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Infor today announced that environmental sustainability leader Kingspan Water and Energy UK (kingspan.com) has standardised on Infor technology. As part of an aggressive strategy to drive growth, Kingspan has successfully deployed Infor LN enterprise resource planning (ERP) to help improve customer service, reduce inventory and accelerate the integration of new acquisitions. The solution is now live for 500 users across 11 sites across Ireland, Northern Ireland and England, and was achieved with no disruption to operations. Infor alliance partner Merino Services managed the deployment, which is hosted via Kingspan’s own private cloud.
“Kingspan’s decision to invest in new ERP capabilities was based on a need to support diverse manufacturing processes, requiring a combination of make-to-stock, make-to-order, project-build and engineer-to-order approaches. In parallel, inventory levels must be optimised in a variety of locations in an extensive distribution network with factories operating to both assembly line and cellular manufacturing models. Against this complex backdrop, Kingspan set out a strategy for a more standardized operational model.”
Following a thorough review of the market, Kingspan chose Infor based on the strong multi-site and planning functionality within Infor LN, despite other companies in the Kingspan Group using different ERP technologies. Another critical aspect of this decision was Infor’s commercial flexibility and the depth of the support the vendor was able to offer.
Infor LN will be complemented by Infor CPQ configure-price-quote solution, which will help allow product options to be intelligently selected at time of order entry, Infor Factory Track to help improve inventory movement and receipt of production, and Infor Birst for daily KPI monitoring. Kingspan’s field service organization, which is comprised of around 50 contractors and engineers, will use mobile service applications integrated into Infor LN.
“We have a long-term strategic view of the future of our business, driven by both organic growth and acquisition,” said Richard Mayrs, Kingspan head of IT. “A critical part of this is our ability to capitalise on consistent, standard processes, be it within existing operations or as part of new acquisitions. We have already improved our replenishment using the configuration and permutation options within LN, which has helped address how we hold thousands of SKUs. We have put in a superb foundation and are now confident we can ascend the value chain by offering faster integration for new acquisitions and accelerating how we offer different product configurations.”
“As a result of our years of deep domain expertise and investment in cloud technologies, we are now able to help complex manufacturers recognise the processes that can be handled by technology straight out of the box,” said Simon Quinton, Infor GM for UK & Ireland. “Kingspan has chosen to use this framework to deliver more and more value to its customer base by some astute investments in analytics, automation and reporting. This will help improve many aspects of the business simultaneously, creating a transformative effect.”
Kingspan selected Merino Consulting Services BV to work with the Kingspan project team to deliver the required processes and interfaces. “Merino was seen as a good cultural fit with Kingspan Water & Energy in terms of professionalism, work ethic and integrity,” said Simon Bray, managing director of Merino Consulting Services BV. “Kingspan liked the fact that Merino is flexible in its approach, which is paramount in the long process of an ERP implementation in which there will inevitably be unforeseen problems that need to be solved midway through the project.”
The Infor LN solution is being rolled out to operations in Poland and Belgium, with plans for Norway and Australia to follow.
About Infor
Infor (infor.com) is a global leader in business cloud software specialized by industry. Providing mission-critical enterprise applications to 67,000 customers in more than 175 countries, Infor software is designed to deliver more value and less risk, with more sustainable operational advantages. We empower our 17,000 employees to leverage their deep industry expertise and use data-driven insights to create, learn and adapt quickly to solve emerging business and industry challenges. Infor is committed to providing our customers with modern tools to transform their business and accelerate their own path to innovation.
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richard.moore[.]infor.com 
