Primarily a repetitive style manufacturer for the Tier 2 automotive industry, Forsheda specializes in the manufacturing of heat cured silicone rubber products to form many molded extruded gaskets and seals which are all designed to withstand exposure to high temperature. Some of their products include; vapor management, emission control, power transmission gaskets and manifold systems.

Critical Needs
"We identified the need for an integrated ERP system and we started our search in early 1997" says Mike Tschirhart, Controller of Forsheda Silcofab. "We attended a seminar about VISUAL and were really impressed with the product. We thoroughly investigated six vendors, and selected VISUAL based on a number of criteria - the most important being, it offered complete integration and the inventory management we needed."

"With VISUAL, we now have control over our costing, and our inventory levels are accurate." But for Forsheda, the most dramatic advantage of VISUAL comes with its total integration. "The system has really helped on the financial side. Since implementing, we have reduced the time it took us to close each month by 150%. It used to take us five days, and now we're presenting our financial reports just in just two days."

Success With Shop
For Forsheda Silcofab, the transition to VISUAL was very smooth. "We simply shut down the old system and cut over to the new system. Within a month we had accurate inventory, and within two months our financials were bang-on" concludes Tschirhart.

Today, five of the other Forsheda operations have selected the VISUAL Manufacturing® system to manage their operations.