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Karachi, October 11, 2012 (PPI-OT): IBM Today announced it is streamlining the IT infrastructure and processes of Agriauto Industries Limited, one of the leading auto parts manufacturers in Pakistan. The moves will help Agriauto improve operational processes throughout the company as well as increase uptime as it extends its footprint across the country.
Agriauto manufactures auto parts for some of the world’s leading car, bike, and tractor companies, including Toyota, Honda, and Suzuki, building components to ideal specifications for local markets. Though it has grown considerably since its founding in 1981, Agriauto has plans to expand into new regions. As it began to strategize it realized that such expansion would require everything from the company-wide rollout of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, to new high-performing, energy-efficient systems that could help reduce system downtime as well as energy costs.
“As we move to expand our operations to cover more products serving a wider geography, we required a comprehensive solution that would enable us to enhance our offering and maintain our status as one of the leading automotive companies in the region,” said Fahim Kapadia, Chief Executive Officer, Agriauto.
To start, IBM implemented an SAP enterprise resource planning solution, which has allowed Agriauto to fully automate its supply chain and production line. This work alone has resulted in the company being able to increase its uptime levels by ten percent, to a consistent 99 percent.
On the systems front, Agriauto replaced its existing HP-based infrastructure with IBM BladeCenter HS22 blades within an IBM BladeCenter H Chassis.
The holistic IBM solution also includes the establishment of a disaster recovery site based on IBM advanced System x servers and advanced storage systems. Through the use of two IBM System x3650 M3 servers, as well as an IBM System Storage DS3500 Express disk system and IBM System Storage TS3200 Tape Library, the center will ensure resiliency for Agriauto’s businesses in the event of a disaster and prevent interruptions to the manufacturing line.
In addition to higher performance and increased resiliency, consolidating onto IBM’s BladeCenter solution has allowed Agriauto to unlock significant savings in energy and floor space, and ultimately a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) than its previous infrastructure.
“Our holistic approach to resolving Agriauto’s business challenges has already paid off in tangible business benefits,” said Adnan Siddiqui, Country General Manager IBM Pakistan and Afghanistan. “With this deployment, we were able to deliver world class systems and globally tested solutions that provided the company with greater visibility into their processes and optimized each step of their manufacturing process efficiently and cost-effectively.”
Switching to the solution has increased uptime levels for Agriauto, enabling them to provide support for operations 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For example, daily production reports, which used to take up to three days to generate, can now be provided in just one minute, an improvement of over 99 percent. As a result, monthly reporting, which typically took up to ten days, can be completed in just a day, an improvement of 90 percent.
To architect and deploy Agriauto’s new infrastructure, IBM’s Global Business Services unit provided consultants with in-depth expertise in the automotive industry to help ensure the implementation was handled efficiently and effectively.
The work with Agriauto is another demonstration of IBM’s continued commitment to emerging markets like Pakistan where a growing number of businesses and government organizations are turning to IT to transform their operations and increase competitiveness.
Over the last year, IBM has worked with a number of new customers in the wider Middle Eastern region as clients in the financial, government, telecommunications, oil and gas sectors seek solutions to help them optimize their operational costs and support business expansion. The project went live in February 2012.
For more information, contact:
Pooja Dawani
Communications Analyst
IBM Pakistan
UAN: 111-IBM-IBM (111-426-426)
Tel: +92-21-32915000