Regional Manufacturing Leader Shifts from Legacy to Leading Edge to Accelerate Decision-Making and Enhance Competitive Advantage
With global companies such as Unilever and Proctor & Gamble investing in a presence there, Saudi Arabia has the largest and most significant industrial production in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region, which supports its ambitious plan to become the region’s manufacturing base. Headquartered in Jeddah, Arabian Plastic Industrial Company (APICO), a Balubaid Group of Companies subsidiary, is raising the bar for manufacturing modernization.
A leader in the plastic packaging and thermoplastic injection molding industry in the region, APICO is committed to deploying the most advanced technologies available. M A Wajid Tanveer, Group CIO, Balubaid Group of Companies, explained, “APICO is undergoing a digital transformation. The first step was a rock-solid ERP solution to streamline, accelerate, and automate our manufacturing processes.”
The challenges of APICO’s on-prem legacy system brought the criteria for a new solution into stark focus: The company required a cloud-mature, data-driven, and future-ready ERP system made for manufacturing. Tanveer investigated Microsoft, Oracle, SAP HANA, and Epicor Kinetic and concluded, “Epicor Kinetic deployed in the cloud has the edge in manufacturing and can integrate with Group-level software such as finance and HR. Plus, it's scalable, low-code, and cost-effective for maintenance.”
Tanveer planned to take full advantage of Epicor's capabilities to revamp APICO workflows, sharing, “Our processes were inefficient because we had to work with an ineffective program. We wanted to leap ahead and optimize the entire business process.”
Epicor partner Panamax led a smooth implementation, and the benefits began rolling in.
“The tax authority issued a mandate in 2021 that all invoices must be electronically recorded, which required a move from manual processing. In addition, we needed to integrate with the tax authority’s web server and middleware. Epicor Kinetic immediately enabled that transition,” Tanveer recalled.
APICO also gained a more precise view of inventory, with the ability to see negative inventory, real-time inventory, and the status of collections. A significant improvement with Epicor Kinetic has been the planning functionality. “That was a key missing piece in terms of how efficiently we could produce the end product at a minimum cost,” Tanveer divulged. “Epicor allowed us to purchase raw materials based on seasonal trends versus purchasing based on demand.”
He elaborated, “In the past, we would procure raw materials wherever they were available at the time we received an order. Now, because we have the warehouse space, Epicor empowers us to purchase using raw material pricing forecasts, giving us the lowest possible price. Then, we store it so we have enough materials to match demand.”
Epicor also improved on-time payment to suppliers, supporting APICO in maintaining strong vendor relationships. Prior to Epicor, Accounts Payable was manual. Now, trade agreements and payment schedules are all stored in one place. “Epicor Kinetic enabled APICO to accelerate the procurement-to-payment cycle and to meet budget targets,” Tanveer remarked.
Epicor has also simplified month-end closing, a process that used to take a fortnight. Ma admitted that the old system allowed the introduction of errors that would have a cumulative effect on the data. For instance, if a unit of measure was recorded incorrectly, all downstream calculations would be distorted. He noted, “With Epicor, month-end closing is done on the last day of the month. Finance uses the rest of that week to verify and post.” Tanveer continued, “This is because Epicor doesn’t allow sloppy mistakes to be introduced because items are defined in a well-structured format.”
Furthermore, seamless integrations with Group-level finance helped to enabled APICO to incorporate financial records and easily see revenue at any given moment, which was challenging to do previously.
Data is the lifeblood of any company, and fast, easy data visibility is vital to meet the evolving demands of the business and the market. Tanveer acknowledged, “Requirements change overnight. The reporting that we get from Epicor Kinetic is critical, but those are more transactional. We are deploying Epicor Grow business intelligence to facilitate a more proactive decision-making posture.”
To enable us to scale and exploit every opportunity, we need Epicor Grow's next-level business intelligence to provide from-anywhere access to cleaned, curated data that allows CXOs to make fast decisions.
He shared a specific scenario. APICO is close to Mecca, where more than 500,000 pilgrims visit daily. A local ice cream shop selling millions of dollars’ worth of frozen treats needs plastic cups—a huge opportunity. Prior to Epicor, an APICO sales rep would cold call. Now, armed with analytics and linked to a CRM, sales can approach the shop, understand the demand, and present an informed, compelling offering.
“Those types of analytics and tracking were missing before,” Tanveer highlighted. “To enable us to scale and exploit every opportunity, we need Epicor Grow's next-level business intelligence to provide from-anywhere access to cleaned, curated data that allows CXOs to make fast decisions.”
Additionally, Tanveer envisions using that data to inform a robust social media strategy to target and retarget customers and prospects.
APICO is meeting the escalating global focus on sustainability, harnessing data from Epicor Kinetic to drive greener business decisions. For example, the company is identifying ways to move from plastic-heavy film production to blow and injection molding, which utilizes recycled materials, energy-efficient processes, and waste-reduction strategies.
Epicor also drives resource-friendly procedures by enabling the APICO team to do more without adding headcount, especially in IT. Tanveer observed, “The fact that Epicor is low- or no-code and is deployed in the cloud was a major selling point because finding developer talent can be challenging. And it minimized IT spend.”
With Epicor Kinetic as a robust, reliable, and scalable foundation, APICO is ready to soar, and its employees have many ideas. Tanveer described, “Our users love Epicor, and they see the potential. We are getting a lot of requests for additional Epicor modules such as analytics, CRM, IoT, warehouse management—anything to minimize human intervention.” Tanveer has asked Panamax to help explore and prioritize the growing wish list.
We want to scale properly, and Epicor Kinetic is the right solution to do that. It has given us a blueprint to revamp all our processes to be more efficient, streamlined, and digitized so that we are more competitive and successful.
He emphasized, “We want to scale properly, and Epicor Kinetic is the right solution to do that. It has given us a blueprint to revamp all our processes to be more efficient, streamlined, and digitized so that we are more competitive and successful.”
