Vector LLC is a European company which provides solutions for the rapidly developing telecommunications industry by offering advanced systems used in stationary and mobile telephony networks. The company specialises in the production and integration of solutions that enable operators to provide multimedia services, such as digital television, the Internet and telephony.

For the high quality of its services Vector LLC has received numerous business and trade awards. Vector LLC was founded in 1988. Currently it employs nearly 400 people working in its plant in Gdynia, Poland. The company offers various products, including amplifiers and optical nodes for cable and radio networks, telemetry devices as well as a wide range of services like design, implementation, training and maintenance of systems.

Vector LLC attaches great weight to high quality of its products and on-time delivery performance. Nowadays to meet the demand of the market it is essential to constantly develop the company, train its staff and update its products. To achieve these aims Vector LLC invests more than 10% of its revenues in development. As a result, it can constantly increase its productivity and competitiveness by implementing modern technologies, IT and business solutions.

The company started to look for a well-tried solution that would enable them to quickly and precisely determine delivery dates while reducing inventories and work in progress. Another important factor taken into consideration was the requirement to integrate and work with an already existing ERP system: MFG/PRO by QAD. Vector LLC decided to choose Preactor because it combined and satisfied all of these requirements.

To make sure that these goals have been attained Vector LLC used the Preactor 400 APS version and its SMC feature that connects dependent orders together generated by MFG/PRO. A schedule for the whole production process is generated by Preactor for two time frames; short-term and mid-term. The first takes into account customer priorities and enables fast and on-time completion of orders. The second aims at estimating the demand for stock components.

The most difficult problem to solve in the implementation stage was to build an accurate model of the production process and technology as well as recreate the model of the stock and information flow in the company. However, due to close cooperation between Vector’s planners and IT specialists and Preactor provider’s consultants, this task was efficiently and successfully accomplished.  

The result of the project was obtaining software closely cooperating with the MFG/PRO system.  Preactor enables the import of statistical data (materials) and dynamic data (orders, registered production, stock levels) from the MFG/PRO system and export data about the current production schedule to ERP.

Thanks to implementation of Preactor it has become possible to generate real and feasible production schedules, as well as a substantial time reduction in its preparation.

Implementing Preactor has also enabled a reduction in process of about 50% and increased on-time deliveries from 40% to 80%, which helped improve Vector LLC’s competitiveness and strengthened its position in the telecommunications services market.

“The numbers speak for themselves. I cannot imagine getting such results without having implemented Preactor,” says Leszek Kleinert, the Planning Manager at Vector LLC. “The reliability of delivery dates given by Vector is highly valued by our Customers. We have improved it significantly thanks to using Preactor.”

Mike Novels, Managing Director of Preactor International commented on the results.  “The metrics obtained are very impressive and shows what can be done when an ERP system is complemented with a detailed scheduling system such as Preactor.  It mirrors the survey carried out by the Aberdeen Group that showed what ‘Best in Class’ manufacturers are doing to become leaner and provide a high class service level to its customers”.