ERP Implementation: Case Study

Martin Baker is a celebration of British ingenuity and engineering. Established during the second world war as an aircraft manufacturer, the business became better known as a pioneer in aviation safety with the design of its ejection seat. Martin Baker has become a market leader in what it describes as “a pilot’s last line of defence” and saves lives through it’s products. To see exactly how many pilot’s lives have been saved, check out Martin-Baker’s website.

Like many other businesses currently, Martin Baker are facing two challenges; firstly to remain competitive in a Global market, but also the need for a new ERP system as its current SAP platform becomes discontinued.

What is seemingly a simple IT infrastructure challenge, in context, is immensely complex. An ejection seat defines the phrase “right first time” and has only one chance to operate. The seat may not be required to work until forty years after its construction, surviving the harshest of operating environments whilst travelling at Mach one. Operating with such a high intensity requirement on its engineering Martin Baker need an ERP system that fits its business, not the other way around.

Pace have been commissioned to map the organisation so that the requirement of its new ERP is as exact as its engineering and manufacturing processes. Pace is currently exploring every facet of the business to document its working processes, and in doing so, has encountered the most wonderful examples of “that’s how we’ve always done it”. As with any business with a 95 year history the most wonderful examples human autonomy meeting precision engineering are what makes it work. For example, the masking of components before going for painting is still done by hand. The business is becoming conscious of just how many on-system and off-system processes are occurring in parallel, sometimes invisibly of each other, or other departments. Pace have mapped no less than 4374 roles, 368 business requirements and over 1000 system requirements and the project still continues.

Martin Baker are experiencing a renaissance through Pace’s process mapping exercise, using the need for a new ERP implementation as an opportunity to refine the way it maintains its precision engineering and keep saving lives but with contemporary market pressures, whilst ensuring the new implementation is “right first time”.