Water Tecnik Ltd, based in Camlough, Co. Down, designs and manufactures industrial effluent treatment systems. When the company was founded in 2014, they used a combination of spreadsheets and paper-based systems, which Seamus McAleenan, Engineering Manager, noted caused headaches: “When we started the company we only had three employees and really had no system. A lot of it was handled with spreadsheets and in people’s heads. We were having problems such as ‘have we ordered stock’, had it been delivered, and our Bills of Materials were really non-existent.”
Although they started with manual processes, the aim was always to quickly implement an MRP system, using their existing processes as a template. Added Seamus: “We all knew that we needed a system because even though we were very small, we knew from experience in other companies that things could get quickly out of control.”
Staff were already aware of 123insight and called local dealer QMS Insight to attend an Evaluation Workshop, conducted by Drew McCoubrey. This allowed them to get answers to all of their questions; “From the Evaluation Workshop we quickly knew that the system met all of our needs, and the subscription model was also very attractive. We’re a small company with limited resources. We’re trying to get established, so the idea that we could just subscribe to seats as we needed them fitted the bill. As our MD, Adam Mackin said at the time, there was no heavy sales pressure and no large initial outlay.”
Water Tecnik registered for 123insight in January 2016 and booked to attend training with QMS Insight. Staff were very impressed with the training, said Seamus: “Training was second to none. Drew was available to answer queries anytime and always gave an in-depth answer to any query we had. If he couldn’t give an answer straight away, he was always back the same or next day with an answer.”
The company also took advantage of 123insight’s remote installation, at just £295, whereby 123 Insight staff connected to Water Tecnik’s server remotely, installed the 123insight system, and then connected and configured it to Water Tecnik’s SQL Server database.
Implementation took around a month, with the majority of work relating to data entry. Said Seamus; “Our main initial task was to get the system loaded with our parts. We brought a student in to help us with that. From having no experience with 123insight she quickly got to grips with it, and was able to put all of our existing parts onto the system, followed by all of our suppliers, customers, the parts we had in stock at that time, etc.”
Just a month after registering for the software Water Tecnik went live across all departments. Instantly, they saw significant benefits, especially in purchasing. Said Seamus: “The day we went live was a revelation. We were able to run MRP and have a list of works orders, a list of purchase orders and just tick the button and enact the purchase orders, which would then fire off emails to each supplier. Brilliant! Just to give an example, when we ran 123insight on a project we found that the ordering process which previously would have taken me 2-3 days now took around 5-10 minutes. I would say across the company 123insight will have saved us probably a day a week in terms of chasing after orders, checking stock, and making sure that stock was available for guys in the workshop.”
Stock control also saw benefits, which had a knock-on effect of improving the accuracy of lead times. Seamus noted: “We have a better visibility of our stock and suppliers lead times, which helps us to give our customers a more accurate and, where possible, reduced lead time. Before, we’d have 30 of one component we didn’t really need, and only 3 of a component that we really needed. Now, we set our minimum stock quantities and when we run MRP we are able to order and ensure that our minimum amounts are always available.”
Having accurate BOM information has also been instrumental in improving lead times: “It’s the old adage of garbage in, garbage out. The more accurate our system is, the more accurate our predictions of lead times to our customers are going to be.”
Document linking has greatly assisted Water Tecnik in keeping paper usage to a minimum: “Another huge benefit is that we have a complete database with all of our drawings linked to our parts. We’ve got manuals from suppliers, so when we produce a purchase order, all of our drawings are attached to that purchase order and sent to our suppliers at the click of a button. If we have to look up a manual for a pump, for example, we have it on the system attached to a part. We don’t have a library of suppliers catalogue, and it’s greatly reduced the amount of paperwork we have to handle.”
On the few occasions that Seamus has needed support he’s been pleasantly surprised in comparison to his experience of previous software vendors; “Other companies often use a queuing system where they give you a ticket number and get back to you maybe within a couple of days. What we like about 123insight is that whenever we’ve lifted the phone we were through to someone on the Help Desk that could give us an answer. If they couldn’t give us an answer straight away they’d let us know a time when they could.”
123insight’s scalable licensing has also proven beneficial. Seamus noted “At times, as any business does, you come across downturns, and we were able to scale down our number of licences. As business picked up we were able to get those licences back online and get up to strength again.”
A year later, Water Tecnik entered local business awards and were joint winners as a direct result of their successful implementation of 123insight: “Our local council had their inaugural business awards, with one category being ‘Excellence in Manufacturing’. It was geared towards any company that had used IT to improve their efficiency in manufacturing. So, based on having the confidence that 123insight had improved the efficiency of our business, we entered ourselves and were lucky enough to jointly win the category alongside a fairly large local company. ”
Having relocated to a larger facility, tripling production staff to handle new production machinery and seeing growth in business since the award, Water Tecnik have ambitious plans for the future. Seamus concluded: “Moving to larger premises has enabled us to take on bigger contracts. This means larger bills of materials, more purchase orders, and more works orders. We will expand 123insight as the business grows. I could confidently say that we could triple or quadruple our turnover without employing any more admin staff to look after stock, purchase orders, etc. For Water Tecnik, 123insight has been a very worthwhile investment because of the subscription model. The return we’ve got for the outlay has been fantastic.”
Key Benefits:
Raising POs for large orders reduced from 2-3 days to 5-10 minutes
Live in one month
Much more accurate costing and stock
Won local business award due to savings made
Document linking reduces paper usage
Saving one day per week for general admin tasks
Can handle 300%/400% growth with same admin staff