HP, Red Hat, and Oracle combination is

a cool breeze for leading fan maker

Greenheck Fan Corporation
Business need:
Greenheck Fan Corp. is the leading maker of ventilation
equipment in the United States. The company needed to
increase productivity and reduce costs by automating
several key paper-based functions and processes, such as
replacement parts ordering, quotation tracking, and shop-
floor scheduling for 200 different products.
Manufacturer is a big fan of clusters
As part of a comprehensive, lean-manufacturing initiative
begun in 2001, Greenheck Fan looked at many of its
critical manual and semi-automated processes for ways to
increase productivity, improve customer service, enhance
quality, and reduce order-processing delays. Greenheck
selected three company processes for initial automation:
the shop-floor production scheduling system, sales
quotations, and the spare-parts ordering system.
The manufacturer had standardized long ago on HP
solutions to provide a stable, agile IT infrastructure and
currently uses HP ProLiant servers throughout its enterprise.
To accommodate the shop-floor automation application,
as well as other planned applications, Greenheck
implemented solutions of the HP adaptive enterprise
vision: three HP ProLiant DL580 two-node clusters. The
servers run Red Hat Linux Advanced Server, which
provides built-in high availability clustering technology.
One of the ProLiant clusters runs the Oracle9i RAC
database application to manage product-part information
and other data categories. A second ProLiant cluster runs
"outward facing" applications. These include the new
spare parts order system, and the new request-for-
quotation system (a critical part of the company's
Computer-Aided Product Selection system). This cluster
also runs web presentation tools, allowing easy, secure
access.
Proven HP and partner solutions make the business
adaptable
Greenheck dedicated the third ProLiant cluster to "inward
facing" applications, including the critical shop-floor
scheduling system. "We needed an absolutely fail-proof
system to support our shop-floor scheduling," notes Vice
President of IT Don Brekke. "We knew the combination of
clustered HP ProLiant servers, Linux, and Oracle would
give us the protection we required. We've never had
downtime with this system, and we love that."
The new shop-floor scheduling application has played a
key role in helping to streamline production, reduce time
and effort in managing order changes, and reduce field
calls due to manufacturing errors. The system has also
enabled the company to offer a premium Quick Build
option in which customers can choose accelerated
production. "We can flow change orders and Quick Build
requests into our production schedule without really
missing a beat," Brekke explains. "Thanks to our HP
infrastructure and leading solutions from HP partners, our
business is in a better position to capitalize on change."
Robust HP infrastructure yields rewards
By standardizing on HP solutions throughout the
organization, Brekke's 40-person IT staff can focus almost
exclusively on automation projects designed to boost the
bottom line and improve customer satisfaction. For
"Our HP ProLiant infrastructure gives us the
adaptability and availability to meet new
challenges and increase our competitive edge.
By standardizing on HP, we keep our total cost
of ownership to a minimum."
Vice President of Information Technology Don Brekke, Greenheck Fan Corporation
For more information on how working with HP can benefit you,
contact your local HP representative, or visit us at www.hp.com.
Copyright 2004 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without
notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such
products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for
technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.
Microsoft and Windows are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Oracle is a trademark of Oracle Corporation.
5982-6604EN, 6/2004
Provide a fault-tolerant environment for
three critical applications to increase
productivity, improve quality, and save time
on the shop floor and in the field
Reduce the reliance on costly and
cumbersome paper-based processes
Extend the company's standards-based
environment to highly available clustered
systems
Hardware
6 HP ProLiant DL580 quad-processor
servers configured in 3 clusters and
running Red Hat Linux Advanced Server
2.1
60+ HP ProLiant servers including
models DL580, DL380, and DL360
HP direct-attached storage on all servers
Software
HP Insight Manager 7 SP2
HP ProLiant Essentials Rapid Deployment
Pack
Oracle9i Real Application Cluster (RAC)
Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1
Microsoft Exchange Server 2000,
Windows 2000 Advanced Server, SQL
Server database
mySAP All-in-One solution, Customer
Relationship Management; SAP Business
Information Warehouse
Payroll, workforce management, and
document management applications all
running on the ProLiant infrastructure
HP Services
Ongoing support
SAN configuration certification
Increased productivity, enhanced quality,
and improved customer satisfaction with
responsive, reliable shop-floor order
scheduling and tracking, spare-parts
ordering, and quotations
Saved approximately $20,000 in licensing
fees alone due to open-source operating
systems and HP's industry-standard
platform
Advanced order processing from a full-day,
manual process to nearly instantaneous
automated system
Replaced shop-floor delays, mistakes, and
field follow-up calls with accurate shop-
floor production scheduling and
change-order tracking
Enabled a single systems administrator to
manage a homogeneous 60-server HP
infrastructure, resulting in continued low
TCO
Reduced work-in-process inventory via
increased shop-floor schedule accuracy
and more efficient change-order processing
HP, Red Hat, and Oracle combination is
a cool breeze for leading fan maker
Challenge Solution
Results
instance, a large part of Greenheck's IT team is
currently dedicated to implementation of the
mySAP All-in-One ERP solution on HP ProLiant
servers. This SAP implementation will replace
the company's 20-year-old legacy system and
will run on its own set of clustered HP ProLiant
servers.
"We know that our HP ProLiant infrastructure
gives us the adaptability and availability we
need to meet new challenges and increase our
competitive edge," Brekke notes. "HP is our
vendor of choice for servers and desktops, and
has been for many years. By standardizing on
HP, we keep our TCO to a minimum. The ability
to run open-source products, such as Red Hat
Linux on our HP infrastructure, saves
significantly in licensing fees and other
expenses."
About Greenheck Fan Corporation
Bernie and Bob Greenheck founded Greenheck
Fan Corporation (www.greenheck.com) in
Schofield, Wisconsin in 1947. Greenheck
employs more than 1,450 people and is the
leading manufacturer of ventilation equipment
in the United States, with 2002 sales exceeding
$210 million. The company has more than a
million square feet of manufacturing space at
plants in Wisconsin, Kentucky, California,
China.