Kidde unifies ERP for blistering business growth

£100 million fire and safety products manufacturer Kidde Fire Protection Services expects to consolidate data and information to facilitate ‘collaborative working’ when it goes fully live on replacement ERP in the spring. Kidde is consolidating its UK business units, and the replacement of existing UK ERP systems at its various sites with £335,000 worth of Frontstep Syteline as its central ERP is part of that process. The firm says it chose Frontstep, now being taken over by mid market manufacturing IT rival Mapics, not least because of its support for project management. Many of Kidde’s fire protection systems supplies are engineered to order, and Chris Bailey, group IT project manager, says managers on different sites will now be able to capture costs, manage time and share information more effectively. Syteline will provide production and project management models, which can be transferred between repetitive production and bespoke projects. “We were impressed by the work that Frontstep had already undertaken with one of our divisions, Angus Fire, who had demonstrated the gains to be had from Syteline’s functionality,” he says. Operations such as engineer-to-order, discrete manufacturing, manufacture to order, batch manufacturing and service will all benefit from the improved data access, and hence more informed decision making and streamlined business processes will evolve. “As Kidde Fire Protection Services changes to meet market demands and expands through internal growth and acquisition, we will have the ability to plug Syteline in without the penalty of high costs and lengthy implementation that such initiatives can incur,” says Bailey.