blueSequence wins Best Supply Chain Award

Blue Fountain Systems are this years winner of the Supply Chain Management Category of the British Computer (BCS) Information Management Awards.

Open Source Ruby on Rails application scoops award.

Blue Fountain Systems beat off stiff competition from Marks & Spencer and the FOCUS DIY chain to win the award for their blueSequence solution which forms part of Toyota Motor Manufacturing's own "sequence in time" production process.

The system, which is used by Futaba Industrial UK Ltd at their new factory in Derbyshire, has been written with open source technologies and uses the Ruby on Rails web framework as the web front end for the application to handle real time data from the Toyota production line, processing signals to manufacture and deliver the right part, to the right point, at the right time in the manufacturing process with the whole process taking less than 8 hours. Further details on the application can be found at http://www.bluefountain.com/solutions/BlueSequence/

Keith Smith, General Manager at Futaba Industrial UK, explained:

"Without the Blue Fountain Solution we could not have gone live. Since the system was first installed in August 2005 it has successfully handled over 5 million parts."

Blue Sequence fits into the the Toyota Production System (TPS) in a very modern context. Jidoka is the Japanese phrase that refers to one of the two main pillars of TPS i.e. "the ability to stop production lines, by man or machine, in the event of problems such as equipment malfunction, quality issues, or late work. Jidoka helps prevent the passing of defects, helps identify and correct problem areas using localization and isolation, and makes it possible to “build” quality at the production process". To deliver on Jidoka in real time across the extended supply chain requires great precision in the timing and the handling of the sub assembly processes. In the event of problems a key advantage of real time processing is that Tier #1 stock levels are kept to levels that match actual production rather than against that days manifest making the supply chain more efficient. In addition it helps to achieve sub-assemblies and parts usage smoothing (PUS).

BCS Chief Executive David Clarke said:

"The variety and quality of the projects entered into the 2006's awards showcase the tremendous contribution made by the IT profession to economic prosperity, to business efficiency and to our public services. They are all excellent examples of both the innovation and the high quality that the IT profession delivers on a daily basis."

Aidan McGuire, BFS Sales Director explained

"BFS is absolutely delighted to have won this prestigious award. As companies seek greater and greater efficiencies in the supply chain this type of sequence production involving multiple suppliers is set to grow and Blue Fountain are well position to take a leading role in this specialist market with multiple systems currently in use on both the Toyota and Ford lines.” Aidan added " This award sends a very clear signal to everyone in industry that open source solutions can deliver robust and reliable low cost mission critical applications."

Ian Cottee, BFS Technical Director commented

"The blueSequence system puts demand flow manufacturing at the centre of the production process which delivers huge benefits for manufacturing companies."

The BCS awards have very quickly established themselves as the leading hallmark of success amongst practitioners in the IT industry today. As standards of sophistication, business acumen and skill in the IT world are continually developing, the role of IT and its effective management is critical across the whole spectrum of business. The cross-industry awards recognize, promote and acclaim excellence, professionalism, innovation and the outstanding achievements to which individuals and groups contribute to implement highly successful projects utilizing leading-edge IT and business technologies.