Luzenac Produces Talc for the World With Sage 500 ERP
Customer Company Size
Mid-size Company
Region
- America
Country
- United States
- Canada
- Mexico
Product
- Sage 500 ERP
- Sage Fixed Assets Accounting
- SAP® Crystal Reports for Sage 500 ERP
- FRx
Tech Stack
- IBM AS400
- PeopleSoft
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Cost Savings
- Productivity Improvements
Technology Category
- Functional Applications - Inventory Management Systems
- Functional Applications - Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP)
Applicable Industries
- Mining
Applicable Functions
- Discrete Manufacturing
- Warehouse & Inventory Management
Use Cases
- Inventory Management
- Manufacturing System Automation
Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
Luzenac America, Inc. is a division of the Luzenac Group, which mines more than a quarter of the talc used around the world. Luzenac America manufactures half a million tons of talc a year at plants in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. The company has ten locations and employs 450 people. The company was using a tier-one financial system (JD Edwards, now Oracle’s PeopleSoft) on an IBM AS400 to manage its operations. However, the system was complicated and unwieldy due to numerous layered customizations. It was easy to enter data but hard to extract usable information. Plus, the system was expensive to upgrade and required dedicated IS and IT departments for support.
The Challenge
Luzenac America, a division of the Luzenac Group, was using a tier-one financial system (JD Edwards, now Oracle’s PeopleSoft) on an IBM AS400 to manage its operations. However, the system was complicated and unwieldy due to numerous layered customizations. It was easy to enter data but hard to extract usable information. Plus, the system was expensive to upgrade and required dedicated IS and IT departments for support. The company was spending too much on the system, even for a company of its size. They needed a new system that could address most of their needs out of the box, wasn't buggy, and had superior warehouse and inventory management capabilities.
The Solution
Luzenac America decided to switch to Sage 500 ERP for all core financial applications, including general ledger, sales order, receivables, payables, and cash management. A Production Information Management System (PIMS), authored by Ironware Technologies, records production data and integrates seamlessly with the Sage 500 ERP Inventory Management, Inventory Replenishment, Sales Order, Accounts Payable, and Accounts Receivable modules. Sage 500 ERP automatically records inventory production into the Inventory Management module, maintaining real-time inventory data for finished goods. The company also uses the Sage 500 ERP Multicurrency Management module for automated fund conversion, which is an important timesaver for the company’s Canadian operations. Sage Fixed Assets Accounting, the fixed assets module for Sage 500 ERP, manages about $100 million worth of Luzenac assets.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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