Smiths Industries Aerospace Selects ItemQuest Component
22 February 1999
Smiths Industries Aerospace Selects ItemQuest Component & Supplier Management Solution
ENGLEWOOD, Colo.--Feb. 22, 1999--Architecture for Next-Generation CSM
Information Handling Services (IHS), the world's leading source of engineering and technical information, announced today that the Information Management Systems (IMS) division of Smiths Industries Aerospace has selected ItemQuest as their Component and Supplier Management (CSM) solution. The multi-year contract is in excess of one million dollars and will deploy ItemQuest in Information Management Systems division locations across North America.
The ItemQuest CSM solution at Smiths Industries is a result of corporate initiatives to dramatically increase engineering and procurement efficiencies. ItemQuest will provide benefits in four key areas to help Smiths Industries remain competitive and achieve their corporate goals:
o Reductions in the number of suppliers and increased purchases
from preferred vendors
o Consolidated access to company and industry component
information
o Reductions in duplicate or near duplicate parts
o Tools to manage component obsolescence
"Our division has committed to reducing engineering costs and cycle times by at least 25%," stated Angelo Dimitriou, IMS' vice president of Engineering Development Programs. "Our strategic CSM initiative is key to successfully attaining our productivity improvement objectives."
"Of course, we want to meet our goals as rapidly as possible," added Mike Gulliver, manager of Components & Reliability with Smiths Industries. "We have divisions located around the world, and we are supporting several different platforms and databases. Once it was demonstrated how quickly ItemQuest could provide us with information from within our multiple legacy business systems, we were convinced that it was the best choice for our type of environment. ItemQuest will provide us with both enhanced CSM capabilities and the fastest, lowest risk implementation. With the ItemQuest approach, we expect to enhance our competitiveness by deploying a CSM capability before our competitors have fully implemented their traditional CSM initiatives."
"We have come to this conclusion as a result of extensive evaluations of different vendors' CSM offerings," continued Mr. Gulliver. "The ItemQuest architecture is unique in its approach and supports our legacy databases more effectively -- a requirement for our enterprise deployment. We believe this architecture will become the benchmark for next-generation CSM solutions."
"We have been an IHS customer for years and depend on their data for a number of reasons, particularly for its historical content," concluded Mr. Gulliver. Also weighing heavily in Smiths' decision was their desire to have a CSM solution that easily fit within the workflow of their enterprise.
"Because of our prior experience with CSM, we learned it is critical to select a provider whose methodology promotes interaction throughout the design and implementation phases. IHS stressed that teaming is fundamental to achieving optimal benefits, which registered quite well with both management and users alike."
"IHS is looking forward to bringing Smiths Industries into the ItemQuest CSM family of users," affirmed Pat Romich, president of IHS Engineering. "Not only is their environment ideal for an ItemQuest deployment, but they also represent another user in the important aerospace industry segment. We are excited about working together with Smiths Industries to help meet and exceed their goals."
About ItemQuest
The ItemQuest CSM solution affords its users a high and rapid ROI. Its decision support capabilities are revolutionizing the way manufacturing companies are managing components and suppliers, making it a welcome and integral part of effective supply chain management. ItemQuest's unique approach to CSM implementation greatly simplifies and speeds deployment, and its open IT strategy minimizes the huge and costly effort required by other CSM systems. ItemQuest customers include: AMD, Lockheed Martin, Space Systems/Loral, Lord Corporation, Parker-Abex, Solectron, and SONY. For more information about IHS and ItemQuest, visit the IHS Engineering web site at www.ihs.com.
Smiths Industries Information
Smiths Industries is a world leader in advanced avionics, medical systems and specialized industrial products. Manufacturing in the UK, continental Europe and North America, and selling to customers worldwide, Smiths Industries is an international enterprise, with the United States as its largest single market.
IHS Corporate Information
IHS Engineering, an IHS Group company, is the worldwide leading provider of engineering, technical, and regulatory information published in a variety of media, from CD-ROM to the Internet. IHS Group is a leading international publisher of electronic information databases and Component & Supplier Management (CSM) software and services. With operations around the world and annual sales of $475 million, its individual operating companies all serve the vital information needs of customers across a variety of technical, business and professional markets.