JBA cooks up a great deal

Domestic cooking appliance manufacturer Stoves plc awarded applications software vendor JBA a 1/2 million order to replace its software, which it has been using for the last seven years.

JBA beat away stiff competition from Movex, JD Edwards, IBS and Marcam with their solution of JBA's integrated suite of financial, distribution, manufacturing and service management software. Stoves has chosen a phased implementation which will be complete by June 1988.

Stoves, who employ in excess of 1,000 people and whose turnover has been growing at a rate of 20% a year since 1989, manufactures on a just in time basis. Customer lead times are five days and the company has had to develop its current software extensively to meet the changing demands of its manufacturing operation.

Ray Parry, IT manager at Stoves, said that the company chose JBA's System 21 as it met all of the original bespoke written functionality and was more flexible, as well as interfacing with Stoves' existing warehouse management system. He said, "The JBA software will provide a more integrated approach to all aspects of customer care".