Case Studies SYSPRO Fuels TiLite Business Shift, Growth and Customer Service

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	SYSPRO Fuels TiLite Business Shift, Growth and Customer Service

SYSPRO Fuels TiLite Business Shift, Growth and Customer Service

Technology Category	Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)
Applicable Industries	Healthcare & Hospitals
Applicable Functions	Product Research & Development Sales & Marketing
Use Cases	Inventory Management
Services	Software Design & Engineering Services System Integration
Challenge	Operating for many years as a multiproduct company via a combination of home-grown technology patched to smaller software packages, TiLite knew that changing its business model to focus on one product would simultaneously require updating to robust ERP technology. The company went from producing five highly customized chairs per day to 70 or more, and expanded into 40 countries. The future opportunity was attractive: the manual wheelchair market is expected to grow to $2.9 billion dollars by 2018. The decision was made to change the company’s go-to-market strategy to the single focus on designing, engineering and building world class manual wheelchairs. To do that it had to change its operations at every level and it needed a powerful, flexible and scalable ERP solution to adjust to the new business model. TiLite selected SYSPRO ERP in 1997 and has been a leader in the customized manual wheelchair market ever since. Read More
About Customer	TiLite, a division of Permobil, LLC, has one mission: to design and build world-class, customized manual wheelchairs that are individually fit to chair-users. Defining its lightweight titanium and aluminum chairs as “wheeled prosthetics” for everyday living, TiLite created and trademarked the TiFit chair to provide users with an aesthetically and ergonomically superior experience. The company’s EZ-Ti online ordering system ships orders to people in 40 countries. TiLite is known for its skilled and innovative leveraging of Titanium, a type of metal with both desirable and undesirable properties. Titanium has the highest strength-to-weight ratio of any metal and it delivers superior vibration absorption. But, it is difficult to refine, weld and bend, is comparatively costly to other metals, and therefore design and manufacturing mistakes can quickly sap a company’s profits. But TiLite had the needed expertise, and a strong reputation for innovation, to match. Read More
Solution	Today, TiLite utilizes a custom web configuration called EZ-Ti to give customers an easy way to input the specifications and measurements that will make their chairs uniquely their own. EZ-Ti is linked to SYSPRO through Business Objects. These Business Objects automate the order directly into the Bill of Materials (BOM), attach stock codes, build the sales order, and mesh seamlessly into Materials Planning, Factory Documentation, Advanced Quality and other MRP modules. Installing SYSPRO’s full ERP suite allowed the company to rejig valuable resources to focus on unmet market needs. In 1998, one year after deploying SYSPRO, TiLite produced the first of its flagship “CrossSport” chairs. Today, the company has increased its production 12-fold and substantially expanded its wheelchair product footprint. SYSPRO’s embedded Business Objects translate the order into a Bill of Materials (BOM), assign stock codes, generate the sales orders, etc. So all those people resources that we once needed to perform those tasks -that are now performed by SYSPRO ERP- can be moved to areas that provide more value to our customers. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration

Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)

Applicable Industries

Healthcare & Hospitals

Applicable Functions

Product Research & Development

Sales & Marketing

Use Cases

Inventory Management

Services

Software Design & Engineering Services

System Integration

Challenge

Operating for many years as a multiproduct company via a combination of home-grown technology patched to smaller software packages, TiLite knew that changing its business model to focus on one product would simultaneously require updating to robust ERP technology. The company went from producing five highly customized chairs per day to 70 or more, and expanded into 40 countries. The future opportunity was attractive: the manual wheelchair market is expected to grow to $2.9 billion dollars by 2018. The decision was made to change the company’s go-to-market strategy to the single focus on designing, engineering and building world class manual wheelchairs. To do that it had to change its operations at every level and it needed a powerful, flexible and scalable ERP solution to adjust to the new business model. TiLite selected SYSPRO ERP in 1997 and has been a leader in the customized manual wheelchair market ever since.

About Customer

TiLite, a division of Permobil, LLC, has one mission: to design and build world-class, customized manual wheelchairs that are individually fit to chair-users. Defining its lightweight titanium and aluminum chairs as “wheeled prosthetics” for everyday living, TiLite created and trademarked the TiFit chair to provide users with an aesthetically and ergonomically superior experience. The company’s EZ-Ti online ordering system ships orders to people in 40 countries. TiLite is known for its skilled and innovative leveraging of Titanium, a type of metal with both desirable and undesirable properties. Titanium has the highest strength-to-weight ratio of any metal and it delivers superior vibration absorption. But, it is difficult to refine, weld and bend, is comparatively costly to other metals, and therefore design and manufacturing mistakes can quickly sap a company’s profits. But TiLite had the needed expertise, and a strong reputation for innovation, to match.

Solution

Today, TiLite utilizes a custom web configuration called EZ-Ti to give customers an easy way to input the specifications and measurements that will make their chairs uniquely their own. EZ-Ti is linked to SYSPRO through Business Objects. These Business Objects automate the order directly into the Bill of Materials (BOM), attach stock codes, build the sales order, and mesh seamlessly into Materials Planning, Factory Documentation, Advanced Quality and other MRP modules. Installing SYSPRO’s full ERP suite allowed the company to rejig valuable resources to focus on unmet market needs. In 1998, one year after deploying SYSPRO, TiLite produced the first of its flagship “CrossSport” chairs. Today, the company has increased its production 12-fold and substantially expanded its wheelchair product footprint. SYSPRO’s embedded Business Objects translate the order into a Bill of Materials (BOM), assign stock codes, generate the sales orders, etc. So all those people resources that we once needed to perform those tasks -that are now performed by SYSPRO ERP- can be moved to areas that provide more value to our customers.

Impact #1	SYSPRO ERP allowed TiLite to redeploy valuable resources to focus on unmet market needs.
Impact #2	The company transitioned from producing five highly customized chairs per day to 70 or more.
Impact #3	TiLite expanded its market reach to 40 countries.

Impact #1

SYSPRO ERP allowed TiLite to redeploy valuable resources to focus on unmet market needs.

Impact #2

The company transitioned from producing five highly customized chairs per day to 70 or more.

Impact #3

TiLite expanded its market reach to 40 countries.

Benefit #1	Increased production 12-fold.
Benefit #2	Expanded market reach to 40 countries.
Benefit #3	The manual wheelchair market is expected to grow to $2.9 billion dollars by 2018.

Benefit #1

Increased production 12-fold.

Benefit #2

Expanded market reach to 40 countries.

Benefit #3

The manual wheelchair market is expected to grow to $2.9 billion dollars by 2018.

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Overview

SYSPRO Fuels TiLite Business Shift, Growth and Customer Service

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit