Sims Metal Background
Sims Metal coordinates the shipping of containerised and bulk exports of scrap metal for the region covering Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.
Previously, staff tracked shipments manually using spreadsheets and completed documentation in a legacy system.
Business Challenge
For over 15 years, Sims Metal had left their logistics systems largely unchanged. Consequently, this created inefficient shipment processes that generated errors. A business process review of the Export Shipping and Export Finance processes identified many process steps that automation could eliminate through the use of a best-of-breed system with integration to other core systems. Additionally, the review identified potential gains in the visibility and timeliness of financial reporting of foreign exchange variations.
Results
To address these challenges, CMC project managed the implementation of a new Logistics System for Sims Metal over a 12-month timeframe. This initiative aimed to replace the current system while simultaneously implementing interfaces between the global system and the ERP – MS Dynamics AX. Furthermore, this included migrating the Export accounting system and implementing a new Costing module to replace the manual Export financial accounting process.
As a result, the project addressed current limitations and delivered a range of benefits including:
- Reduced Australian Head Office costs.
- Improved visibility over the timing of settlement of contracts.
- Improved control over shipping/export costs.
- Improved the ability to analyse, investigate and explain foreign exchange / averaging account variances.
The company then handed the project over to an internal Project Manager to complete.
