Established in 1940, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is a Government of India-owned high-technology aerospace complex, the largest of its kind in Asia, whose capabilities span the entire range of activities in aerospace technology. HAL activities encompass all aspects of design, manufacturing and overhaul of aircraft, aero-engines, helicopters. Established in 1940, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is a high-technology aerospace complex, the largest of its kind in Asia, whose capabilities span the entire range of activities in aerospace technology. HAL activities encompass all aspects of design, manufacturing and overhaul of aircraft, aero-engines, helicopters and all types of aggregates and avionics fitted on them.
Standardization for Greater Efficiency
In order to increase its competitive edge domestically, in India, and internationally, HAL embarked on an ERP project as part of an IT initiative that would help the company contain costs and enhance quality. Better IT support would also streamline and standardize processes within and across all its divisions. By doing so, the company hoped to achieve better collaboration between its divisions and so standardize, optimize and integrate business processes related to materials management, production planning and control, manufacturing, quality, financials, payroll, human resource management, project management, and maintenance from ‘shop floor to top floor’.
IFS offered Industry-specific Applications and Competence
After a thorough assessment of ERP vendors in the market, HAL selected IFS as its preferred supplier to implement its component-based enterprise applications suite, IFS, throughout the company. The main reason why IFS won against some of the largest ERP vendors in the business was because of its leading position in the aerospace & defense industry. IFS would implement the software in collaboration with BAe HAL Software Limited, a joint venture between BAE Systems and HAL. IFS offered the best solution to fulfill HAL’s goals of reducing production costs, inventory levels, cycle times and stocks while improving delivery and service times, increasing productivity and enhancing the availability of online information to enable better, faster decision-making.
Implementation in Phases
The implementation project was broken down into three phases: a pilot project followed by two separate roll-outs. The pilot project covered the Aircraft & Helicopter Division of HAL as well as the Corporate Division functions. Commencing in July 2004, pilot divisions went live in phases starting August 1, 2005. The next two implementation phases entailed rolling out IFS to two sets of 7 divisions of the company. IFS has now gone live in 10 divisions of HAL and more than 5,000 users at HAL are now using the solution, rising to more than 9,000 when all divisions Established in 1940, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is a high technology aerospace complex, the largest of its kind in Asia, whose capabilities span the entire range of activities in aerospace technology. HAL activities encompass all aspects of design, manufacturing and overhaul of aircraft, aero-engines, helicopters and all types of aggregates and avionics fitted on them. About Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. are live. IFS formed a dedicated project team of more than 50 consultants to execute the implementation.
“The implementation of IFS will enable us more easily to improve HAL’s profitability by substantially reducing inventory, decreasing delivery cycle times, reducing operational costs, and improving the productivity of our employees.”
— HAL Chairman
Greater Visibility and Efficiency
With IFS now in place and live, HAL is already reaping the benefits of its new enterprise software. Overall, the company is enjoying the generic capabilities of a modern, integrated suite of enterprise applications components. These are helping HAL to automate and improve transactions in various business processes and handle large volumes of information efficiently and with a minimum of difficulties. This makes it easier to carry out more accurate process analyses and enhances traceability throughout the various divisions. With business information readily available to those who need it, HAL is in the process of building up a knowledge management system that will give the company an additional competitive edge. More specifically, HAL has gained a higher level of visibility throughout its operations. Utilization of time and resources, job progress, the current status of costs related to material, labor and work in progress are some of the areas that HAL can easily access via IFS.
IFS has also given HAL greater, more convenient control of its pricing procedures. Now the company can maintain price lists online view the status of the lists from a number of aspects, such as ‘estimated’, ‘submitted’ and ‘approved’. It is also possible to maintain price lists according to different customer groups for the purpose of submitting quotations. Another benefit of the enterprise applications from IFS is that they provide alerts at a number of stages, warning those responsible of a variety of issues that effect production. The result is more efficient material management and production control. According to the chairman of HAL, “The implementation of IFS will enable us more easily to improve HAL’s profitability by substantially reducing inventory, decreasing delivery cycle times, reducing operational costs, and improving the productivity of our employees.”
Satisfied with its investment in IFS to date, HAL is in the process of evaluating the implementation of customer relationship management (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM) components to integrate more closely its customers and suppliers. In addition, HAL plans to introduce business performance tools to comply with management information system requirements from all its divisions.
Benefits seen using IFS
- Greater visibility of information throughout the company
- Manage inventory levels
- Reduced Shortages with better material planning
- Shorter production cycle times
- Improved MRO cycle time
- Increased productivity
