Case Study
Goodrich Fuel & Utility Systems E-Commerce Enablement Project
Value Proposition
- Provide Goodrich with supply chain management technology to meet key customer requirements.
- Overhaul the communication process with key customers, making it interactive and more efficient.
- Provide necessary acknowledgements to customers automatically.
- Enable Goodrich to accept electronic planning schedules.
Challenges
- Replace EDI dial-up system
- Free IT staff from burden of maintaining an EDI system
- Enable Goodrich to receive electronic orders from key customers via a web based system
- Reduce and eliminate costs
- Solve connectivity and speed issues
- Implement new system rapidly with limited involvement of Goodrich personnel
Solutions
- Outsource to ESIS
- Replace current EDI system with ESIS' HOM
- Leverage ESIS expertise to facilitate set up and training of staff
Benefits
- Met key customers' e-commerce requirements
- Eliminated fax, phone, and paper orders
- Reduced re-keying of data
- Enabled electronic acceptance of Purchase Orders (850), Change Orders (860), and Planning Schedules (830)
- Automated acknowledgements (855, 865)
Goodrich E-Commerce Enablement
Goodrich Fuel & Utility Systems, a division of the Goodrich Corporation located in Vergennes, Vermont, turned to ESIS when customer requirements forced them to accept electronic orders.
Goodrich Fuel & Utility Systems had been using an EDI dial-up process to receive orders. The process was slow, and it required translation software which had to be regularly updated. Goodrich was also paying VAN charges, and significant IT resources were needed to support the EDI procedures.
In 1999 when Goodrich began to look for a better way to do business, one of their customers recommended that they outsource to ESIS. ESIS' Harmony Order Management System (HOM) was already being used by thousands of aerospace suppliers. Using ESIS' HOM would eliminate the need for Goodrich to accept and support EDI. Additionally, the solution was outsourced so it could be implemented quickly and easily.
First, ESIS set up Goodrich's customers, including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and General Electric, to send ESIS their purchasing data for Goodrich. As each new document is received, ESIS formats the data and posts it on a secure web site. Goodrich is then notified by email that new documents have been posted. A link in the message leads them directly to the HOM site.
Goodrich's customer service representatives can retrieve documents from all customers with a single logon. To use the HOM system, Goodrich personnel only need access to the Internet and an email account. ESIS provides all technical support for the system.
Documents currently being exchanged electronically between Goodrich and key customers via ESIS are Purchase Orders (850), Purchase Order Acknowledgments (855), Change Orders (860), Change Order Acknowledgments (865), Planning Schedules (830), and Ship Schedules (862). By using ESIS' ability to send Remittance Advice/Payment Orders (820), Goodrich has been able to streamline its accounting and on-time delivery notification process.
Dorothy Foley, Technical Analyst for Engineering, likes ESIS' turnkey approach: "With ESIS, all we do is pick up our orders. ESIS is easy to use, and there is no maintenance. From an administrative aspect, ESIS is just there, and I don't have to worry about it."
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