Manufacturing Control Beyond Excel
Ezystak Conveyors manufactures specialist conveyors and associated equipment for the mining, quarry, gravel and waste recycling industries.
The business was using Excel spreadsheets to manage manufacturing, creating time-consuming processes, manual error risk, and limited visibility into stock, materials, and work in progress.
Qi implemented Cim50 Manufacturing for Sage 50 Accounts, including stock control, bills of materials, planning, quotations and works orders. The result was better production planning, fewer stock shortages, stronger purchasing decisions and time savings of more than an hour a day for the Operations Manager.
The Challenge
Ezystak were using Excel spreadsheets to run their manufacturing operation, which was both time consuming and left them open to manual errors and incomplete information.
Key Requirements:
- An operational Bill of Materials to provide detailed material costs and to enable global changes.
- Accurate stock records that could reflect current and future requirements to ensure that production was planned efficiently.
- Manufacturing software that would accommodate the manufacture of standard components, finished items and bespoke finished items.
- The ability to track work in progress to satisfy piece working payment practices for some production lines.
- A solution that interfaced efficiently with Sage 50 Accounts from a vendor committed to ongoing development.
The Solution
Cim50 Manufacturing for Sage 50 Accounts
As this solution is suitable for mixed mode manufacturing, interfaces with Sage 50 Accounts and offers shop floor data capture, Qi demonstrated and discussed with key project managers how a deployment would move Ezystak away from Excel spreadsheets and meet their current and future requirements.
Modules deployed: Stock Control, Bill of Materials, Planning, Quotations, Works Orders.
Whilst Ezystak is based in Northern Ireland and Qi is based in Bedfordshire, Sage UK recommended Qi to Ezystak due to its 27+ years’ experience working with Sage 50 Accounts and suitable MRP solutions, and its proven track record in deploying projects using only remote services.
The Outcome
Customer Service
Ezystak no longer need rely on Excel spreadsheets and now no longer experience stock shortages which keeps their production plan on schedule, their profit margins sound and — most importantly — their customers very satisfied with the accuracy in lead times quoted.
Good Purchasing Decisions
Using Cim50 has ensured that Ezystak are now buying their materials in the best way possible, making the most of bulk discounts and minimising carriage costs.
Time Savings
Using a central MRP system rather than Excel spreadsheets has saved the Operations Manager in excess of an hour a day — roughly half a working week per month — which can now be redeployed managing other operational aspects of the Ezystak supply chain.