Tube Investments of India Cuts Month-End Inventory Closing Time Approximately 67% with ERP System Upgrade that Supports Centralized Core Business Functions
 
 

Tube Investments of India Cuts Month-End Inventory Closing Time Approximately 67% with ERP System Upgrade that Supports Centralized Core Business Functions

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Tube Investments of India Ltd is a large engineering company, catering to the automotive, railway, and general engineering sectors. Established 60 years ago as a bicycle manufacturer, the company later extended its operations to make precision steel tubes and two-wheeler chains.

Although more than one-third of Tube Investments’ annual turnover is still generated by bicycle manufacturing, the remainder comes from the components it develops and manufactures for the automotive industry, including metal tubes, car door frames, and industrial chains. The company has more than 5,000 employees, 16 manufacturing locations throughout India, and serves almost 15,000 customers.

During the past few years, Tube Investments has worked to centralize its accounting functions. Rather than each manufacturing location undertaking accounting processes, such as payables and receivables, the company has now consolidated its accounting functions in a shared service center at its headquarters in Chennai.

In 2011, Tube Investments decided to upgrade to Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1 and Oracle Database, Enterprise Edition 11g. The company found that Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1 was highly suited to the new, centralized accounting processes and improved efficiencies even further. Tube Investments has streamlined its monthly financial reporting processes, cut month-end inventory closing time from six hours to less than two hours, reduced administrative costs, and developed a platform to support further centralization of functions, such as fixed-assets accounting in the future.

 
 

 
 

Challenges

A word from Tube Investments of India Ltd.

  • “We have been using Oracle products for more than 20 years and have great confidence that the upgrade to Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1 will assist our future growth. The applications fully support our centralized core business functions, helping us cut month-end inventory closing time by approximately 67%.” – S.V. Kaushik, Senior Vice President of Information Technology, Tube Investments of India Ltd

  • Support centralized core accounting functions from 16 manufacturing locations to further increase staff efficiency, reduce administrative costs, and improve workflows
  • Reduce the amount of time taken to close inventory accounting at the end of each month to ensure visibility of stock, such as steel components, at manufacturing locations
  • Ensure monthly financial reports are made available more quickly to management
  • Develop the company’s existing Oracle enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform to take advantage of advanced features in Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1 and support future growth

Solutions

Oracle Product and Services

  • Cut the time taken to complete month-end inventory closing from six hours to less than two hours, by integrating inventory processes across manufacturing locations
  • Reduced month-end reporting back logs significantly and improved the efficiency of management information systems
  • Decreased administration costs by reducing the number of hours required to manage month-end inventory and financial accounting processes
  • Enabled managers to make faster business decisions by providing them with monthly financial reports up to a day faster
  • Lowered the risk of human error and provided a clearer picture of company finances by better integrating inventory, purchasing, and manufacturing modules with the general ledger
  • Developed a future-proof ERP platform, by taking advantage of advanced features, such as subledger accounting and a flexible architecture that will support further centralization of accounting and fixed-asset processes
  • Provided a fast, stable, and highly available database for the new ERP system by upgrading to Oracle Database, Enterprise Edition 11g

Why Oracle

Tube Investments has been working with Oracle for more than 20 years and has implemented its technology across the company’s operations. It upgraded to Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1 to ensure that its ERP system remained up to date.

“We understand Oracle products and have great confidence that the company knows our requirements and future plans,” said S.V. Kaushik, senior vice president of information technology, Tube Investments of India Ltd. “Oracle’s support teams, especially Advanced Customer Support Services, have also provided great support for our operations in the past. Following the upgrade, I have every confidence Oracle’s products will continue to support us in the future.” 

Implementation Process

Tube Investments upgraded to Oracle Database, Enterprise Edition 11g in September 2011 to provide a stable and highly available platform for its new ERP system. The company then spent five to six months upgrading to Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1.

“As we have been working with Oracle software for 20 years, we have developed considerable in-house skills and decided to undertake both upgrades without external support,” said Kaushik.

The process was smooth and took place on time and on budget. The new ERP system went live in January 2012.

“Upgrading to Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12.1 and Oracle Database, Enterprise Edition 11g has provided us with the application performance and flexibility that support many of our centralized core business functions,” he said.

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