Sharp industry focus and domain expertise, product interconnectivity, and quick and inexpensive e-commerce enablement have been BRAIN's bargaining chips in the game against the likes of a German fellow giant SAP. The pressures of the '90s on automotive suppliers to streamline manufacturing operations in order to reduce inventory and costs in general, and to increase the overall speed of production, have only been increased recently with the economic slump. Many ERP systems have consequently added new functionality to meet these needs, such as bar-code labels printing for both parts and containers, and advanced shipping notices (ASNs).
BRAIN continues to compete with its two automotive-focused ERP packages, which are Xpert Manufacturing System, which runs on IBM's iServer (formerly AS/400) platform, and TRANS4M, which runs on UNIX and Windows NT server platforms.
BRAIN's parent company, BRAIN International AG, is headquartered in Breisach, Germany and was formed a few years ago from the merger of German ERP software developers BIW and Rembold + Holzer. BRAIN gained the TRANS4M solution when it acquired a US-based CMI-Competitive Solutions in September 1999 with a view to become the leading provider of ERP solutions to the North American automotive industry. The two products differ in their fit to different types of automotive suppliers, in addition to platform support. Xpert is better suited to mixed-mode manufacturing requirements (with EDI being an integrated component of materials requirement planning - MRP), whereas TRANS4M should appeal to manufacturers with a lean/repetitive production environment (with its work-in-progress (WIP) visibility, pay-point operations, multiple backflush methods, and other industry endemic functionality).
Having long been offering two automotive sector-focused ERP systems has allowed BRAIN International to meanwhile also garner Web-based software capabilities and domain expertise in supply chain communication. The automotive industry has unique characteristics that make it highly conducive to Internet-based supply chain optimization and collaboration. A car's complex bill of materials (BOM) results in many entities being involved in its making. Information transparency and supply chain integration are, therefore, the name of the game.
E-business technology, while not causing these requirements, is at least providing for their enablement. To that end, BRAIN has also been offering a suite of automotive-focused supply chain communication applications that integrate with multiple ERP systems. The platform agnosticism stems both from the need for stronger market competitiveness and from the homogenous back-office population within the customer base. While many existing customers run on one of BRAIN's ERP solutions, many others have legacy systems or systems from another vendor that they are not planning to replace any time soon.
As a result BRAIN has developed its e-Automotive Suite of B2B communication and collaboration applications, which also includes SupplyWEB Enterprise, a Web-based system for communicating procurement, shipment, payment, supplier performance, and many other types of information, catering thereby for almost every type of communication an automotive company has with its suppliers.
While extensible mark-up language (XML) holds great promise, the automotive industry has invested heavily in electronic data interchange (EDI) and will not dispense with an investment in something that has been working well. Perhaps, new e-commerce business processes such as MRO (maintenance, repair, and overhaul) components procurement will adopt XML right away, while in other cases, EDI might simply be moved onto the Internet. SupplyWEB therefore eliminates the need for all of the company's suppliers to install and maintain expensive and complex EDI connectivity. While sophisticated suppliers may still use their EDI investment, smaller suppliers' communication needs can be handled via SupplyWEB. As a matter of fact, the company deploying SupplyWEB may be under the impression that all its suppliers have EEDI, as BRAIN leverages the Internet as the means to help lower-tier, small suppliers get beyond manual re-keying of EDI transmissions.
BRAIN continues to compete with its two automotive-focused ERP packages, which are Xpert Manufacturing System, which runs on IBM's iServer (formerly AS/400) platform, and TRANS4M, which runs on UNIX and Windows NT server platforms.
BRAIN's parent company, BRAIN International AG, is headquartered in Breisach, Germany and was formed a few years ago from the merger of German ERP software developers BIW and Rembold + Holzer. BRAIN gained the TRANS4M solution when it acquired a US-based CMI-Competitive Solutions in September 1999 with a view to become the leading provider of ERP solutions to the North American automotive industry. The two products differ in their fit to different types of automotive suppliers, in addition to platform support. Xpert is better suited to mixed-mode manufacturing requirements (with EDI being an integrated component of materials requirement planning - MRP), whereas TRANS4M should appeal to manufacturers with a lean/repetitive production environment (with its work-in-progress (WIP) visibility, pay-point operations, multiple backflush methods, and other industry endemic functionality).
Having long been offering two automotive sector-focused ERP systems has allowed BRAIN International to meanwhile also garner Web-based software capabilities and domain expertise in supply chain communication. The automotive industry has unique characteristics that make it highly conducive to Internet-based supply chain optimization and collaboration. A car's complex bill of materials (BOM) results in many entities being involved in its making. Information transparency and supply chain integration are, therefore, the name of the game.
E-business technology, while not causing these requirements, is at least providing for their enablement. To that end, BRAIN has also been offering a suite of automotive-focused supply chain communication applications that integrate with multiple ERP systems. The platform agnosticism stems both from the need for stronger market competitiveness and from the homogenous back-office population within the customer base. While many existing customers run on one of BRAIN's ERP solutions, many others have legacy systems or systems from another vendor that they are not planning to replace any time soon.
As a result BRAIN has developed its e-Automotive Suite of B2B communication and collaboration applications, which also includes SupplyWEB Enterprise, a Web-based system for communicating procurement, shipment, payment, supplier performance, and many other types of information, catering thereby for almost every type of communication an automotive company has with its suppliers.
While extensible mark-up language (XML) holds great promise, the automotive industry has invested heavily in electronic data interchange (EDI) and will not dispense with an investment in something that has been working well. Perhaps, new e-commerce business processes such as MRO (maintenance, repair, and overhaul) components procurement will adopt XML right away, while in other cases, EDI might simply be moved onto the Internet. SupplyWEB therefore eliminates the need for all of the company's suppliers to install and maintain expensive and complex EDI connectivity. While sophisticated suppliers may still use their EDI investment, smaller suppliers' communication needs can be handled via SupplyWEB. As a matter of fact, the company deploying SupplyWEB may be under the impression that all its suppliers have EEDI, as BRAIN leverages the Internet as the means to help lower-tier, small suppliers get beyond manual re-keying of EDI transmissions.
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