Honda Shipping Solutions Streamlined by Keihin AirCon and Edibar Systems Inc. Collaboration

September 22, 2006

Background

Keihin AirCon (KAC) is a company with a worldwide reputation as a quality manufacturer. KAC uses its development and technological expertise in the production of many functional parts for engine fuel systems. The Japanese company makes and ships these parts from their operations in Japan, Asia, United States, and Europe to automotive OEMs such as Honda, Harley Davidson, Kawasaki, Kohler, Polaris, Suzuki, Triumph, Mercury and Yamaha. KAC has been an Edibar customer since 1997, providing them with a Honda approved shipping control system for automating EDI and barcoding.

Problem

KAC was using a software solution that was not addressing the needs of its workers. "The previous solution was highly complex, made for more of a management level." - Mike Mitsch Vice President of KAC. KAC also had specialized requirements that needed to be met.

  1. Print internal labels on the line.
  2. Two different scanning routines that did not connect together.
  3. Scanning and re-scanning on the line took up extra time.
  4. There was a lot of wait time when it came to reconciling payments.
  5. It took up to two weeks to process a payment

During the installation process a break in production was not an option for KAC's important customer base.

Solution

When KAC was approached to be a BETA site for Edibar-RMS they were apprehensive, but excited about the new software. Any concerns were quickly addressed once they saw how the new product worked. The different applications and the user-friendly screens were going to make everyone's life a little easier. Edibar-RMS had the capability of customization to fit KAC's specific needs.

  • Edibar Systems built a custom system to check their internal labels. This has streamlined the process and reduced the number of scans for each container, in turn saving time.
  • Edibar Systems was able to set up the shipping documents through Edibar-RMS so they are automatically processed into the gross requirements. All this is done behind the scenes, on the server.
  • Edibar-RMS uses the Microsoft SQL Database so it is easier for integration and report writing. This means a considerable reduction of time for reconciling payments.
  • To ensure the production line never stopped; Edibar Systems setup Edibar-RMS to run in a test environment. After a few days of parallel testing, the test server was seamlessly converted to be the production server.

KAC trusts Edibar Systems and has come to rely on the business relationship between Edibar and Honda. Matt Snyder, the Information Systems Manager of KAC states, "They truly understand the intricate workings of the Honda shipping solution." KAC knows that Edibar will keep current with Honda's specifications and upgrades.

Results

Eight months from inception to completion, KAC is pleased with the Edibar-RMS final product for their needs. With minor upgrades it has increased their timing and productivity. New advances in Edibar-RMS have helped this by providing a more reliable database -- no structure checks, or re-indexing of databases. After working more with the system's extensive data validation, KAC found that it provided much less opportunities for error.