Client
Sector
Solution
Key Benefits
John Crane/Smiths Group
Engineering
Web-based database application
Increase communication between the sales department, the local Drawing Office and the regional Support Centres
Improve efficiency within the Drawing Offices
Provide improved tracking and reporting of performance globally
Standardise processes across the Europe, Africa and Asia (EAA) region.
The database led to the system being expanded to include other business processes in a second phase of development.
Background
John Crane is part of the Smiths Group, an engineering company in the FTSE 100. They design and manufacture seals and associated products mainly for the oil & gas, chemical, pharmaceutical, pulp & paper and mining sectors. John Crane is acknowledged as the global leader in its field.
“From the start, Logic Software exhibited a knowledgeable and proactive collaborative approach. This first helped us arrive at a specification that was fit for purpose, affordable and achievable within our tight schedule. Then through the development and testing they enabled us to converge on an excellent solution.
Whenever feedback was given they responded very promptly, using their experience to suggest solutions but without being dogmatic." John Carr, project manager at John Crane.
The Challenge
The tracking of jobs and allocation of work to the geographically dispersed drawing offices was a process that the engineering department had identified as being something they could improve upon. The key aims of the project were to:
- increase communication between the sales department, the local Drawing Office and the regional Support Centres;
- improve efficiency within the Drawing Offices;
- provide improved tracking and reporting of performance;
- Standardise processes across the Europe, Africa and Asia (EAA) region.
The Solution
Logic Software undertook a business process review to fully understand how the engineering department interacted with its internal customers. The second deliverable was the design and development of a “Drawing Tracking System”– a web-based database application to be run across John Crane’s intranet in the EAA region.
The main output of the process review was a completely documented set of processes. This allowed the project team to conduct an objective analysis and incorporate process improvements into the implementation of the Drawing Tracking System prior to development starting.
The Benefits
The clear benefits from the database led to the system being expanded to include other business processes in a second phase of development. Additional plans to integrate the database with other systems as part of the wider IT strategy to streamline and automate processes are in progress.
