CASE STUDY
I
n business since 1986, the Dolphin
Group specialises in the design and
manufacture of high-performance
industrial and automotive thermal products,
and they are widely recognised as a leader in
this industry in the Middle East.
With a corporate office in Ajman, United
Arab Emirates (UAE), the group has
established several branches in Sharjah,
Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Al Ain, Ras Al Khaimah,
Fujairah and Oman.
Needing to improve
production processes
Until as recently as 2014, Dolphin Group
relied almost entirely on manual processes
to run their business.
While they did have a very basic financial
system all other processes, from the moment
an order was accepted by an employee
in sales to the time it was shipped to the
62
INTELLIGENTCIO
customer, required employees across all
departments to work in close concert with
each other.
This had a severe impact on data accuracy,
employee efficiency and their ability to make
good day-to-day business decisions.
For a business that was rapidly expanding
both its product offering and operations
footprint, the lack of automation and
digitalisation of processes – particularly in
the production environment – was proving
to be a major roadblock.
As Arshid Zab, IT Manager at Dolphin Group,
said: “Close to 90% of our product offering
is built-to-order, and as such, our ability to
deliver the highest quality product to our
customers, on time, every time-hinges on
having best-in-class manufacturing processes.
Without an ERP system in place, we couldn’t
plan our production schedule efficiently or
deploy any best practices on the shop floor.
“There were several instances where we
would accept orders and promise a delivery
date, only to then realise that we didn’t
have sufficient stock of a certain part, that
there was a backlog on a certain machine,
or that we hadn’t budgeted for the required
manpower on the day. This translated into
late deliveries and, in some cases, customers
cancelling their orders altogether, both
undesirable outcomes.”
He continued: “Also, like with any business,
at the end of the day, it is all about the
bottom line. Without an ERP system in place,
we had very little visibility of our true costs
– be those costs of material, manpower,
or our assets – and we often relied on a
combination of historical data and our
experience to make pricing decisions.
“As we expanded our operations to include
trading, after sales-services, and even a
consumables division, having this insight
in real time was going to be critical to our
www.intelligentcio.com