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Hokanson
Carpets of Kitchener, Ontario, became the latest active site for the PSI
solution when the initial modules of the program came on stream on January
4, 2000. The PSI system supports 15 workstations in a custom fabrication
environment and integrates a complete process from order-taking to worldwide
shipping and management information. The system administrator at Hokanson,
Maureen Catherwood, described how PSI's scalability and quick implementation
cycle were able to meet the company's needs for "a better tool for managing
growth." Hokanson Carpets has been a well-known business in its home town of Waterloo, Ontario, for many years. About 15 years ago, Hokanson launched a new venture with the opening of a manufacturing plant to specialize in designed-to-order carpeting. The company now has eight showrooms in major centers throughout North America, providing one-of-a-kind carpets for private homes, for aircraft and yachts, and for corporate offices. The Waterloo plant currently delivers on 600 to 700 custom orders per year, with anywhere from one to a dozen carpets on each work order. Although Hokanson prides itself on hand-crafted quality, its "handmade" approach to production management could no longer keep up with growing sales. The company went looking for a better tool to manage growth. The management team began evaluating ERP solutions in the summer of 1999, and quickly eliminated many leading software vendors. The "big names" in ERP appeared to be targeting small to medium-sized businesses, but it became clear that their product would not scale down well to Hokanson's requirements and were prohibitively expensive. PSI was invited to demonstrate its Windows-based solution that August, and the team was immediately impressed by the flexibility of the program. PSI scaled to what we wanted, and it would grow with us. Scalability was a key factor, because Hokanson sales have grown 25% to 30% each of the past four years. Increasing numbers of customers are located in new markets overseas. The manufacturing process is customized for each order, from design to shipping. Hokanson carpets are made of pure wool and pure silk yarns, all hand-dyed to the customers individual tastes and woven into unique patterns combining varied lengths of looped and cut pile. There are few economies of scale so, as sales rise, the management burden increases in step. Following the demonstration, PSI delivered a needs analysis including an implementation plan and a design for a new server-based network of 15 workstations. The company was already committed to upgrading its outdated PC hardware, but found that much of the equipment could support the PSI solution with minor upgrades. The implementation was to take a phased approach, with company MIS staff allocating just two days per week to oversee the new network and customization of the software. In the end, as the January 4 deadline approached, the deployment curve was almost vertical! But the PSI staff made the extra effort to ensure that the shop floor and order processing systems were in place on schedule. Users of the system have quickly become comfortable with it, finding that familiar reports and procedures are still available, and discovering new capabilities and benefits that simply weren't considered before. More PSI modules will come on line over a period of weeks, again providing flexibility to suit the company's in-house resources. Everything we have asked of PSI, in performance and in support, it has delivered .
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