Fast JobBOSS Production Control Implementation Produces Major Benefits

Poly Hi Solidur (PHS) is a world leader in processing polyolefins, such as UHMW PE (ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene). Polyethylenes are characterised by their supreme toughness, low coefficient of friction and high abrasion and corrosion resistance. Their toughness and slipperiness are widely used to solve wear, slide friction and material flow problems in applications such as bulk goods and handling equipment, conveyor, assembly and artificial knee, hip, shoulder and elbow joints.

The company’s TIVAR brand is creating a growing market in the UK for tipper truck liners. Marketed as QuickSilver, the liners can be fitted in a day and avoid the need for operators to shovel out the sticky remains of a load. They can also handle hot asphalt up to 180°C and keep the load hotter for longer.

Part of the Menasha Corporation, PHS is headquartered in Fort Wayne, USA, and has manufacturing, fabricating and sales facilities worldwide. In the UK, Poly Hi Solidur United Kingdom has a turnover of £4.5 million generated from 800 customers and employs 40 people at premises in Todmorden on the Lancashire/Yorkshire border. Raw material in the form of plastic rod, bar and sheets up to 150mm thick and are shipped from PHS in Germany, and some 15 staff are employed on the shopfloor to machine, profile and fabricate the materials into a variety of products.

Financial Controller Paul Smalley joined the company in 2004 and one of his first tasks was to replace the company’s existing production control package Jobshop. “PHS had been using Jobshop for about seven years but the DOS-based system was no longer supported by the suppliers Huckerby Royall. In addition, management information was difficult to access and we had to constantly re-input data for all the business processes – from quotations, sales, purchase and works orders through to delivery notes and invoices. Another factor was that with the migration of staff at PHS there was a lack of local systems knowledge. We shortlisted packages from K3 Business Technology Group, Exel, Pumasoft, Sanderson and McGuffie Brunton before selecting K3’s JobBOSS system and integrated Sigma accounts to replace a DOS-based Pegasus system.


“Our German and US companies run SAP systems but gave us a free choice in system selection, and JobBOSS accommodates a link to the SAP systems which we use for purchasing materials. We first saw JobBOSS in an IT Showcase magazine article and it appealed to us because, unlike many systems on the market, it supports our manufacturing and distribution activities rather than one or the other. It is also Microsoft approved and keenly priced on a modular basis and, as we mainly needed basic scheduling rather than full MRP, was ideal for us. JobBOSS’s lot-tracking and traceability module was also critical for the medical side of our business.”

In order to achieve a fast and successful implementation PHS took the prudent decision to invest as much in training, consultancy and professional services as in JobBOSS and Sigma software. The company also purchased a dedicated SQL server and upgraded a number of PCs throughout the company.

K3 consultant David Lloyd and Paul Smalley’s team held a one-day planning meeting to decide on details such as training needs, data transfer requirements and the order of module implementation. After a two-day generic training course by three project managers from finance, sales and production, plus some shorter user training sessions and sample data entry pilots, the system went live in December, 2004 – in real time just three months from signing the contract.

“It was an excellent transition from the old systems,” comments Paul Smalley, “largely because our employees embraced the new system enthusiastically and consultant David Lloyd understood our business requirements and tailored the training and consultancy to suit our needs.

“We have gained some major benefits from the changeover”, adds Paul Smalley. “Management decisions are now supported by live, accurate information available in minutes from Crystal Reports. Previously it either wasn’t available or we had to key in parameters, manipulate data and format it in Excel. This took too long and was not reactive enough for effective business decisions. In the finance area, Crystal Reports is very flexible and can be integrated between any accounts system – in our case Sigma.

“The system has a superb feature for linking attachments, such as CAD drawings to sales, purchase orders and other documents. If a delivery date is changed, for example, the system's auto-linking features automatically changes other processes affected without having to re-input the data. The internal and external notes facilities are also very useful for appending information for other departments and customer special requirements.”

PHS is also reaping many solid benefits just by changing over from DOS to Windows technology. Windows is user-friendly and easy to navigate with the mouse, and there are many familiar Windows features that users find very helpful. These include an intuitive user interface, the ability to multi-task and to have more than one window open at a time. There is also a variety of data search, printing, cut and paste and email functions that weren't available with DOS. Even the basic ‘favorites’ enables users to encompass their own work patterns and workflow.

“JobBOSS has given us much greater visibilty of all activities throughout the company,” says Paul Smalley. “We now have accurate job status information and realistic promise dates on shop loading because the JobBOSS scheduling traffic light facility highlights the overloads and bottlenecks. Labour and material reporting is also very comprehensive and helps to refine our costing model which gives us a clear picture of the profitability of each job.

“The increased visibility will also help us to reduce stock. We carry a large amount because it’s a selling point, but we have to carry out a fine balancing act between availability to customers and high inventory levels. Because the system is 100% live we can balance the two in real time and give customers an instant response over the phone which does win us business.

The company has also achieved benefits due to the Alert Manager module. This automates the process of running reports and proactively informs users and customers by email of the latest status of all areas, based on user-defined criteria. Alert Manager can run any industry standard Crystal Report and email task/action lists on a regular basis in formats such as PDF, Word and Excel. It is very specific and focused on the people who really need the information. Paul Smalley adds: “Alert Manager is a brilliant tool which we use for things like price margin alerts, overdue sales orders and late deliveries. We also use it to calculate the success conversion rate for quotations to sales orders, automatically follow up quotes, and prompt us to analyse why we lost an order so that next time we can focus on problem areas such as price and delivery.”

Paul Smalley comments on some operational details of the system: “JobBOSS is an off-the-shelf system but capable of being customized to a high degree without a high level of IT knowledge. Upgrades to the system are automatic and are free. We also like the concurrent licence system which means you don’t pay for occasional users. We’ve just upgraded from 13 to a 15-users licence although we actually have 25 users. The implementation is still in its infancy and we are discovering benefits as we introduce the modules. Compare that with the old system which, after seven years, was still running in demonstration mode! Phase 2 of the implementation will include a permanent interface with the SAP systems in Germany and the US.”



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NOTES TO EDITORS:
K3 is a publicly quoted company (London: KBT.L) and was formed out of the Enterprise Resource Planning software division of Kewill Systems just after 2000. As software authors for ERP and accounting software, K3 has a turnover of circa £10m and has approximately 1600 customers in the UK and abroad. SmartVision CRM, based on the standard Microsoft CRM application, is a product specifically developed for the manufacturing and supply chain industries over and above standard Microsoft CRM.

K3, a Strategic Microsoft Partner, is currently embedding its manufacturing ERP software SmartVision with the standard Microsoft CRM to develop a combined suite of CRM and ERP web-enabled applications. In addition, K3 is able to provide consultancy, project management, training, bespoke software services and systems integration. For more information please visit www.k3btg.com





FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Richard Thomas
Marketing Director
K3 Business Technology Group plc
Case House
85-89 High Street
Walton on Thames
Surrey
Tel: 01932 251600
E-mail: richard.thomas@k3btg.com