Poor performance of overnight batch processing
on a new Baan ERP system
IT Infrastructure
Baan ERP system
HP Unix servers
EMC storage
Informix RDBMS
Realized Benefits
Improved control over job scheduling with visibility of dependencies,
progress and system components
Reliable completion of overnight batch runs
"One of its most important features is the fact
that it gives us an understanding of what’s happening not just
in the Baan application but also across the Unix environment.
There are a lot of complex dependencies in our batch processing,
which the Baan environment simply could not handle."
Heath Tipton, Corporate applications Manager
OSM
Products
COSbatch
Avery Berkel (now a subsidiary of Weigh-Tronix but at the time
of the project a subsidiary of GEC plc, now Marconi plc), is a multinational
company with operations spanning weighing equipment and systems,
food processing equipment, plus a burgeoning servicing division.
From small independent retailers to major international enterprises,
Avery Berkel has more than 150,000 customers across the globe.
Activities are focussed in three businesses – weighing equipment,
food preparation machines and servicing. Its world-class products
range from retail scales and supermarket systems, to sensitive scientific
balances, industrial weighing platforms and vehicle weighbridge
solutions, as well as food slicer and preparation equipment. Servicing
these and other third party electronic products is a flourishing
area of the business.
Cutting edge solutions
As a leading manufacturer and service provider for cutting-edge
electronics equipment, Avery Berkel is made up of 16 operating companies
worldwide, the hub of activity being in the UK
Over a number years, each of the three business units has developed
its own IT infrastructure, resulting in excessive complexity and
a mixture of isolated systems, applications and custom interfaces.
Corporate applications manager Heath Tipton explained: "Basically
we’d reached a situation of having one of everything and two of
nothing. Many of the systems were long in the tooth and the environment
was proving difficult and costly to support. It also inhibited fast
development of new services to meet rapidly changing business needs."
Avery Berkel realised that the business was crying out for a
more responsive, cost effective and flexible IT infrastructure.
Two years ago, to create a new level of synergy across the entire
operation, it decided to cut over to a new Unix/Baan ERP platform.
Business critical processes such as inventory, stock control
and replenishment, order fulfilment and finance were to be migrated
from the existing Fujitsu/ICL VME mainframe (running a proprietary
orders management and on-line manufacturing control system, two
separate bar-code systems and Oracle ledgers) to the new consolidated
Unix/Baan infrastructure.
Based on an HP-UX cluster with high-performance EMC disk arrays
and Informix databases, systems management of the new platform was
outsourced to Fujitsu/ICL, as per the previous mainframe environment.
A robust Baan solution
"Towards the end of 1998, as we were ramping up for staged
cut-over to the Baan environment, we began developing various batch
schedules that we’d have to perform regularly to keep the business
running smoothly," said Tipton.
"At this point, one of our major concerns was the batch
processing stability of the Baan platform. With a major end-to-end
Baan implementation supporting our entire business and more than
800 users, we simply could not afford for overnight batch runs to
fail, especially as our Baan MRP runs can take up to 8 hours to
complete. There simply wouldn’t be any time to catch up without
seriously stalling daily business.
"Also some of the batch processing jobs had a cluster of
other dependent runs associated with them. The sequencing of these
runs was absolutely critical, for example to ensure invoices were
raised by the finance system once an order had been dispatched or
that stocks were replenished for service technicians in the field.
"In fact, the new UK system manages replenishment for the
servicing business across Europe," he explained. "So the
knock-on effects of any failure in the associated batch processing
runs were unthinkable.
"For our requirements, the built-in batch scheduling capabilities
of the Baan ERP system were just not robust or comprehensive. Rather
we needed a tool that would sit at a higher level and give us a
view of all jobs and dependencies across the whole Baan network.
There was no way we could allow for a server or application failure
because that would mean running the same batch job twice."
Having ruled out solutions such as CA Unicenter, Tipton’s team
decided to investigate OSM’s COSbatch tool, following the advice
of Fujitsu/ICL and other Baan users. COSbatch is part of COSMOS,
OSM’s suite of system management applications.
"With Unicenter being a framework solution, we were looking
at excessive cost and risk and we were only really interested in
a fraction of its functionality. But with OSM, we could buy just
what we needed, with the option of integrating other tools from
the COSMOS suite according to our needs as they might arise."
Ease of implementation
In terms of ease of implementation, Tipton’s team was impressed
by COSbatch and found OSM’s associated training course valuable
preparation for the implementation.
Since going live last February, Tipton has been very satisfied
with the performance of COSbatch. "One of its most important
features is the fact that it gives us an understanding of what’s
happening not just in the Baan application but also across the Unix
environment. There are a lot of complex dependencies in our batch
processing, which the Baan environment simply could not handle.
"With COSbatch we have a logically sequenced and reliable
way to monitor and control batch processing. Without it we’d almost
certainly have batch failures and because of the sequencing there
would be serious implications for our business. From a financial
point of view, it’s mandatory for certain figures to be reported
by specific deadlines," he said. "Similarly, it’s absolutely
essential for management reports to be delivered accurately and
on-time."
As Tipton observed, when this information is the life-blood of
the business failures can prove costly.
"Rolling out such a major new ERP platform is a massive
undertaking. With COSbatch we have had one less issue to worry about,"
he said. "There’s so much to tackle on the application side.
It’s gratifying to know that armed with COSbatch, we won’t have
to roll up our sleeves and deal with batch processing problems."
Tipton concluded: "Our experience with COSbatch means we
will definitely consider other tools from the COSMOS suite for Baan
as the need arises. We’re confident that with OSM there is no ‘vapourware’
– they deliver exactly what they promise."
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