AEROSTAR S.A.

Premises

The automation of the trading companies may be considered a managerial expectation but at the same time, a condition that is necessary for surviving in the new economic framework required by the market economy.

Being aware of this fact and willing to integrate in the new business environment, the management of the Aerostar Bacau had the initiative and the will to support the implementation of an integrated information system, knowing that only a solution that perfectly adjusted to the specific requirements of the national business environment but also open towards the more modern business practices will enable the continue development of the company on the Romanian market and focusing towards the international business environment, as well.

The creation of products that meet the standards of the local market and foreign partners required the use of an adequate information system capable of finding solutions for the financial-economic, programming and production follow-up problems, but also for the high standards related to the management of a flexible company operating in various market fields, on a very complex market imposing special standards.

"The cooperation with prestigious partners and meeting their requirements required the use of an efficient information system, according to the international standards and, at the same time, adjusted to our company practices and specific-activity regulations" states one of the Aerostar managers.

Following its motto "Performance achieved through professionalism", the Aerostar managerial team applied it also in the selection and implementation of a computer solution able to meet such standards.

The main activities carried out by Aerostar are the aeronautic construction, maintenance and modernization of the military aircraft and defensive systems. Moreover, Aerostar extends its business to the manufacturing of a large range of products used in the civil aviation, horizontal industry and market, as well as many sorts of products.

In addition, the implementation of an integrated information system represented one of the conditions necessary for the company to meet the requirements of the market and of its partners.

It represented the reason for which the implementation of the SIVECO Applications package was chosen, thus taking all the advantages of a completely integrated system of planning and administration of the company's resources.

Client's Requirments

The implementation of the SIVECO Applications integrated information system with Aerostar is the result of the management decisions after understanding that only an integrated product determined by a prestigious experience and coming from the most varied business practices and fields and quite flexible as well, in ordered to meet the standards of the specific activities carried out by Aerostar, represents the optimal solution for the management requirements and objectives.

The main requirements for the trading company Aerostar Bacau were specified in the Conditions of Contract and consisted particularly in:

• An open, fully integrated system designed under a unitary concept and according to a global analysis for the implementation of international organizational and managerial standards
• Real-time operational system
• An information system used in the business management and ensuring the economic administration, the MIS range system characteristics, to implement the modern recording and management strategies, market economy models and methods
• A system that meets the rules and the legislation in force, required by the Ministry of Finance for the computer products and fully translated into the Romanian language
• A system that is separated from the hardware platform and that incorporates the existing equipment
• A system that operates with relational databases enabling the use of large volume of data also capable of ensuring the data security and recovery in case of incidents
• A system that ensures the establishment of the responsibilities of each individual and the recording of all his actions
• A system that is completely configurable and can ensure subsequent developments by addition of modules by the suppliers or development or adjustments performed by the beneficiary, with the possibility to manage new functions as its own functional operations

THE INTEGRATED INFORMATION SYSTEM IMPLEMENTED WITH AEROSTAR SA

With the implemented modules, the system covers the entire activity of Aerostar:

• Financial and Accounting Management
• Cost Controlling
• Production Management
• Fixed Assets Management
• Enterprise Asset and Maintenance Management
• Inventory Management
• Procurement Management
• Contracts Management
• Budget Management
• Human Resources and Payroll Management
• Management Information System (SIVECO Business Analyzer)

Moreover, it is used in all organizational structures apart from the specificity of their activity (manufacturing, repairs, mechanics and energy, logistics).

The axis of the implementation is represented by the Production Management designed for high-technology companies, ensuring the management of the preparation, programming, launching, monitoring and control flow of the production processes, in every production stage, enabling the integration to the other parts of the SIVECO Applications Integrated Information System.

A special concern consisted in meeting the specific Aerostar and implicitly, aeronautics requirements:

• The complex technological structures - both for aircrafts manufacturing and repairs (systematic replacement technologies, sorting and other works)
• Ensuring the tracing of the technological structures staring from the designing stage until the termination and delivery of products
• Production planning - efficiency of the use of resources (workforce and equipments)
• Verification during and at the end of the production flow
• Production costs collection (in due time, related to the direct costs, post-calculation)
• The implementation of the parts designed for management (control panel, SIVECO Business Analyzer) - supporting economic analysis and decision systems designed for all the management levels

For increasing the efficiency of the activity, the PDM (Product Data Management) external components of the SIVECO Applications supported the integrated system of Aerostar.

The implementation of each part took into consideration the compliance with the SIVECO Romanian implementation methodology but also with the complex realities of Aerostar, due to the activity specificity that required customization of the standard application.

The implementation started with the installation of the standard application on the Aerostar computers, which enabled future users to approach the practical side of the implementation, besides the theoretical aspects during the training periods. Different scenarios of the informational flow were drawn out as well as the distribution of the rights and obligations of the work team members.

Due to the rich experience and to the fact that the Information Department Team knew in details the processes carried out at Aerostar, it constituted an important support in the implementation process, and the members of this team were appointed as the futures application managers.

Previously to the implementation of the SIVECO Applications Integrated Information System, Aerostar used for the processes many internally-designed applications (nonintegrated), that is why, a very important step in every stage was the processing of already existing data, with views to:

• Testing the accuracy and consistency of the important information
• Customizing the standard parts and developing the new reports and functions according to the Aerostar standards
• System testing
• Simultaneously working for a limited period of time with the already existing applications designed by the specialists of the Aerostar Information Department

The SIVECO Applications components replaced the internal applications, bringing additional functions according to the modern business practices, adjusted to the Aerostar realities.

After confirming compliance with all the acceptance requirements of Aerostar for each component, Aerostar users benefited of a significant period of technical assistance of the SIVECO Romania specialists, during which they discovered and used progressively all the functions of the parts, enjoying thus all the advantages brought by the implementation of a really integrated system.

Advantages of using the system

The advantages of implementing the integrated solution SIVECO Applications at Aerostar are related to getting real time information based on the correlated data, which allows for increasing the efficiency of the decision making process, vital in critical production situations.

The use of the Production Management component ensures the following:

• increasing the labor productivity in designing the technological structures
• reducing and monitoring the production costs in order to optimize them
• monitoring the performances of the organizational structure’s components
• monitoring the production processes
• creating the conditions for maximal profitability for the production processes
• planning the optimal use of the resources and processes based on forecasts and market demand
• increasing the efficiency of real processes and by default the beneficiaries’ satisfaction

The system monitors the financial situations, the productivity, fulfillment of the production tasks, the efficiency of each of the production departments, as well as the connected (ancillary) services.