When it comes to the Sarbanes-Oxley act of 2002, the key to compliance at Master Lock Co. is integrated systems. Master Lock, the world's largest padlock maker, sells more than 50 million padlocks a year. The Milwaukee-based company is a subsidiary of Fortune Brands Inc., in Lincolnshire, Ill.

While many companies struggle with the documentation requirements of the act, Master Lock had a head start because of the company's ISO-compliant status. The International Standards Organization requires that corporations document quality management and process control systems to gain certification at manufacturing sites.

"ISO is as big or an even bigger documentation effort than Sarbanes-Oxley, so we had a lot of Sarbanes-Oxley taken care of from a documentation standpoint," said Richard Kolaczewski, vice president of finance and IS at Master Lock. "We rolled off of our ISO projects in 2001 and 2002 and went straight into Sarbanes-Oxley, which worked out perfectly for us."

In the mid-1990s, Master Lock decided to tear out its antiquated supply chain systems and launch a massive project to expand its supply chain globally while standardizing its front- and back-end systems on Oracle Corp.'s E-Business Suite 11i. Master Lock is currently running Oracle's Entry, Receivables, Inventory, General Ledger, Manufacturing, Procurement and Fixed Assets applications.

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