Johnson Controls Streamlines Business Processes
Johnson Controls Inc. is a global market leader in automotive systems and building facilities management and control. Its sales for 2002 totaled £20.1 billion. Founded in 1885, the company has headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with manufacturing plants on five continents.
At their Burton upon Trent site in England, Johnson Controls manufactures automotive systems for the nearby Toyota assembly plant at Burnaston.
Challenge
The company's traditional purchase requisition process, which is vital to meeting its manufacturing goals, used a three-part carbonless paper form. With 200 requisitions per
month, it was taking too long -- between 7 and 8.5 days, on average -- to process each form. This lag resulted in delays in ordering and receiving vital goods. In some instances, employees were forced to go around the system in order to obtain what they needed. Goods ordered without requisitions could not be tracked, and there was the potential to use unapproved suppliers.
"We needed an automated system that would reduce the completion and processing time, improve controls, and provide tracking information," explained Anthony Cartwright, IT project coordinator at Johnson Controls. "We also wanted to set up a way to measure performance for each department and identify bottlenecks as well as maintain an archive of data and forms."