Circuit Check, Inc. IFS Implementation Goes Live
Circuit Check, Inc.
Innovative Test Solutions
About The Company
Circuit Check, Inc. (CCI) has been the partner of choice for innovative test solutions by leaders in aerospace, consumer, automotive, telecommunications, medical electronics and industrial market segments and has installed more than 10,000 solutions and 100,000 fixtures worldwide. The company's head office is located in Maple Grove, MN. CCI has global research office locations, and support facilities located in key regions of the world. In addition, the company has individual direct employees located in the US, Mexico, Europe and Asia regions, and employs third party distributors as needed to support customer deployments. For over 30 years CCI has been a leading-edge provider of custom engineered test solutions to the electronics industry. The company began as a bare board testing service in 1979. As their clients' needs for test equipment grew more sophisticated, they evolved to meet those requirements with innovative new products and processes. CCI continued to invest in engineering staff, creating one of the largest and most experienced engineering groups within the industry. CCI continues to develop innovative solutions for their customers' new and ever-changing technology challenges through their products, processes and people.
As manufacturing shifted globally, CCI expanded to support their customers and new markets. While a majority of their test systems are still proudly "Made in the USA", they have opened support facilities in four countries. These facilities provide timely worldwide installation, ECO, service and repair for all customers.
Today CCI has evolved into one of the largest totally integrated test solution providers with the largest engineering staff in the industry. They also have the broadest support infrastructure and the largest in-house drilling, machining, assembly and verification capability in the industry. All of these resources support four distinct product lines to efficiently provide the highest quality solutions for all test needs.
CCI’s global footprint and technology-enabled services enable their customers to take advantage of a high-volume production ramp or high-mix, low-volume production regionally or in Asia and Western Europe. CCI offers a wide variety of professional services, such as transfer of work, new production introduction and sustaining engineering programs designed to speed time to market, reduce lifecycle costs and increase product quality.
Project Background
After a five month long selection process, CCI chose to purchase and implement IFS Applications 9. As a mid-sized business, CCI had a desire to have IFS Applications implemented by a local and proven IFS partner to maximize their ability to leverage expertise and maintain controls on cost. After a second selection process, CCI chose Enterprise Consulting, headquartered in Edina, MN, to implement IFS Applications.
Enterprise Consulting is a Platinum Certified IFS Services Partner who has been serving the IFS ecosystem since 2001. Utilizing a proven IFS implementation methodology, the first step in the process was a detailed discovery of CCI’s as-is and desired to-be processes at all in-scope locations. With the results of the discovery, combined with the IFS Applications module configuration being purchased, Enterprise Consulting was able to develop a detailed implementation proposal and plan inclusive of all implementation phases. Upon agreement with CCI on both scope and budget, a Statement of Work was signed and the project was kicked-off.
The Process
CCI established the key objectives for the IFS Implementation, which were the cornerstones of the KPIs for the overall implementation plan:
Automated planning, scheduling, and workflow management - both fixture and ES system production
Improved asset utilization and operational efficiency
Enhanced multi-site supply chain visibility, efficiency, and leverage
Robust, fully integrated project management
Improved order intake and management processes
Improved financial reporting capability
Improved ERP uptime and reliability
Enhanced scalability of the business
The Project
The project kick-off was in October of 2017, with a twelve month long implementation plan for Phase I. This included all the data migration from the CCI Legacy ERP system as well as a number of integrations with third party applications (CAD, Shipping, Payroll, and Banking).
The project was a joint effort between CCI and Enterprise Consulting, utilizing integrated project teams. The three primary responsibilities on the project were divided up as follows:
Project Management: CCI retained the ultimate Project Management authority for the effort, with Enterprise Consulting providing support as needed.
Functional Solution Management: Enterprise Consulting took the lead role in overall Functional Solution Management, with CCI providing support as needed.
Technical Solution Management: Enterprise Consulting retained overall Technical Solution Management and provided guidance, direction and support to CCI resources who took on primary responsibility over each specific technical area of the project, including: IFS Security and Administration, Data Migration, Reporting, Extensibility, Integrations and Customizations (if any).
Enterprise Consulting’s implementation plan utilized the IFS Implementation Methodology, which is divided into the following five phases:
Initiate Project (including implementation discovery)
Map Solution
Establish Solution
Implement Solution
Go Live
The Result
In October of 2018, CCI successfully went live on IFS Applications 9 at all facilities. The Enterprise Consulting team, led by an 18-year IFS veteran, executed the IFS implementation at CCI flawlessly. The project was a success both functionally and technically, with all key objectives being met. Enterprise Consulting combined their customer centric approach with the standard IFS Implementation Methodology to produce these results. The entire IFS Applications 9 Implementation Project successfully went live on schedule and under budget. CCI is now a happy and referenceable IFS Americas and Enterprise Consulting customer and is looking forward to more efficiency gains and scalability of their business with IFS Applications.
