Gardner Denver Wins 2011 Progressive Manufacturing 100 Award for Operational Excellence

Annual Event Recognizes World-Class Manufacturers Using IT for Process Innovation

May 10, 2011, Ashburn, VA —Brainware, Inc. the leading provider of intelligent data capture and enterprise search solutions, congratulates Gardner Denver on their receipt of a 2011 Progressive Manufacturing 100 Award for Operational Excellence at the Manufacturing Leadership Summit, currently underway in Palm Beach, Florida. The annual Operational Excellence awards recognize companies that have mastered the ideas of continuous improvement as advocated in such disciplines as Six Sigma and LEAN manufacturing, and achieve measurable excellence not only in internal operations but also in those processes that involve customers, partners and suppliers. Gardner Denver joins a number of diverse companies, including Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Coca-Cola, IBM, Lockheed Martin, Dow Chemical, Boeing, Chevron, Kodak and others in receiving a 2011 PM100 Award.

As cited by Managing Automation magazine, Gardner Denver was recognized for leveraging Brainware Distiller within their SAP ERP environment to achieve lean standards in accounts payable, resulting in invoice processing efficiency, including high levels of touchless processing.

“Gardner Denver is very honored to receive this prestigious award in the category of Operational Excellence Mastery,” said Lynne Degand, Gardner Denver's Director of Manufacturing Accounting and Domestic Shared Services. “Gardner Denver has a company-wide LEAN culture that instills innovation and velocity in everything we do, from the shop floor to the back office. We proactively seek technologies that enable us to streamline our work with greater accuracy and faster processing times while minimizing labor and processing costs. After performing a value stream map and Kaizen event of our accounts payable process, Gardner Denver chose Brainware to automate the company’s accounts payable function and reduce waste. The result in 2010 was a 23% reduction in the cost per invoice, and achievement of best-in-class invoice processing performance.”

“Gardner Denver has achieved processing efficiency and visibility far beyond the reach of manual invoice processing alone, enabling a competitive advantage that allows for greater cash management and a substantial boost to their bottom line,” said Carl Mergele, Chief Executive Officer at Brainware. “We are proud to contribute to their success as a model of efficiency in shared services, and congratulate them on being recognized for their achievements.”

Read Gardner Denver’s complete Brainware case study, or hear Lynne Degand discussing the benefits she has observed by automating accounts payable with Brainware Distiller.