News Room

Media Reports

National Lifelong Learning Award - (Excerpts: ST Recruit & MediaCorpRadio.com, November 8, 2004)
John While Springs (Thailand) Co., Ltd - (For Circulation from Group Chairman, February 2, 2006)
John While Springs uses mySAP ERP - (Excerpts: Straits Times, January 23, 2007)
John While Group Not Related to Australian Entities - (For Circulation from Group Chairman, May 10, 2007)

National Lifelong Learning Award

November 8, 2004

John While Group congratulates our Managing Director being awarded the Singapore National Lifelong Learning Award (Excerpts: ST Recruit & MediaCorpRadio.com, November 8, 2004)

John While Springs (Thailand) Co., Ltd

Established 3rd October 2005

We are pleased to announce the establishment of John While Springs (Thailand) Co., Ltd at Amata Nakorn Industrial Park, in Chonburi.

The fourth manufacturing site of the JW Group will commence operations in the first quarter of 2006. As a leading player in the Asia-Pacific region our proactive initiative to be closer to our customers gives us an opportunity to add value in their market enhancement and geographical expansion. As our customers continue their innovative product design and development we support them through our responsive, flexible as well as creative solutions.

Key market segments in the region (eg. automotive) will challenge us to augment our technical expertise. We are scheduled to attain the essential ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 as well as TS 16949 which will ensure our strategic positioning in this "Detroit of the East".

With the purchase of the latest available technology we can support the most robust requirements of several eminent global players.

We look forward to the many productive and rewarding years ahead.

John While Springs uses mySAP ERP

We are proud to announce that John While Springs (S) Pte Ltd has successfully implemented mySAP ERP for better resource management.

As a player in the global arena, John While Springs (S) Pte Ltd (JWS) faces rapidly changing situations and to compete, it has to consistently upgrade itself and prepare for the future.

"Our industry is global, with international customers, suppliers and competitors. People think of springs as a commodity but after meeting us and better understanding our capabilities they appreciate how we add value to their supply chain," says E. Rhonda Willson, Executive Chairman, JWS.

The company aims to offer a complete business solutions approach, working closely together with its customers from the concept and design of new products through to the delivery of the end product.

The management needs quick and easy access to information about its operations, in order to make the timely business decisions that offer clients value-added services.

With service as a top priority, Ms Willson needed a business solution that could help her turn the large amount of data generated by her company into valuable information so that resource allocation could be done more effectively.

Springing into action

The solution for JWS came in the form of mySAP ERP.

"We got feedback from the ground of SAP's good reputation and that it is a great company. They had a proven track record and are reliable. That's why we chose to go with SAP," says E. Rhonda Willson.

JWS deployed mySAP ERP, incorporating some of the best business practices in channel partner Ledge Consulting's HighTech-One solution. In all, seven SAP modules, FICO (Financials and Cost Controlling), MM (Materials Management), WM (Warehouse Management), QM (Quality Management), SD (Sales and Distribution) and PP (Production Planning) were implemented.

Better resource management

Ms Willson now has a wealth of information on which she can leverage for trending.

"Five years ago, nobody could tell me how many of each type of spring was being made, what the sales figures were for each type of spring, which spring gave the best return on investment. Now with mySAP ERP, we are getting real information about spring manufacturing," says Ms Willson.

On the whole, implementing mySAP ERP has created standardised requirements that make JWS' business operations more disciplined and well managed. The previous system had been less structured, allowing staff to take shortcuts in their work processes. While the workflow appeared shorter, it often meant that the audit trail was more disorganised.

Planning for the future

Impressed with the current benefits from mySAP ERP, Ms Willson hopes to use the new system to sharpen JWS' competitive edge.

Apart from the current forecasting capability, Ms Willson aims to further develop the detailed scheduling of production orders with the help of Ledge Consulting.

The priority is rolling out the SAP solution to JWS' two other manufacturing plants in Shanghai and Bangkok. With mySAP ERP across all its businesses, Ms Willson will be able to get a bird's eye view of the entire business, and make more timely strategic decisions.

Ultimately, mySAP ERP has enabled JWS to streamline its overall business operations, leading to better management of resources, higher productivity and efficiency, and improved customer service levels.

John While Group Not Related to Australian Entities

For Circulation from Group Chairman, May 10, 2007

I would like to advice that the JW Group of Companies which includes:-

John While Springs (S) Pte Ltd;
John While Springs (Shanghai) Co., Ltd and;
John While Springs (Thailand) Co., Ltd

are not subsidiaries of, nor related in any way, to the Australian entities,

John While Springs Pty Ltd - in Liquidation and
Automatic Spring Industries Pty Ltd - in Liquidation.

A previous relationship (the establishment of John While Springs (S) Pte Ltd in 1979) was disolved in 1990 when the present owners bought the Singaporean Corporation.

Email: webmaster@jwsprings.com