Company: Lotus F1 Team

Number of Employees: 540

Web site: www.lotusf1team.com

Country or Region: United Kingdom

Industry: Manufacturing – Automotive

Software and Services:• To-Increase Advanced Discrete

Manufacturing

• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

Customer ProfileLotus F1 Team, headquartered in Enstone,

United Kingdom, is a professional

motorsport organization that competes in

the FIA Formula 1 World Championship.

Every year, Lotus F1 Team travels to 20

races around the world, which close to 800

million people watch.

Business SituationThe company wanted to build faster cars,

with greater resource-efficiency and better

control of its manufacturing processes.

SolutionLotus F1 Team deployed Microsoft

Dynamics AX 2012 in its business

operations, and is implementing the same

solution in integration with To-Increase

Advanced Discrete Manufacturing in

its car manufacturing, starting with the

Aerodynamics Division.

Lotus F1 Team Customer Success Story

Formula One Manufacturer Implements Integrated ERP System to Control its Business and Build Faster Cars

When even split seconds can decide the outcome of a race and every dollar saved can make a difference in how a racing organization can achieve better results, utmost effi ciency and control are called for. Lotus F1 Team initiated a business transformation project to make it possible to build the fastest possible cars in the most effi cient manner. The ERP foundation for the company is Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 in integration with To-Increase Advanced Discrete Manufacturing. A successful, fast deployment of the solution in the Aerodynamics Division demonstrates the power and value of the technologies, which will become available to all manufacturing operations later in 2014.

At To-Increase Innovations 2013 in Sorrento, Italy, Thomas Mayer, COO at Lotus F1 Team, gave a keynote address in which he explained the company’s adoption of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 and To-Increase Advanced Discrete Manufacturing to help build the fastest possible cars in the most effi cient manner. In his talk, Mayer also shared how Lotus F1 Team makes use of big data to assess cars’ performance. In testing parts and equipment, more than 200 sensors may be attached to a car, and a test run may generate close to 40 terafl ops of data. Engineers then may develop as many as several hundred design improvements, fi lter those virtually, and move a smaller number along to prototyping by a manufacturing 3D printer for further testing, which will determine the single best design for actual production. That design, installed in the fi eld, is put through rigorous testing, generating more data in a process of continuous, very fast improvement that speeds along in two-week cycles.

Drive toward Business TransformationLotus F1 Team realized that it might not reach one of its key goals for 2014, winning the FIA Formula One world championship, without a transformation in the way people and processes operate. While the company produced a wealth of data in testing, it needed to make that data meaningful and actionable. Too many of the automotive design, advanced materials research, aerodynamics, and engineering experts at Lotus F1 made decisions based on their intuition and experience, not the information at hand. The company sought a way to provide them with the data to make timely, accurate decisions regarding materials and designs to accelerate the race cars even more.

In addition, Lotus F1 Team wanted to gain better visibility and control of its manufacturing processes and resource use. Business makers hoped for better insight into materials planning and usage, improve cost control, and provide more reliable forecasting. Often, the manufacturing operation produces parts as soon as the designs are ready, but aerodynamics and design teams may generate improvements for these parts that result in some manufacturing cycles wasting resources. Lotus F1 Team managers felt that running manufacturing with greater control and effi ciency could generate savings that the company could invest directly in aerodynamic and other improvements for the cars.

Partnering with the Best Technology ProvidersLotus F1 Team worked with a Gartner analyst and made use of fi ndings in the Gartner magic quadrant to evaluate 13 ERP manu-facturers. It chose Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 because of the solution’s excellent track record in enterprises around the world, its fl exibility to adjust to Lotus F1 practices and preferences, and Microsoft’s vision and commitment behind the solution and enter-prise ERP. Microsoft knew that To-Increase was the only ISV able to provide the engi-neer-to-order and manufacturing capabil-ities Lotus F1 Team required, and involved To-Increase in the implementation process after the company had gone live with the fi nancials and business management func-tionality of Microsoft Dynamics AX.Lotus F1 Team refers to its business trans-formation project as MILO, using its own and Microsoft’s initials. Microsoft became an Offi cial Team Partner. In building the inte-grated ERP infrastructure, both Microsoft and To-Increase are making extensive use of their solutions’ standard functionalities, relying only minimally on customization.

Aerodynamics Division Gains a Unifi ed Business Management InfrastructureIn October 2013, Lotus F1 Team went live with Advanced Discrete Manufacturing and Microsoft Dynamics AX in its Aerodynamics Division. Initially, this was not scheduled until April 2014. However, project stakeholders felt it would be of advantage to deploy the new ERP system in this division sooner, because aerodynamics is a critical area for design improvements that can enable the cars to achieve greater speeds. The inception of the 2014 car build will therefore take place in the Microsoft Dynamics AX environment.

In the Aerodynamics Division, the new ERP system replaces the great number of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, Microsoft Project plans, and email communications used up to that point. The solution integrates with Lotus F1 Team’s product lifecycle manage-ment (PLM) system and makes it possible to run material requirements planning (MRP) on item requirements. Design drawings are clearly associated with the parts that need to be manufactured. The design, manufactur-ing, and wind tunnel departments within the Aerodynamics Division can perform connect-ed, detailed planning on the ERP platform.

The integrated To-Increase and Microsoft Dynamics solutions provide the organization with a single, centralized resource to manage its processes and to access all information related to aerodynamics design, manufactur-ing, and testing. The masses of data Lotus F1 Team generates contribute directly to sound, substantiated decision-making. Employees collaborate more closely and productively, with full awareness of the impact of their decisions and actions on the organiza-tion’s progress toward its goals. They have also achieved substantial reductions in the amount of rework they need to perform.

Formula One Manufacturer Implements Integrated ERP System to Control its Business and Build Faster Cars

Key Benefi ts• Optimal effi ciency in design, testing,

and manufacturing processes• Insight and control over costs and

resource utilization• Improved decision-making

capabilities making use of the company’s data

• Productive, closely connected team communication and collaboration

• Highly manageable standard solution with minimal customization

Enthusiastic Adoption by Solution Users

Feedback from the ERP users in the

Aerodynamics Division was overwhelmingly

positive. User adoption happened faster and

more enthusiastically than expected. Lotus

F1 Team views the successful implementa-

tion as a promising blueprint for the solution

rollout to all of its manufacturing operations,

currently scheduled for August 2014. That

solution deployment will extend the same,

single instance of Microsoft Dynamics AX

and Advanced Discrete Manufacturing.

Individually and informally, aerodynamics

team members are already communicating

the advantages of their new ERP platform to

their colleagues in the manufacturing group.

Copyright 2013 To-Increased BV. All rights reserved

Document published November 2013

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