ERP

This mid-market automotive metal stamping supplier operated on a legacy ERP system that offered no real-time visibility into production status, inventory, or part movement. In automotive supply chains, where OEMs demand complete part genealogy and just-in-time delivery windows, the absence of live data created compounding risk. Scheduling was constrained to a short-horizon view — only weeks out — forcing workers to operate reactively with minimal preparation time. Most critically, the company lacked the infrastructure to provide customers with part traceability, a baseline expectation in automotive quality standards such as IATF 16949. The status quo threatened both customer retention and supplier certification.

The company implemented Plex ERP, Rockwell Automation's cloud-based manufacturing enterprise resource planning platform, designed specifically for discrete manufacturers in demanding supply chains. Plex unified previously siloed operations — production scheduling, tool and die management, shipping and receiving, and quality tracking — into a single connected system. Because Plex is delivered as a cloud-native platform, deployment did not require significant on-premises infrastructure investment, lowering the barrier for a mid-market operation. Integration with shop floor workflows gave production teams real-time data access at the point of work. Rockwell Automation's role as the platform vendor also provided a pathway to broader connected manufacturing capabilities should the business need to scale further.

Replacing the legacy system with Plex produced measurable operational improvements across the business:

• Scheduling horizon extended: planning visibility expanded from weeks to months ahead, enabling proactive resource and capacity management
• Cross-functional alignment: production, tool and die, shipping and receiving, and other departments now operate from a single source of truth
• Customer traceability delivered: the company can now provide customers with full part traceability and supply chain transparency, meeting automotive OEM requirements

Qualitatively, workers shifted from reactive to planned execution, and the business gained the operational infrastructure to pursue larger or more demanding customer contracts.

• Traceability is a market access requirement in automotive — suppliers without it risk losing certification or OEM contracts regardless of production quality
• Short scheduling horizons are a hidden cost: reactive planning creates labor inefficiency and missed capacity; extending the horizon pays dividends across departments
• Cloud ERP lowers the adoption barrier for mid-market manufacturers who cannot justify large on-premises IT investments
• Operational visibility must span departments — siloed systems for production, tooling, and logistics prevent the cross-functional coordination that automotive supply chains demand
• Platform selection matters: choosing a vendor with a broader ecosystem (like Rockwell Automation) creates a foundation for future digital manufacturing investment