Hunter is a designer and manufacturing of nuclear, biological, and chemical air filters and air filtration systems for use in vehicles and shelters. Hunter also provides a broad range of heaters for tents, shelters, and vehicles for military and homeland security applications. Hunter heaters have long been popular with the United States Army.
To capitalize on a post-9/11 demand for its products for homeland security applications, Hunter adopted an aggressive growth plan that focused on the acquisitions route. Hunter purchased the company that makes the tents that house its heaters, and then the company that provides power generation and air conditioning equipment for shelter and tent applications. Together these mergers swelled Hunter's overall revenues to US$170 million and its number of employees to nearly 500.
The only downside to this growth is that Hunter realized it had outgrown its legacy business systems. According to the company, it found a replacement in the SAP for Industrial Machinery & Components (SAP for IM&C) solution portfolio implemented with it.manufacturing, a qualified
mySAP All-in-One partner solution from itelligence. According to the company, the solutions proved fast and straightforward to implement, not just for Hunter but also for two makers of complementary products that the Solon, Ohio, manufacturer acquired.
According to Steve Demko, Hunter's CFO, the company was looking to "shamelessly leverage" the knowledge base built into SAP applications. And with the entire organization unified on solutions tailored for the needs of a midmarket industrial manufacturer, he says Hunter is on track to continue its growth without any unplanned roadblocks.
The integrated solution provides a solid foundation for Hunter in its transition from a product-oriented company to an integrator of different businesses. And it also supports Hunter in its federal government contractor status by providing the secure technology required for integrity of its business processes. And as a military contractor, Hunter frequently has to prepare for government audits -- another area where the company says SAP software saves on labor. "With our old system, every audit used to mean a lot of laborious spreadsheet work," explains Weyhe. "Now, since it.manufacturing makes audit preparation so much easier, we're ready in half the time.
In addition, Hunter executives say they can much more easily make the right decisions to manage work in process, shorten cycle times, and lower costs while increasing inventory turns and improving order-to-delivery time. The consensus is that company management is better equipped to make higher-level decisions because of the bird's-eye view of operations that SAP software provides.
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