Abbott Laboratories Hansen Products

Hansen Products is a New Zealand-based corporation that designs, manufactures and distributes over 1,000 products with distributors in 10 countries (Hansen Products, 2011). Hansen's business processes eventually outgrew its nine-year-old system of finance and multiple databases, so Hansen decided to update and integrate its company-wide systems with Microsoft Business Solutions' Axapta (Istart, 2011) as its ERP system. Axapta is listed among the Top Ten ERP programs (Top10ERP, 2011) and at least one industry review praises Axapta as strong, fast and relatively low-cost (Collins, 2003). Effective implementation requires cooperation by a company: "The importance of management involvement cannot be overstated, as they serve as the visionaries and advocates for the project" (Blytheco, LLC, 2008). Aware of the need for extensive cooperation, Hansen appointed a "dedicated team" to the ERP modules (Istart, 2011).

Hansen's ERP system handles all its "financials, manufacturing, inventory and forecasting" (Istart, 2011). Within six months of ERP implementation, Hansen's production benefitted from its ERP system: the manufacturing processes are more efficient, with "tighter production planning and...

Hansen states that it now knows the products that must be manufactured and assembled, the raw materials to order for manufacture and when they should be ordered (Istart, 2011).
Non-production processes have also benefitted from the ERP system: manufacture from raw materials can be entered in the main system; Hansen is better able to control its own purchasing because it knows what it needs and doesn't need from its own suppliers; sales orders can be entered with customer codes or product codes; Hansen's preference for full cartons for shipment is the favored in the database; customer service has improved because the system generates an automated e-mail acknowledging an order, then another automated e-mail when the product ships; the more efficient production planning and scheduling allows it to better forecast business needs so it can effectively manage its expansion into Canada; Hansen also saves time by not duplicating information and freeing up more staff time which would otherwise be spent keying in data; information is processed in "real time," so Hansen immediately sees changes and can make smarter business decisions (Istart, 2011).

The production and non-production effects are logically…