Swedish Toolmaker Picks Lawson M3 for Global ERP Rollout

Published: August 29, 2006

by Alex Woodie

Seco Tools, a Swedish manufacturer of cutting and machine tools, has licensed Lawson Software's M3 suite of ERP software (formerly Movex from Intentia) to help coordinate its business processes around the world. The company has a clear goal with the new iSeries-based system, and a tall one at that: to deliver products to customer within 24 hours of taking the order.

Headquartered in Fagersta in the Bergslagen region of Sweden, Seco Tools is a well-known manufacturer of tools for cutting and machining a variety of metals. The company, which operates 40 subsidiaries around the world and employs more than 4,000 people, was already known for its quick turnaround on orders. However, with continued growth (Seco Tools had revenues of about $680 million last year, up 14 percent from the previous year), the company required a new standardized ERP system to replace the existing sales and manufacturing systems.

The company had already used Intentia's Movex ERP software at some of its locations, and decided to standardize on the product, which is now called M3. (Lawson renamed its two main product lines following the merger with Intentia in May, calling the former Movex products "M3," for "make, move, and maintain," and its eponymous Lawson product S3, for "staff, source, serve.")

According to Lawson, the new M3 implementation will enable orders to be placed anywhere in the world, fed into the M3 system, and within 24 hours, products delivered to the customer. The system will be used by 2,000 employees at 20 locations.

Seco Tools CIO, Lennart Svegander, says M3 fits the company well. "We want the best global solution for all our companies in all markets," he says. "This is a strategic decision to invest in a single standard platform that enhances our competitiveness and enables us to deliver more quickly and more efficiently to our customers."