Machine vision, a technology that has only been around for 15 years, allows companies to automatically inspect their products on the assembly line for defects. Initially, fluorescent and halogen lamps were used for this purpose. Because Kenji Yoneda of Japan felt that the quality of those types of lamps was insufficient, he founded a company in 1993 CCS (Creative Customer Satisfaction), which recommends LED lighting for machine vision. Today, CCS Europe is the world’s leading player in the LED lighting market, with annual revenue of $25 million. In 2004, the first European division was launched, based in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw.
The Japanese LED technology company CCS has experienced strong growth in recent years. To better manage its warehouse and logistics operations, the European division in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw needed a suitable ERP system. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central turned out to be the best choice.
To serve its customers even better, CCS Europe asked its IT partner, Alistar, to develop a number of specific modules for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. The company now has a better overview of inventory management, and collaboration with other departments is running more smoothly. Looking ahead, CCS Europe is working on integrating the systems of its various European branches and implementing CRM software and online order tracking.
CCS Europe offers 3,000 different lamps
CCS has more than 3,000 different items in its product line. The LED lamps are manufactured in Japan and shipped from there to the various offices that distribute them worldwide. It therefore makes sense that the company needs efficient software to manage inventory and coordinate between departments. During the first few months, the office in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw tracked inventory using Excel spreadsheets. Dirk Vermeersch, general manager of CCS Europe: “To stay ahead of the competition, in addition to the know-how required to manufacture the lamps, delivery times, price, and the flexibility with which we operate are also very important. That’s why we need an integrated ERP system for efficient warehouse management.”
Test in the United States
In its search for a suitable ERP application, CCS Europe compared various systems. The decision to go with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central was somewhat obvious. Dirk Vermeersch explains why: “Large, resource-intensive applications aren’t suitable for us, since we only have six people working here. But we also didn’t want a program that was too limited, because we might need a larger system in the future. Since I had little experience with ERP solutions, I visited our sister company in the U.S. to see how Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central was helping them in practice.”.
We immediately noticed how easy it was to use, which was important since none of us had any experience with ERP. We were convinced fairly quickly that Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central was the best choice for us as well. The advantage of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is that we can integrate our application with our colleagues” systems. Thanks to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, collaboration with our other locations has also improved. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central has also proven to be particularly well-suited for automating logistics activities.”
Professional Partner
Alistar is well-versed in the world of distribution, wholesale, and logistics, so we were able to benefit from their expertise. We also greatly appreciated the flexibility with which they work.
Dirk Vermeersch, General Manager
“First and foremost, we chose Alistar because of their professionalism. Alistar gave us the confidence that the implementation would proceed without any unexpected problems. On the one hand, they conducted an analysis that gave us a clear picture in advance of what to expect in terms of investments and results. On the other hand, ESC is well-versed in the world of distribution, wholesale, and logistics, so we were able to benefit from their expertise. We also greatly appreciated the flexibility with which they work,” explains Dirk Vermeersch.
Although it was new to everyone, the training went smoothly as we learned to work with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Dirk Vermeersch: “Since we all come from the engineering world, we have little experience with IT, let alone with the implementation of ERP software. We are not accountants or financial experts. But with Alistar’s expertise, we were able to successfully complete the implementation.”
Custom Modules
Alistar developed a number of specific solutions for the LED technology company.
Module 1
Since CCS operates internationally with different currencies, it was first and foremost necessary to be able to quickly adjust prices using Microsoft Excel.
Module 2
A second specific module relates to the identification code that CCS Europe uses for its products. It is a two-dimensional barcode that is printed directly on the product rather than on the packaging, allowing each product to be tracked individually. If, over time, you receive a defective product back, you can immediately see which product it is and when and to whom it was sold. So, essentially, the entire history of the product is tied to it. Dirk Vermeersch: “If you receive a box containing 400 products, it’s an enormous task to enter all that information into the computer manually.”.
”That's why Alistar wrote a special module, which allows us to integrate this into the entire Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central suite." When the shipment arrives from Japan, the warehouse worker scans the item and immediately sees what needs to be done with the product: put it into inventory, ship it right away to a specific distributor, use it as a demo product, etc.
Module 3
A third module, developed on request, enables cross-referencing. CCS Europe has a customer that uses its own item numbers, which differ from the numbers CCS Europe uses. The customer wants only its own numbers to appear on its invoices. Thanks to the module, CCS Europe can enter the customer’s numbers into Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, whereupon the system automatically searches for the numbers used by CCS, and vice versa.
CCS Europe's Future Plans
CCS Europe is still working on plans for the future. Dirk Vermeersch: “To better align our strategies and activities and to monitor sales and support more effectively, we’re looking to implement a CRM application in the near future. In addition, we plan to integrate the ERP systems of the various CCS locations. Finally, within the next two years, distributors will be able to log in to our website and place their orders online. It will even be possible to track the entire journey of their products.”
