It’s hard to believe but 20 years have passed since Emilio Fazzi and Charles Kerr officially launched E-Max Systems in September 1998 to an unsuspecting world.
Starting off as a mere two man band, E-Max Systems is now a thriving software provider to the engineering and manufacturing industries with a team of 20+ engineers, developers and consultants. Our flagship product, E-Max ERP, a feature-rich manufacturing enterprise resource planning system, and its predecessor, RM6, are now used in over 300 companies across the UK and internationally.
E-Max ERP is the result of many years collaboration with our customers, understanding what exactly they wanted in their MRP and ERP software and developing functionality that really benefitted these manufacturers, engineers and fabricators.
E-Max Systems – a software story
Emilio, Managing Director of E-Max Systems, recalls “We set out to develop a quality MRP system for small to medium sized engineers and manufacturers. My background is engineering and I knew how the companies I worked for had struggled to find MRP software that really did what they needed it to do.”
“When we launched, there were some MRP software options available but these tended to be aimed at large manufacturers with big budgets and seemed to be pretty inflexible, for example, most of the packages were directed at companies who manufactured their own products – not companies that manufactured to customer order. Our approach was to give customers exactly what they wanted so that a customer’s long established and successful working practices could be computerised.”
Emilio continues “Our initial MRP system, E-Max 282, had a good range of functionality, including bill of materials, quotes, sales order processing, works orders and purchasing. We continued to build on that with regular releases, adding in features like foreign currency and quality control, with full traceability and non-conformance reporting.”
“After rolling out E-Max 282, we focused on Shop Floor Data Collection (SFDC), which was developed in conjunction with several of our make-to-order customers. It’s crucial that job costing is accurate and our SFDC has really helped many of our customers get a handle on actual costs. This allows them to work out profit margins and provide accurate quotes quickly.”
Adding value with capacity planning & scheduling
Technical Director, Charles, notes that “Capacity planning and scheduling functionality was a regular request, even from day one, so we were keen to develop this. This was one of our biggest projects over the years and took a huge effort from the team to get it right. Scheduling alone is a very complex issue. There’s so many variables and conditions that need to be considered when analysing data to work out when jobs can be done.”
“It was worth it though as it’s one of the most well-regarded aspects of our software. Our customers love it as it reduces downtime and saves them so much in overtime. One of our customers used it to end overtime completely, saving thousands every month. They can also use it to see when machines, etc, are not in use and get their sales teams out there, selling that capacity to key customers at preferential rates.”
From MRP to ERP
Once E-Max Systems had cracked the MRP system (although the team continue to add features as different needs arise), Emilio, Charles and the team responded to the demand from customers for a fully functional ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system.
The CRM (Customer Relationship Management) was the first element of the ERP software to be developed. This enabled E-Max Systems’ customers to easily take an enquiry through to quote and then onto the actual production of the job, raising works orders, sales orders and purchase requisitions, producing BOM and route cards before despatching the job.
Human Resources (HR) features were added, followed by accounts “We knew it was important for our customers to get paid!” laughs Emilio. “As we began to receive more and more enquiries from a wider range of companies, we also made the decision to include additional mobile warehousing, APIs to courier websites and other logistics features to our inventory module. This was particularly useful to our customers in distribution.”
Future development
In amongst the development of E-Max ERP, E-Max Systems opened offices in two new locations, Darlington and Perth, Australia, as well as relocating their Head Office to (appropriately enough) a Technology Park in Glasgow.
“And now we’re celebrating 20 years of E-Max Systems! It’s certainly been a journey – like our customers, we’ve seen some difficult times, including the downturns in the economy following the tragic events of 9/11, the GFC and most recently Brexit but we’ve also enjoyed many fantastic years.”
And the future? “We’re continually developing our software and have some exciting plans for the future. We’re currently working on the development of a Cloud-based version of E-Max ERP,” advises Charles. “This will be capable of running as a stand-alone product or in sync with our existing On-Premise version which we are committed to developing and supporting.”
“We’ve got some specific ideas on what features and functionality should be included in E-Max ERP going forward but we encourage our customers to let us know anything they’d like to see in the software. That way, we are confident we can continue to provide the best ERP system for manufacturing and engineering SMEs.”
The last word goes to Andrew Whitham, Director of Brooks Limited, a long term customer of E-Max Systems, “We’ve worked with E-Max for over 15 years now and have always found them to be helpful and innovative in resolving any issues we’ve come up against. Their software has helped us streamline processes and save on costs. We’ve also been able to take on new clients in industries we previously wouldn’t have been able to operate in. E-Max been a massive benefit to us.”
To find out more about E-Max ERP and how it can help transform your company, take a look at our website, contact us on 0141 644 4424 or drop us an email. You can also book a free demo with us to see our manufacturing ERP system in action.
