PeopleFilter sifts through 'resume spam' for best talent: A.J. Antunes uses technology to act globally
Posted: February 8, 2006

BY Sandra Guy Sun-Times Columnist

A.J. Antunes & Co. has all the elements of a quintessential Chicago business: It's a 50-year-old, family-owned manufacturer that earned a claim to fame by making a toaster that browns buns in 10 seconds for fast-food restaurants.

Yet the Carol Stream-based company has stayed a step ahead in today's global age by adopting cutting-edge technology.

The latest example is a software setup that enables A.J. Antunes to work seamlessly with a business partner based in the Netherlands. The partner, Fri-Jado, makes food equipment used by supermarkets and convenience stores.

The software in tech-speak is called enterprise resource planning (ERP), meaning that it provides companies with an electronic backbone so they can run everything from accounting to human resources, and the supply chain to shop-floor production schedules on a unified platform.

The software is made by QAD Inc., a company that specializes in tailoring software for manufacturers. QAD is headquartered in Summerland, Calif., with a local office in Downers Grove. Its other Chicago area customers include Bakery Chef, Caterpillar, Culligan, Hormel, John Crane and JB Sanfilippo & Sons.

A.J. Antunes used QAD's software to meet China's unique accounting rules, which require companies doing business there to write up their financial documents using the renminbi currency, commonly called the yuan.

By using QAD software, A.J. Antunes had only to set up an additional domain within its existing database to comply with China's rules.

A.J. Antunes also used the software on its factory floor to incorporate Fri-Jado's U.S. operations into its own warehousing, purchasing, shipping and receiving work. Fri-Jado already used QAD's software, thus making for a smooth transition.

"The whole Fri-Jado domain was ready to use before we had extended 24 hours of technical time," said Donald Springer, Antunes' IT director.

The partnership, an otherwise cumbersome process, has the additional benefit of enabling the two companies to introduce each other's equipment to new audiences.

Privately held A.J. Antunes, with revenues of less than $50 million, employs 200 in Carol Stream and 20 in Suzhou, China. Forty percent of Antunes' sales are in international markets, with 15 percent in Asia alone. The company is named for its founder, the late August Antunes, whose wife, Virginia, remains the owner and active in its operations. Antunes' daughter and son-in-law, Jane and Glenn Bullock, serve as the director of customer and technical services, and president and CEO, respectively.

A.J. Antunes also has used QAD software to slash three-quarters of the time that the chief production scheduler previously took to plan the company's operations and generate plans and schedules.

The software enabled the production scheduler to see in a single Web screen information that otherwise would require five or six screens to see. The scheduler no longer must page from one spreadsheet or screen to another because he has a single view and can update the information with the click of a button.

"It makes decision-making much easier," Springer said.

Tom Mackey, vice president of the Americas for QAD, said "Companies can be successful making decisions from headquarters here in the United States, even small companies extending the operations overseas."

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