Ryobi Die Casting Taps Solarsoft for ERP

November 1, 2011 Alex Woodie

Ryobi Die Casting will implement an IBM i-based ERP system from Solarsoft, the vendor announced recently. The manufacturer will implement iVP across its three plants in Indiana and one plant in Mexico.

Ryobi Die Casting Inc. (USA) manufactures a range of high pressure aluminum die castings for transmission cases and housings, cast engine blocks, steering housings, and structural parts for vehicles. The company, which is a tier-one supplier to the automotive OEMs, is based in Shelbyville, Indiana, where it operates a machining facility and two die casting plants. It also operates a die casting plant and a machining facility in Irapuato, Mexico. All told, the $350 million company employs about 950 people in North America.

Recently, Ryobi sought a replacement for its existing computer system. The company’s IT manager, Randy Burket, had used Solarsoft at a previous job and was familiar with the system, the company, and its employees. Solarsoft was one of several ERP packages in the running to win Ryobi’s business.

Burket says Ryobi eventually chose Solarsoft’s iVP system because of its functionality. “It has everything we need so we don’t have to build our own features,” he states in a press release. “Having previously dealt with other ERP packages and larger, more expensive pieces from SAP and [Oracle‘s] JD Edwards, Solarsoft’s cost and value was the right fit for us.”

The implementation of iVP will provide several immediate benefits for Ryobi, including the elimination of manual data entry and reporting. Burket says Ryobie is also looking forward to using Solarsoft’s EDI and shop floor reporting capabilities. “The ability to see what our machines are doing in real-time is another huge benefit,” he says.

Solarsoft Business Systems was created following the April 2007 merger of two midmarket ERP software developers: CMS Manufacturing Systems of Richmond Hill, Ontario (near Toronto), and XKO Software of the U.K. The two companies were bought by the Los Angeles, California-based investment firm Marlin Equity Partners, which merged them into a single entity it named Solarsoft.