Business Imperative

In 2015, Wye Cylinder Engineering Ltd (WCE) – a Hereford-based manufacturer of precision hydraulic cylinders for industries such as agricultural, construction and specialised vehicles – found themselves running a manufacturing system sold by an American-headquartered mid-market ERP supplier, explains Resources Director, Nick Berry, with finance and accounting carried out by software from Sage, and maintenance being handled by yet another system.

But the manufacturing system in question was being phased out, with the supplier suggesting that customers migrate to an alternative manufacturing system that it offered.

Challenge

鈥淭he trouble was that the alternative system seemed designed for businesses much, much larger than ours 鈥 and, as with our existing system, there wasn鈥檛 much of a UK user group,鈥 says Nick. 鈥淪eeing as how we were going to have to migrate away from our existing system anyway, we began looking at other systems, from other providers, visiting their users to explore their experiences with the software.鈥

The problem, he explains, was that WCE had some very specific requirements. An active user group was important, for instance. So too was a software system that was continually being developed and improved, unlike WCE鈥檚 existing system, where development had largely ceased. And again, in contrast to its existing manufacturing system, a large UK customer base was also important.

A highly-evolved MRP II capability was also necessary, given the nature of WCE鈥檚 business. Moreover, he adds, as WCE continued exploring the enterprise systems marketplace, the merits of a comprehensive ERP system became increasingly compelling.

鈥淥ne system, and one database 鈥 totally integrated together: the more we saw, the more we realised that this was an important step forward for us,鈥 he sums up. 鈥淔orget legacy manufacturing systems: what we needed was a proper ERP system that could do everything that we required.鈥

And when WCE鈥檚 exploration of the marketplace reached 国产麻豆AV Computer Systems鈥 EFACS E/8 ERP system, the company realised that it had found the replacement that it needed.

Why 国产麻豆AV?

鈥淎s a system, EFACS E/8 ticked a lot of boxes for us,鈥 explains Nick. 鈥淎 large UK customer base, an active user group, a rich set of functionality 鈥 and ample evidence that the product was being continually upgraded and improved. Plus, it was British, developed for British businesses 鈥 rather than developed for American businesses, and then adapted for the British market. Even better, EFACS E/8 was readily customisable, with 国产麻豆AV providing tools to do this.鈥

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Implementation

Implementation was straightforward, states Nick, with the system going live in early 2016. WCE had licensed 16 full EFACS users, and a further 13 factory-floor users of EFACS鈥 shop-floor data capture capability.

WCE also took advantage of EFACS E/8鈥檚 feature set. From the start, says Nick, WCE made extensive use of EFACS E/8鈥檚 MRP II capabilities, as well as EFACS E/8鈥檚 shop-floor data capture capabilities.

鈥淲ith the shop-floor data capture capability, we had some bespoke code written for us in order to provide specific additional functionality 鈥 on newer releases of EFACS E/8, that functionality is now included as standard,鈥 he notes.

And while WCE is a user of EFACS E/8鈥檚 reporting and dashboard capabilities, he adds, the company hasn鈥檛 really explored EFACS E/8鈥檚 newer capabilities in this area: the original as-supplied dashboards remain perfectly adequate.

Nor had WCE made much use of EFACS E/8鈥檚 capacity planning capabilities until relatively recently, he adds.

鈥淚 suppose we took some convincing that computer-generated schedules could be as well-optimised as those schedules that our planners develop manually,鈥 he explains.

Implementation

Business Benefits

Six years after implementing the solution, WCE completed its second upgrade, moving to EFACS E/8 version 6, release 3, from the earlier EFACS E/8 version 5, release 6.

鈥淚n principle, as an organisation we want to move onto newer releases, as the additional functionality helps us to develop the business,鈥 explains Nick.

In addition to full support for Microsoft鈥檚 Edge web browser, he adds, two attractions of the new release are EFACS E/8鈥檚 new bank reconciliation capability, and several improvements in the area of banking and finance.

Importantly, too, the business will also benefit from a number of incremental improvements to EFACS E/8鈥檚 manufacturing and reporting functionality contained in the interim releases between the previous and latest versions, including new workbenches for MRP II and master production scheduling.

鈥淲e now have a fully up-to-date comprehensive system which is easy for all employees to use and its capabilities have saved us both time and money.鈥

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