Customer Case Studies - Thermal Dynamics
Problem
Headquartered in Ontario, California, Thermal Dynamics Corporation is an automotive parts manufacturer specialising in transmissions, power steering, hydraulic fluid and Engine Oil Coolers. Founded in 1957, as one of six operating divisions of Dunham-Bush (est. 1903), Thermal Dynamics' expertise in cooling technology has kept them at the forefront of the industry for nearly five decades, supplying top automotive producers such as Ford, GM & Harley Davidson
Since 1996, when Thermal Dynamics International established its first manufacturing joint venture in mainland China, the organization continued to expand its global production and distribution capability. This extra capability resulted in a vastly increased number of orders being received, each of which required the creation of an individual production quotation. However, underlying inefficiencies in the quote generation process meant that Thermal Dynamics' IT Management team was assigned the task of automating the entire process, from conception through to eventual approval or rejection. Top level management also stipulated that they needed to be able to quickly and easily view status reports as well as roll up all quotes and production tasks into one report. Security was another crucial factor with emphasis placed on a solution that could provide a secure area to manage highly confidential documents.
Solution
Thermal Dynamics selected BrightWork Solutions for Project Management in SharePoint to manage their quotation process. Specifically they deployed 'Business Project Manager', one of the four templates included in the BrightWork Suite and built around the best practice guidelines of the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF). Without any programming effort Thermal Dynamics were able to tailor this solution to their specific needs. Production quotes are now generated using a highly customized project template, containing pre set entry fields for each stage of the process that has saved time and eliminated duplication. BrightWork has also helped Thermal Dynamics automate their quote to production process, so that when quotes are approved, the Engineering Department is automatically notified and production initiated. With BrightWork's powerful rollup reporting, management now has much greater visibility into the project status for each quote while related documents are more organized & easily accessible so that project members can quickly find the information they need. These benefits have helped to significantly improve Thermal Dynamics' production efficiency & reduce costs.
"BrightWork enabled us to successfully evolve from an entirely email based quote to production process, to a well documented, semi-automated process." said Hanns Schweis, IT Manager, Thermal Dynamics. "BrightWork's reporting features alone have made an incredible difference in the way things are done and positively impacted the overall productivity of our organization. I can't say enough good things about this unique product.
