Lean Manufacturing Software Leader eBots Becomes Ultriva: New Name, Products, Website, Expanded Management Team

Lean Manufacturing Software Leader eBots Becomes Ultriva: New Name, Products, Website, Expanded Management Team

2:32 am - November 30th, 2005

In addition to the new name, the company has expanded its management team to include new CEO Ashley Stirrup and CTO Rao Kota, launched a new website at www.ultriva.com, and has renamed its upgraded products — Ultriva Electronic Kanban and Ultriva Lean Scheduling.

Ultriva Electronic Kanban, an enabler of consumption driven replenishment processes, eliminates stock-outs while reducing inventory levels. Ultriva Lean Scheduling complements Ultriva’s replenishment capabilities by optimizing production schedules in real-time around the customers’ want date. These solutions shorten cycle times, increase on-time delivery performance, reduce inventory levels and reduce the overall cost of manufacturing.

“The new name marks a new chapter for our company,” said Stirrup. “When Ultriva was founded we were ahead of the market, working with a handful of charter customers that were early adopters. Today we see tremendous interest from mainstream manufacturing and we have expanded every area of our business to meet the needs of the market.”

As chief executive officer of Ultriva, Stirrup has overall responsibility for the company’s strategy and operations. He brings more than 15 years of enterprise software and consulting experience. Most recently, Stirrup was vice president of products, marketing and business development at Elance, Inc., a leading provider of procurement software. New CTO Rao Kota, Ultriva’s chief software architect and head of development for all applications, was most recently with Amdocs where he was one of the primary architects of their web-based CRM applications. He joins a management team that also includes Ultriva founder and president Narayan Laksham, and vice president of sales Gene Cranford.

“Ultriva with their electronic kanban functions addresses the rapidly growing market for lean manufacturing software,” said Ralph Rio, Director, ARC Advisory Group. “Lean is the primary improvement methodology used in the discrete industries and we continue to be impressed with the substantial inventory savings and stock-out reductions that Ultriva customers experience on their Lean journey. Ultriva is clearly positioned for a growth surge.”

Using Ultriva’s software, customers around the world have been able to move toward advanced, pull-based, lean manufacturing systems. Ultriva customers report inventory savings while improving their on-time delivery performance and eliminating stock-outs. The visual nature of the software reinforces lean processes and enables users to continuously improve plant operations. On average, Ultriva customers realize more than $2.2 million per plant in inventory savings, delivering a return on their software investment in less than six months.

“The (Ultriva) Electronic Kanban has enabled us to successfully apply desirable lean techniques in the area of pull systems during the last two years,” said Glenn Miller, plant manager — Bridgeton Operation, IR-Hussman Corporation. “The tool enables key closed loop communications with external and internal suppliers. The loops have been quite successful in reducing inventory and eliminating stock-outs in the areas where the demand is stable as well as where the orders are not accurate relative to actual requirements.”

Ultriva’s current customers are medium-to-large manufacturing operations. The company plans to expand and enhance its product offerings to current customers and seek new users.

Through partnerships with lean consultants, and hardware and software providers, Ultriva provides a comprehensive solution that enables companies to quickly adopt lean manufacturing techniques while streamlining and optimizing their supply chain across customers, plants and suppliers.