

capture emerging opportunities for smaller consumer products, automated biomedical

instruments, and nanotechnology research. New Scale invents, manufactures, and sells

miniature ceramic motors and positioning systems using patented piezoelectric designs.

The company targets emerging global markets that need solutions bigger than

microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices, but smaller than conventional actuator

technologies. Its patented piezoelectric SQUIGGLE® motor is the world’s smallest linear

motor.

Setting the strategy

As a technology start-up experiencing extraordinary growth, New Scale Technologies had rapidly expanded from a handful of employees and minimal manufacturing  capabilities to 35 employees and a 15,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility. Because of this growth, the company could no longer manage its business using a standard financial accounting application for small businesses. “Over a very short time frame, our manufacturing capacity had increased from 10

motors per month to as many as 10,000 a month,” explains Steve Mowers, chief financial officer, New Scale Technologies, Inc. “The accounting solution we were using just wasn’t going to be adequate as we moved into semiautomated, high-volume manufacturing.” New Scale Technologies needed a solution that could capture, analyze, and efficiently distribute the information necessary to better understand its cost structure, manufacturing variances, and manufacturing resources. “We were creating manufacturing capability to support a business that delivers breakthrough products for use in a wide range of industries, including healthcare, telecommunications, instrumentation, automotive, security systems, and others,” Mowers says. “This required that we find an enterprise resource planning solution designed to support a complex manufacturing environment where quality management is a high priority.”

Highly developed quality management functionality was critical because New Scale Technologies products need to be manufactured to exacting specifications.

Getting business specific

In the course of evaluating two potential solutions, New Scale Technologies visited a number of companies where the Infor ERP SyteLine solution had been implemented. “We realized that Infor ERP SyteLine would be ideal for New Scale Technologies for a variety of reasons,” he explains. “SyteLine had the best combination of strong ERP and quality management capabilities and was supported by alocal Infor partner with deep solution knowledge.” The new generation of the application had capabilities to support multiple business units, products, verticalindustries, and currencies, as well as the ability to analyze both projects and products. New Scale realized the solution could play a critically important role in supporting the company’s long-term growth plans. Infor ERP SyteLine features an application-wide event

modeler to improve workflow and collaboration across the entire enterprise and support real-time decision making. The solution includes a modern user interface that supports personalization so each user can set up screens, fields, and other options to fit their jobs and their personal preferences. Infor ERP SyteLine also provides enterprise-wide flexibility for New Scale Technologies. Because Infor ERP SyteLine is enabled by Infor Open SOA, Infor’s approach to service-oriented architecture, New Scale Technologies would have enterprise-wide flexibility to easily adapt the solution as its needs changed. Infor channel partner RSVP also played a prominent role in convincing New Scale Technologies that Infor ERP SyteLine was the right choice. “Our preference was to have local expertise in the solution so we could get up and running as soon as possible,” Mowers says. “The team from RSVP was very familiar with the Infor ERP SyteLine solution, was nearby, and could make their experts available to us.”

Seeing results

New Scale Technologies adopted an aggressive timetable for implementing Infor ERP SyteLine so that it could take advantage of recently launched functional upgrades. According to Mowers, New Scale Technologies depended heavily on the 24/7 support desk at Infor and the onsite presence of RSVP solution experts to overcome the challenges inherent in a rapid implementation of new functional capabilities. “Going from a standard small business accounting solution to an advanced ERP

solution with manufacturing functionality was a major transformation for us, and the Infor and RSVP teams were very helpful throughout the process,” he says. New Scale Technologies is currently using a broad range of the Infor ERP SyteLine capabilities, including material requirements planning, manufacturing planning, projects, and quality management. According to Mowers, the solution is improving the efficiency of day-to-day operations as well as providing the company with the information it needs for better long-term operational planning. “With Infor ERP SyteLine, we have a much better understanding of the cost to

produce our products,” he says. “In addition to numerous day-to-day operational improvements, we have

significantly improved our ability to predict staffing and other resource needs for the coming year.”

Doing business better

“The solution has enabled us to get a lot more control over our internal environment so we can take advantage of the significant growth opportunities that our breakthrough technology makes possible,” he says. “In the near term, our plan is to expand the number of licenses for the Infor solution so we can support our business growth. We also plan to use more of the SyteLine quality management and

projects capabilities. “Overall we have a very favorable impression of Infor and its channel partner, RSVP,” he concludes.