Roq safeguards against £5m per day factory downtime

The Client

Roq’s client is a global leader in the manufacturing space, producing advanced composites including carbon fibre for globally critical aerospace projects.

The Challenge

The client was planning to upgrade their legacy Dynamics AX ERP to Dynamics 365. At the same time they also needed to upgrade their Manufacturing Execution System (MES).

A senior client stakeholder met Roq at an event which focussed on the benefits of test automation and Quality Engineering (QE). Roq fostered a close relationship with the client over 18 months and when the client was ready to ramp up the transformation programme, they engaged with Roq to deliver its expertise in Quality Engineering to ensure the ERP and MES solutions integrated with the rest of the business as planned.

The programme is set to run over a four-year period and is extremely complex, with each of the client’s 22 worldwide factories running the ERP and each having a different configuration of the MES. These systems are business critical and if one factory goes down for 24 hours – this can cost up to 5 million pounds!

When Roq engaged, the client had some existing, but unsuccessful test automation, and defects were causing issues. Due to the lack of confidence in automation, business users were having to carry out manual regression testing, taking them away from their usual roles and responsibilities.

Roq initially engaged to carry out a full review of the functional side of ERP and MES testing as well as build a highly efficient test automation framework.

Roq’s Solution

After the initial review of the clients ERP and MES programme, Roq suggested reviewing the full end-to-end testing process (as opposed to originally scoped ERP and MES application-only functional areas), this quickly identified gaps in the process which were causing defects to make it through to live. This extra layer of quality assurance led to Roq’s Quality Engineering Manager (QEM) rolling this new process out to all relevant areas, bringing the client in line with Roq’s Quality Engineering culture and approach to technology projects.

The client was also working with a third-party supplier which also had some testing resources, assuring their own deliverables ahead of integrating into the client. Roq’s QEM overcame various cultural issues and differences in ways of working by meeting with them on a regular basis, running them through Roq’s processes and integrating them fully within the rest of the test team – fostering a ‘one team, one goal’ culture.

Roq also quickly identified gaps in the client’s regression testing processes and suggested that much could be automated. Roq removed the need for business users to carry out regression testing by automating the full process, giving them back their time to focus on other business-critical elements of their roles. Before automation the regression pack took around 23 hours to complete, it can now be automated in less than nine hours overnight – a time saving of 60% and completely freeing up the client team. Importantly, this enables rapid change to be deployed as the client can now deliver on a daily rather than weekly basis.

Following regular catch-ups with key client stakeholders, the Roq team identified the need for a reporting dashboard for all key metrics. This report shows the client various information such as how many tests have been run that week, and how many defects have been raised. It also highlights via RAG status how each of these metrics is performing against the targets set, allowing client stakeholders to see a snapshot of how the ERP and MES programmes is performing. More importantly, for critical decisions around if a deployment is ready to be installed into a live operating factory – the business has the information it needs to make that call and protect up to 5 million pounds in revenue per factory, per day!

The Outcome  

The client is more than happy with how the project is progressing, with far fewer defects in general, and less showstopping defects making it through to BAU, and a much smoother transition of the system into the client’s factories.

One key client contact has commented Roq’s ‘game-changing’ reports, saying they make a huge difference to business confidence and visibility of real progress.

Roq Value

• Time saving of 60% through automated regression testing – giving the option to move to daily releases from weekly

• Safeguarding potential factory downtime costs of £5m per factory per day!

• Full dashboard built to suit client’s reporting needs

• Full end-to-end review of client’s testing processes, including implementation of Roq’s approved documentation and ways of working

• Bringing third-party partner on the journey with us. ‘One team ethos’

If you’d like to find out more about how Roq can support your business, please email us at ask@roq.co.uk.