Camatic Seating — a supplier and manufacturer of ergonomic seating solutions for stadiums, arenas, cinemas, theaters, educational institutions and transit areas around the world — is using Infor‘s integrated artificial intelligence (AI) solution to help improve customer satisfaction, increase revenues and optimise the vendor selection process.
Melbourne-based Camatic Seating has developed innovative seating solutions for some of the most iconic venues in the world – including Wimbledon, the Sydney Opera House refurbishment, Melbourne Cricket Ground and the high-tech Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, which hosted the 2019 Super Bowl. Camatic Seating also is a seating provider to stadiums of the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA) and Major League Soccer (MLS).
As Camatic Seating grows and enters new markets, its goal is to continue to deliver seating solutions without delays, so customers can complete their construction projects as scheduled.
With Infor Coleman® AI, Camatic Seating anticipates that it will increase its sales-win rates by 5%, which would translate into US$10 million to US$15 million in new revenue. The company also expects that Infor Coleman AI will help speed up its vendor selection process by 93%, reducing the time it takes to pull vendor data from 30 minutes to two minutes.
“With artificial intelligence applied to key business processes, we now have the confidence to tell our customers we can deliver seating on time, which is critical for them to complete projects on their end — such as building out seating for a new stadium, cinema, or any construction with time sensitivity,” said Jamarl Scase, planning and production control manager at Camatic Seating.
Improving sales forecasting and customer satisfaction
Taking advantage of the modern Infor OS technology platform that underpins Camatic Seating’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system — Infor CloudSuite™ Industrial Enterprise — Camatic Seating applied Infor Coleman AI to five years of disparate customer relationship management (CRM) data to help generate more accurate forecasts and win predictions. Implemented in less than 30 days, the AI-driven insights are delivered through Infor Birst® analytic dashboards, and those insights are accessible on demand.
Prior to leveraging Infor OS to better utilise data to generate insights, creating monthly sales forecasts was a manual process. Capacity planning, based on these forecasts, was prone to risk and unforeseen costs such as lack of supplies and outsourcing work to subcontractors.
Now, the entire organisation uses the same real-time information to help deliver seating solutions to customers on time. Management and sales teams are more effective in strategic decision making; operations are better equipped to plan for capacity; and procurement can acquire the right number of raw materials at the right time.
Automating the vendor selection process
With Infor Coleman AI applied to vendor performance data, Camatic Seating can automatically assign grades to suppliers in five categories. Planners can quickly look at multiple suppliers in the same category and compare their ratings. There also is a summary breakdown of past vendor performance — in terms of delivery promptness, quality and price. The Camatic Seating team can make a selection based on the overall ranking, and it also can see the details behind the ranking.
“We weren’t really analysing the data in a consistent manner, and it led to us sometimes making the incorrect supply selection,” Scase said. “Previously, it was arduous for the material planners to get that data out and analyse it, sometimes taking up to 30 minutes at a time to figure out what the supplier’s performance had been. Now, by applying AI to our historical data, they can have that information with more accuracy and consistency at the touch of a button.”
According to Scase, more accurate and targeted vendor selection ultimately leads to better delivery performance and the ability to manufacture better-quality products at a lower cost.
Infor ANZ vice president and managing director Jarrod Kinchington said that using an intelligent cloud-based solution will help transform Camatic Seating’s business and deliver considerable savings to the business.
“We’re delighted to be working with Camatic Seating again, a company that shares our values and philosophy when it comes to innovation and creating streamlined and efficient business processes. Being able to access information in real time and make reliable, data-driven decisions is critical for manufacturing today. It is responsible for some of the biggest sporting events in the world, and together, Camatic Seating and Infor’s expertise will be on show to millions of fans and audiences with the Sydney Football Stadium one of 10 venues at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup – we’re excited to have our technology showcased on a global stage.
“At Infor we have an extensive track record of working with leading manufacturing companies, such as global forklift manufacturer Combilift, which is using Infor Coleman AI-driven parts recommendations, in combination with Infor CloudSuite Industrial. With logistics and supply chain under continued pressure, having a cloud-based, integrated AI solution enables complete transparency as well as generating vital insights into performance and accurate forecasting. This in turn enhances customer service and employee satisfaction,” Kinchington said.
