The company has implemented a broad spectrum of IFS Applications components including Financials, Distribution, Manufacturing, Maintenance, Sales and Support, and Human Resources.
“The day we implemented our legacy system 10 years ago, we maxed out its capabilities,” Sabreliner CIO Steve DeBarry said.
“With IFS Applications, we know we can grow in a number of areas by implementing new functionalities that already exist in IFS’s solution. With this initial implementation, we have only replaced the functionality provided by our legacy system. In future phases, we plan to replace other standalone systems used throughout the company. In addition, we will build on the functionality in IFS Applications to better manage our business through inventory requirements planning and cross facility workforce scheduling, which will allow us to define labor requirements across our four operational facilities. One of those facilities is a manufacturing environment which requires internal scheduling by work center and is currently being managed on a separate, standalone system. We plan to use IFS Applications to replace that system so we have visibility of our backlog, labor requirements and materials requirements from all four facilities in one integrated system.”
As an aerospace services company, powerful maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) functionality is essential for Sabreliner, which can now benefit from industry functionality in IFS Applications, including the ability to track expiration dates for parts and other standard metrics required by regulation.
“We are live on the MRO functionality now,” DeBarry said. “We were handling this in our legacy system, but because of the manner in which the data was stored and the difficulty in developing effective reporting tools, getting information out of the system was difficult, which resulted in a great deal of manual effort.”
According to IFS North America Vice President for Defense Kevin Deal, the company’s needs are typical of the aerospace and defense industry, including major original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and the vendors, like Sabreliner, that support them.
“So many companies like Sabreliner find themselves in the situation of being middle market companies in a highly regulated and complex industry that requires them to be running systems associated with a major systems integrator or OEM,” Deal said. “With IFS Applications in place, Sabreliner will be able to offer their customers enhanced visibility into progress of work being performed for them. As they grow their instance of IFS Applications, they will become even more competitive than they have historically been. We look forward to helping them on their way as they grow their operation.”
Going forward, the company plans to implement additional functionality in subsequent phases, including components for streamlined earned value management (EVM) reporting through electronic labor capture on the shop floor.
Aerospace and defense is one of IFS’ targeted market segments. IFS Applications™ provides market leading off-the-shelf component based solutions that support Performance Based Logistics (PBL), Contractor Logistics Support (CLS), and Fleet Operator programs; and solutions for Defense Manufacturing, Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO), Asset & Fleet Management, Supply Chain Management and Product Lifecycle Management.
Customers include the United States Army and Air Force Materiel Commands, British Navy and Army and the Norwegian Navy and Air Force; as well as the Eurofighter consortium—commercial MRO shops and service operators include Bristow Helicopters, Aero-Dienst GmbH, K&L Microwave, Hawker Pacific, Ensign Bickford, Todd Pacific Shipyards and Lufthansa Technik Qantas (LTQ, formerly known as Jet Turbine Systems). In addition, IFS provides solutions to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, BAE SYSTEMS, SAAB, and GE Aircraft Engines.
