Increasingly high production rates, maximum uptime, flexible production systems, and reduced lead times — that is the reality of the automotive industry today. At the same time, competition within the industry has led to a proliferation of brands, more part specifications, and intensified delivery and logistics requirements. As a result, automotive suppliers are under growing pressure to maximize their flexibility and responsiveness while delivering substantial cost savings annually.
AGS's ChallengeHeadquartered in Scarborough, Ontario, AGS Automotive Systems has 1,200 employees located at four sites in Canada and two in the U.S. These include plants and corporate offices that run production, assembly, inventory and logistics systems requiring seamless flow throughout the entire organization.
Their challenge: the Frame Relay network that was in place to link all these systems was unmeshed, unable to accommodate the constant fluctuations in information volume and not optimal in supporting their mission-critical applications or growth.
They needed a new technology solution that would improve collaboration and teamwork across all their locations, while giving them quicker "time to market" responsiveness. They were looking to deploy a secure, reliable, and cost-effective solution.
Better solution — centralized applications
The solution Bell delivered was the ProConnect Service, a private, managed IP, wide area network solution. AGS was then able to more efficiently and affordably interconnect their six sites and offices using one consolidated Internet access point for control and security. This permitted them to remove unnecessary duplication of resources.
"The new ProConnect network from Bell enables us to centralize applications such as our Enterprise Resource Planning system, which had previously been distributed at all of our sites" indicates Dan Reid, Director of Technology at AGS. "In addition, other high-network-demand applications such as engineering files can be leveraged more effectively."
More connected
People are just more "connected", and that means manufacturing, inventory and delivery challenges are easier to meet, not only across the organization, but also with suppliers and especially with customers. AGS has seen an increase in network throughput and improved IT staff productivity. They've gained scalability and the flexibility to instantly adapt to changing needs and market demands.
Future-ready
The solution provided is future-ready. "The strategic positioning for this network is to try to leverage other emerging technologies. We have aging voice systems, and this enables us to consider Voice over IP and other applications that were out of the question with our previous network. We see many more opportunities for savings in the future."
Bell — a Trusted Technology Advisor and Solutions Provider
Bell was able to understand AGS' needs, and propose and deliver a technology solution based on the business requirements — simply and reliably.
Bell continues to deliver integrated IP-based solutions that empower small and medium enterprises to compete like big businesses. AGS trusts Bell to keep providing them with technology solutions and advice that will help secure their industry leadership.
Click here to view the video testimonial.
Click here to download the PDF case study.
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Key Benefits
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Improved IT staff productivity |
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Removed need to duplicate systems at each location |
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Real decrease in IT staff time and cost to maintain firewalls and security policies at each individual location |
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More flexible and scalable network structure (fully meshed) |
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Improved collaboration and teamwork across operations |
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Support for the future deployment of VoIP |
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