AmSafe

The Company: About AmSafe

AMSAFE LOCKS IN ITS COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE WITH UPGRADE TO QAD ADAPTIVE ERP

Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, AmSafe is the world’s leading provider of safety restraint products for the aerospace and defense industries. Founded in 1985, the company has established a global footprint and has gained a competitive advantage by overseeing the entire production process in-house. From initial design through full certification, AmSafe delivers unmatched quality and reliability.

Virtually anyone who has ever flown on a plane has been protected by AmSafe’s technology at some point. Trusted by more than 600 airline customers, AmSafe’s restraints are used for both passenger and crew applications, with more than 200 million units shipped to date.

A pioneer in safety innovation, AmSafe introduced the first aviation seatbelt airbag system and earned the first Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval for a child restraint system designed for use during all phases of flight. The company is also dedicated to meeting customer needs through on-time delivery, ensuring airlines can keep their flights running smoothly.

AmSafe has been a QAD customer for nearly 20 years. 

The Situation: Shifting Market Dynamics

HEAVILY CUSTOMIZED LEGACY ERP LIMITS AMSAFE’S ABILITY TO SCALE AND ADAPT

Gaining a competitive edge in manufacturing is difficult in its own right, requiring dedication, innovation and the ability to deliver reliable results. But maintaining that edge demands even more; the agility to adapt, the foresight to evolve and the systems to support growth without disruption. For AmSafe, staying ahead meant ensuring its operations could meet evolving consumer demand and shifting market dynamics. 

“Being that we’re already the global leader in passenger restraints, it’s all about protecting market share,” explained Kevin Davis, Vice President of Finance at AmSafe. ​“Making sure that when our customers need us and they call on us, we can respond to the call… and making sure that we have an ERP system that supports that and supports our visibility of everything from inventory to orders to getting it shipped.”

QAD ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) helped AmSafe establish itself as a global leader in the industry but, as technology and customer needs changed, the company recognized that its legacy system could no longer keep up. The challenge, however, was that customizations once required to facilitate growth were now limiting its ability to scale and adapt. 

“All the customizations really prevented us from upgrading over time and kept us from moving forward with a newer version sooner,” stated Davis.

To stay ahead, and maintain its ability to deliver a superior customer experience, AmSafe needed to upgrade to QAD Adaptive ERP, but wanted to ensure the new solution met its unique needs. ​“The thought process with the new environment was, we wanted to be as out-of-the-box as possible while still maintaining the efficiency that we had with a fully customized version,” shared Davis. 

The Solution: QAD Adaptive

AmSafe’s upgrade from a legacy QAD ERP version to QAD Adaptive ERP with Adaptive UX was a complex project with a tight timeline; the meeting of which required achieving the perfect balance between reducing customizations and maintaining operational efficiency. 

The company set an October 2023 deadline for the go-live event and wasn’t going to budge on it. Davis explains: ​“The deadline was my commitment to the organization and we understood the challenge that we were given. We took that challenge on and we were not going to allow roadblocks, barriers or additional challenges, other than a tight schedule to prevent us from staying on task and staying on schedule.”

Three months before the deadline, AmSafe partnered with Roundview Technologies for support and guidance, relying on their extensive QAD solution expertise to streamline the process and ensure a seamless upgrade experience.

The ability to execute in this fixed time frame is in stark contrast to the well documented industry struggles when implementing technology from the larger ERP concerns. The combination of QAD’s off-the-shelf capability and the effectiveness of Roundview Technologies provided for this significant accomplishment.

“The Roundview team was critical in helping ensure that was feasible,” continued Davis. Roundview’s experts worked with AmSafe to prioritize critical tasks needed for the go-live event, helped fill gaps during the data conversion process with QAD’s low-code/no-code platform and ensured the company used programming or upgrade options that would facilitate future enhancements. The team also helped AmSafe approach customizations strategically, ensuring that modifications would no longer be a barrier to adaptability or flexibility. 

“Roundview did a phenomenal job of truly being a business partner with us. Gary and his team really engaged with our business, worked on-site to understand our processes and then made sure we had the tools to move forward,” said Davis. ​“Gary gave me all the confidence in the world that they could do it and delivered on what he said.”

The Results: QAD Adaptive Implementation Benefits

QAD ADAPTIVE ERP EMPOWERS AMSAFE TO INCREASE EFFICIENCY AND REDUCE COSTS

With QAD and Roundview’s support, AmSafe achieved its go-live deadline and QAD Adaptive ERP with Adaptive UX immediately began delivering measurable benefits for the business. The company quickly returned to efficiency levels seen under its heavily customized QAD legacy ERP environment and leadership shifted its attention to process improvement. 

With QAD Adaptive ERP, AmSafe has achieved an 87.5% improvement in the time required to load pricing sheets. For 600 customers, the process previously took 8 to 12 hours; now, it can be completed in less than one hour. Updates for individual customer pricing, meanwhile, have been slashed from up to two hours to as little as five minutes. 

The ability to deliver individual customer pricing nearly instantaneously is well appreciated by customers and streamlines all of the commercial engagements. 

Managing more than 10,000 active parts and 100,000 drawings is easier than ever with QAD Adaptive ERP’s enhanced reporting capabilities and real-time insights. ​“We needed the time to look through the data at a detailed level, and this has given us the opportunity to do that.”

Davis shared that AmSafe’s employees have also been quick to embrace QAD Adaptive ERP. The option to phase users onto the web interface ensured smooth adoption across different departments and increased productivity. ​“QAD has really helped our users feel more empowered.”

“QAD, day in and day out, whether it was the on-prem or the current, cloud-based Adaptive ERP has never given us anything to worry about. They make sure that our system is up and running day or night, and respond very quickly if we do have any issues.”

“QAD did a great job partnering with us through the upgrade, along with Roundview, to make sure that we were successful and our business was protected. It’s been reliable and a good move for us and helps us ensure that we’re set up for success,” Davis added.

Davis’ advice for leaders considering an ERP upgrade? ​”Find a strategic partner like Roundview to help you with the process and a robust, enterprise level, growth-based platform like QAD.”