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Located in two manufacturing facilities just outside Burlington, Vt., Fab-Tech, Inc., has evolved from a traditional job-shop metal forming company to the leading global supplier of corrosive-resistant fume exhaust systems.

Early in the 1990s Fab-Tech partnered with IBM and DuPont to replace fume exhaust ducts in one of IBM's semiconductor facilities. Since semiconductor manufacturing involves highly corrosive, toxic and potentially combustible fumes and fluids, Fab-Tech in collaboration with DuPont, developed a solution to reduce the corrosive effects of these agents on fume exhaust ducts. The process integrally bonds a highly chemical-resistant material, Teflon® ETFE, onto stainless steel. The result of this collaboration is Perma Shield Pipe (PSP®) that combines Fab-Tech's metal-fabrication and proprietary powder coating capabilities with DuPont's Teflon® primer technology.

Fab-Tech grew rapidly during the 1990s following the explosive demand for semiconductors. Much of the homegrown technology developed by Fab-Tech's founder quickly became inadequate as the company grew and its business processes became more complex. According to Paul Frascola, senior VP of finance and operations for Fab-Tech, "The systems were a bunch of dBase programs written for specific applications. They didn't talk to each other, so there was a lack of control and a lot of opportunity for human error."

By July 2000 Fab-Tech was sold and the new owners had identified the need for a comprehensive ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) implementation in the early due diligence stages. This realization was ranked among the most important initiatives for the new owners.

Fab-Tech's search for a new system started with an independent consultant identifying potential suppliers. The challenge was significant because Frascola noted, "There are a lot of traditional make-to-stock systems out there. While we (Fab-Tech) do have some stock units, eighty percent of our business is engineer-to-order. We needed ERP software that could handle out engineer-to-order (ETO) requirements and be flexible enough to deal with our hybrid needs."

Frascola gave a specific example of their ERP needs: "As some of Fab-Tech's large projects last several years, a major requirement was the ability to track releases back to their original orders. Sometimes a customer would request additional product not specified on the original purchase order. At the end of the project the customer would refuse to pay for the additional material because it was not contained on the original purchase order. We needed ERP software that would enable us to record and monitor changes made to the order and tell us if we released more product that what was on the original order."

The large and complex nature of Fab-Tech's order created a real challenge. Few of the ERP solutions allowed for Change Order functioning. Finally, Fab-Tech started their ERP implementation on October 10, 2001 and completed the first phase on January 2, 2002. Frascola reported that the implementation was completed on time and on budget: "We implemented engineering, accounting, shipping, purchasing, receiving and order-entry in the first phase. By summer 2002, we implemented shop-floor control, job costing and data collection. We could have gone faster, but we decided to go slow and steady."

Previous ERP implementation experiences guided both Frascola and Fab-Tech controller Scott Smith. "We have seen how things can go wrong and eliminated those risks. Previously I had been through an SAP implementation at a larger company and learn a lot. Based on that experience, we were careful to manage the implementation well."

According to Rob Young at Cincinnati-based Encompix (the ETO selected ERP system), "Realistic budgets and achievable schedules are key factors to ensuring effective and successful ERP implementations."

Fab-tech used Gantt charts to show graphically what was needed to accomplish the task in a timely and on-budget schedule. The implementation was broken into phases, with dates and goals for each phase.