TRIDENT UNIVERSITY
MODULE 1 CASE ASSIGNMENT
ITM436 Operations Mgmt and Operations Systems
17 June 2012

In this paper I will attempt to discuss the ERP technology changes made by Hansen to both production and non-production functions of their business. I will also discuss how production and non-production effects are related to each other.
The Hansen Company was created in the 1950’s by Bert and Dawn Hansen who were building their home and created reliable toilet valve in the process. They began manufacturing the valves in their garage and shipping them around the country by railway. Since then they have grown in to the leading manufacturer of polythene pipe fittings, threaded pipe fittings and high flow foot and check valves. Today …show more content…

The improvements to the non-production areas of the company were not fully realized until the first six months had passed, Hansen describes this as “operational efficiencies”. [ (Team, 2012) ] Axapta was configured to capture financials, manufacturing, inventory and forecasting. This eliminated a huge amount of time spent by employees from each department tracking and inputting the same information over and over. Removing the redundancy freed up the staff from inputting data so they could focus on more important areas of the business such as better forecasting the direction they are headed by consulting information that is processed in real time with changes shown immediately in the system. Improvements to scheduling were significant as well. “We’re far more efficient now and can better manage our inventory – Axapta details exactly what products we need to manufacture and assemble – and highlights any potential product shortfalls. We’ve also improved control of our purchasing as the system tells us exactly what we need to order and when.” [ (Team, 2012) ]. Hansen experienced more efficient financial management. They can e-mail statement to distributors and generate invoices at any time without being constrained by dates. The system also takes care of the currency conversion that happens automatically.
Production and non-production are related to and need each other in a number of ways. The