Kurt J. Lesker Company
Company Profile
Kurt J. Lesker Company (KJLC) is a global manufacturer and distributor of vacuum systems and components for research and industrial applications. President Kurt J. Lesker III explains, “Basically, we’re a high tech plumbing store. We create vacuum.” KJLC manufactures products to remove impurities from government, academic and industrial research environments. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with offices in Hungary and the United Kingdom, the company employs 250 people worldwide.
Need
As a worldwide competitor in vacuum systems and vacuum components, KJLC needed an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software system to enable Network Centric Manufacturing
(NCM) supply chain management. Until March 2007, the company relied on conventional methods to communicate with its vendors and customers. As Lesker explains, “It was slow. It was more cumbersome because conventional means require waiting longer on vendors and discovering problems in a less timely fashion.” KJLC aimed to integrate with suppliers and customers to increase speed in meeting customer demand and accelerate time to marketplace.
Solution
After several attempts to independently match an appropriate ERP system to their needs, KJLC turned to the Doyle Center for Manufacturing Technology (Doyle Center) to assist in selecting an optimal solution to enable NCM. A team of KJLC executives met with the Doyle Center staff as well as a panel of vendors and other manufacturing experts to assess the company’s requirements for its future ERP system. After an extensive brainstorming session, the group came up with strategies for using a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) product to create standard platforms capable of coordinating company-to-company engineering as well as integrating with customers. KJLC’s implementation team is also working with the Doyle Center to develop a digital dashboard to connect managers, suppliers and customers. This tool displays up-to-date key performance indicators to all critical partners in an NCM enterprise, and aids decision makers throughout the manufacturing process.
Results
KJLC implemented its new ERP system in March 2007. The company expects to achieve faster time to market as a result of its new technology. With the ability to more promptly satisfy customer needs, KJLC hopes to gain an edge on its global competitors.
Testimonial
According to Lesker, the Doyle Center has offered KJLC thoughtful, professional service. He says, “They are excellent. They have other resources they can acquire to meet [clients’] needs, and they do. They seem to be caring people who want to achieve something.”