CASE STUDY
Enterprise-Wide Visibility, Responsiveness and Streamlined
Processes Make Electronics Manufacturer One of The World’s Best
Daktronics, Inc., one of the world’s largest suppliers of electronic
scoreboards, computer-programmable displays, large screen video
displays and control systems.
www.daktronics.com
Headquartered in Brookings, South Dakota
Daktronics had been attempting to manage both its standard and
technical contract manufacturing via an MRP solution. The MRP
solution was a job shop-oriented application that was designed
only to support technical contracting.
Daktronics turned to Glovia’s extended ERP solution, GLOVIA G2,
to provide a robust, proven solution able to manage both technical
contract projects and standard manufacturing as well as gain
visibility into critical business operations in order to streamline
operations and improve customer service.
Since implementing GLOVIA G2 in 1998, Daktronics has used the
improved part visibility to maintain the same size purchasing staff
while tripling revenues. The company has fully implemented the
combined standard cost and project system for cost visibility.
Who:
Location:
Business Problem:
Solution:
Benefit:
DAKTRONICS
Walk down Seventh Avenue in midtown Manhattan and
you can’t miss the huge “light murals” encircling the
lower floors of Barclays Capital Building. Hop on a Bay
Area Rapid Transit (BART) commuter rail car in San
Francisco and the directional displays in the cars and
stations will guide you on your way. At Dodger Stadium
in Los Angeles, keep track of the Major League
Baseball action on the brand-new DodgerVision
scoreboard and video display.
The murals, commuter rail displays and scoreboard
could not be more different. Yet, they are all produced
by the same company: Daktronics, Inc. Based in
Brookings, S.D., Daktronics is one of the world’s
largest manufacturers of electronic scoreboards,
computer-programmable displays, and large-screen
video display/control systems for the sports, business
and transportation industries.
Managing the inner workings of an electronics
manufacturer that produces highly complex systems
is never easy and is even more difficult when you are
building a mix of custom and standard products. The
light murals and Dodgers’ scoreboard are obviously
custom projects for Daktronics. However, the company
also builds more universal products such as LED
signage for roadways, high school gym scoreboards,
and billboard display systems.
For years, Daktronics attempted to manage both its
standard and technical contract manufacturing via an
MRP solution. Yet in the end, that proved only a half-
measure. “The MRP package was designed purely for
technical contracting,” says Carla Gatzke, Enterprise
Information Systems Manager for Daktronics. “It was
very much a job shop-oriented application.”
“What the MRP solution didn’t do was truly support
our standard product manufacturing side. It wasn’t
practical for handling tasks such as standard inventory
management, standard costing, build-to-stock and
product shipping.”
Daktronics management decided to shelve the MRP
package and evaluate proven ERP solutions able to
manage both technical contract projects and standard
manufacturing/inventory. That led Daktronics to Glovia.
After a smooth migration, Daktronics now uses the
latest version of Glovia’s fully integrated, extended
ERP solution: GLOVIA G2.
Seeing The Big Picture
The enterprise-wide parts tracking capability in
GLOVIA G2 allows Daktronics to schedule projects
efficiently and track costs accurately. This has helped
shorten cycle times and given a significant edge over
“With GLOVIA G2, we’ve improved our visibility and have been able to streamline
operations to deliver critical on-site dates for our customers, with lead times
that our competitors decline to offer. Now our ship date to promise
date averages two days early for standard orders.”
— Carla Gatzke, Enterprise Information Systems Manager, Daktronics
©Fujitsu Glovia, Inc. 2017 dm170714
maintain a smooth manufacturing schedule.
“We’re able to see across all customer orders,
determine the parts needed, and know what parts
we have in stock and what we’re low on or out of,”
explains Gatzke. “We can enter an item and see all the
customer orders that would be affected by a shortage,
or enter a customer and see all the components that
may have a projected shortage. We use this data to
set priorities for purchasing and manufacturing. With
GLOVIA G2, we’re able to make these kinds of crucial
decisions with confidence.”
The visibility provided by Glovia’s make-to-order and
make/buy-to-stock planning system greatly eases
Daktronics buyers’ ability to focus on critical needs first.
The system has allowed the company to triple in size
without increasing the number of people responsible
for buying components.
Keeping Promises While
Cutting Costs
As Daktronics’ enterprise-wide visibility has improved,
so has the ability to respond to customer demand.
GLOVIA G2 enables Daktronics to commit to
customer orders confidently while keeping production
utilization steady and inventories lean. GLOVIA G2
allows Daktronics to create stable, achievable plans
automatically and meet customer demands with
competitors. “With GLOVIA G2, we’ve improved our
visibility and have been able to streamline operations
to deliver critical on-site dates for our customers—with
lead times that our competitors decline to offer,” says
Gatzke. “Now our ship date to promise date averages
two days early for standard orders.”
Daktronics is also improving visibility, as well as speed
and accuracy, on the plant floor by improving interfaces
with equipment. When a purchased item is received,
it is scanned into GLOVIA G2, improving put-away
speed and making parts available to production faster.
“The Shop Floor Data Collection system installed in
receiving has saved a couple of minutes per purchase
order line,” continues Gatzke.
Daktronics must meet specific delivery windows with
many of its technical contract projects—a custom
scoreboard for a new ballpark must be installed at a
specific point in the construction schedule—and the
global parts visibility in GLOVIA G2 helps Daktronics
“As we keep using GLOVIA G2, we keep improving our customer
service and accuracy while maintaining enterprise-wide
visibility at all times...Glovia is critical to helping
Daktronics achieve and maintain success.”
— Carla Gatzke, Enterprise Information Systems Manager, Daktronics
©Fujitsu Glovia, Inc. 2017 dm170714
reduced inventory levels and improved on-time delivery
performance.
“We have excellent visibility into the supply and
demand requirements to fulfill customer orders and
to plan for the future,” states Gatzke. “This is an
exceptional management tool for prioritizing parts
procurement and customer deliveries. We believe that
parts visibility is key to our position as industry leader
for short turn delivery on customer orders.”
Advantage Daktronics
Gatzke recounts how during the time that Daktronics
was still relying on its MRP solution, the company’s
engineering staff used a separate, “home-grown”
software package to track drawings, create bills of
material and routing, and handle other engineering
tasks. Only at the point where engineering data was
ready for manufacturing would it be transferred to the
MRP system—and this method was cumbersome,
time-consuming and error-prone.
“We needed to move to a system that was seamless,”
notes Gatzke, “one that would allow us to initiate a
design in the morning and by the end of the day have
ready a ‘design completed and in manufacturing’ work
©Fujitsu Glovia, Inc. 2017 dm170714
order. Plus, we needed a system where we would
enter data only once, to ensure accuracy, and have
that information available globally.”
GLOVIA G2, Gatzke says, fills these requirements.
“We’ve been able to streamline the engineering-
to-manufacturing process with GLOVIA G2 and
significantly shorten our cycle times. This is proving a
major competitive advantage for us as we’re able to
deliver product more quickly and efficiently than our
competitors.”
©Fujitsu Glovia, Inc. 2017 dm170714
The Service Factor
Daktronics understands that in the end, products
are only as good as the support behind them. The
company maintains a comprehensive customer service
department with GLOVIA G2 service and repair
management capabilities fundamental to the operation.
“We respond to our customers’ service and repair
needs in a variety of ways,” explains Gatzke. “We’ll
ship them the needed parts or subassemblies so they
can repair their system at their location, or they can
ship the subassemblies to us for repair. We prepare
all customer service orders via GLOVIA G2, creating
a service history for each customer. We can access
GLOVIA G2’s site register for that product’s as-built
history. To ensure quality customer service across the
board, all of this information is accessible enterprise-
wide.”
Moving Into The Future
As Daktronics moves forward with GLOVIA G2, the
company plans to take advantage of even more
capabilities in this fully featured, extended solution.
“As we keep using GLOVIA G2, we keep improving our
customer service and accuracy while maintaining
enterprise-wide visibility at all times,” says Gatzke.
“Glovia is critical to helping Daktronics achieve and
maintain success.”
Fujitsu Glovia, Inc.
200 Continental Blvd., 3rd Floor
El Segundo, CA 90245-3457
Tel: +1 800 223-3799
+1 310 563-7000
Fax: +1 310 563-7300
Email: [email protected]
www.glovia.com
How Moving from MRP to ERP Revolutionized Daktronics's Playbook
For years, Daktronics attempted to manage both its standard and technical contract manufacturing via an MRP solution. Yet in the end, that proved only a halfmeasure. Find out how an extended ERP solution changed the game for Daktronics, Inc.
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