Kian Ho Bearings (Singapore) said it is rolling out an advanced integrated ERP (enterprise resource planning) system to streamline production and better manage inventory.

Maintaining inventory spread across five locations and valued at more than Sgd$45 million (USD $30 million) is a major portion of Kian Ho's ongoing operating expense. The company manufactures and distributes more than 20,000 different bearings and 15,000 seals.

Founded in 1956, Kian Ho has operations in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. 2006 sales were Sgd$93.2million ($61.5 million).

Kian Ho manufactures bearings in China via Zhenjiang Zhongjian Bearing Co. Ltd., under the KOMEI brand. The company also operates subsidiaries under the names of Ascend Bearings Co. Ltd., Acker Machinery (Shanghai) Co., Ltd and SNB (Hong Kong).

Kian Ho is reportedly Singapore's largest warehouse distributor and retailer of bearings and seals, the exclusive distributor for most key brands such as IKO, Daido and URB, but also carrying Timken, SKF, NTN, Koyo, NSK, Nachi, and others.

Although Kian Ho does very little in the OEM market, it essentially controls the lucrative heavy-duty replacement market in Singapore, servicing primarily heavy manufacturing, transportation, utilities, and oil and gas drilling markets. Sales offices are also in Malaysia and Taiwan, with sales extending across the Pacific rim to Europe, Africa, and North America.

Moving from a largely manual, Excel spreadsheet-based inventory management "system" to Microsoft Dynamics NAV and SQL server, Kian Ho said it expects to both save time and dramatically reduce errors.

Adding to the difficulty, the company's various units have developed bearing and seal part numbers up to 50 characters long.

Kian Ho becomes the latest Asian bearing manufacturer to abandon the traditional manual systems, or electronic systems that simply mimic the manual, in favor of advanced, multi-location computer software systems.