We were checking in with one of our customers recently when an interesting point came up in the conversation. “Having E-Max is like having a crystal ball,” said Adam Stockport, Planning & Assurance Manager of QA Weld Tech.
Good to hear but we couldn’t leave a statement like that unexplored! So we asked Adam to elaborate on what he meant.
“One of our key markets is the Oil & Gas sector. Whilst this industry has faced some challenging times since the GFC in 2008, QA WeldTech really hadn’t been adversely impacted by the downturn or the issues that arose from it. Our order books were full and the company was experiencing solid growth, year on year. In fact, we were taking on so many orders that we realised we needed to improve our processes and become more efficient, which is why we implemented E-Max back in 2012,” advised Adam.
“E-Max was great in that it gave us a real competitive edge. We knew exactly where we were with all our orders, we reduced our duplication and streamlined business processes, especially on the admin side, which meant we could offer our customers an even better service than before. But the real benefit – and one of the reasons we were able to navigate our way through a very difficult period – is the insights it gave us into the future.
“Because we work on major projects that take months to deliver, many of our orders are received six months or longer in advance of starting production. Like any company in this area, we need to plan ahead for these, with materials, labour and resource. We may need to subcontract certain aspects depending on volume of work.
“Towards the end of 2017, we started to notice a trend – our order books were not at capacity and actually the volume of orders we were receiving were down quite significantly. Having this knowledge in advance allowed us to react to the downturn and plan ahead by making key decisions around re-structuring, reducing labour and our purchasing of materials.
E-Max ERP gives you visibility across your business
“If we hadn’t had such clarity on our future activities, potentially we could have faced some real challenges within the business. E-Max allowed us to predict our cashflow and take necessary action so that we could continue trading,” Adam continued.
“The visibility E-Max gave us meant it really was like having a crystal ball. I’m pleased to say that that’s all behind us now, the Oil & Gas sector is performing strongly again and there’s a lot of optimism in that industry for the future. Our order books are very healthy – although we’re always happy to take on more business!”
Future proof your business
We’re always glad to hear how E-Max software has helped our customers. Adam and QA WeldTech used E-Max’s functionality to predict their cashflow but there’s also other aspects of E-Max ERP that can be used to help future proof your company. E-Max ERP will:
– accurately forecast when materials need to be in stock, so you don’t need to hold expensive stock for any longer than necessary. If costly materials are ordered months out and are held (unpaid) in your warehouse, your cash is tied up and adversely impacting your cashflow.
– forecast and predict resource requirements, both labour and machines. E-Max ERP lets you know who you need to have available to work and when they are required, meaning that you can plan to avoid expensive overtime and minimise downtime of machines or workcentres.
– perform sales and invoice forecasting so that you know what needs to be paid and when you will be paid for each job. Being able to predict your outward and inward cashflow is crucial for the success of your business.
Looks like having ERP as a crystal ball is a very handy tool! If you’d like to find out more about this and what else E-Max can do for your manufacturing or engineering business, please take a look at our website, give us a call on 0141 644 4424 or email us. We also offer no-obligation demonstrations of E-Max at times convenient to you, so let us know if you’d like to take advantage of this.
QA Weld Tech is an award winning Specialist Welding and Engineering company based in Middlesbrough, UK. The company offers a flexible and responsive service based around outstanding QHSE, technical excellence and innovation, and has a track record of successful project delivery for clients around the world. Working across the Oil and Gas, Power Generation, Nuclear and Renewable industries, QA Weld Tech offers a turnkey service for the fabrication of flowloops, high pressure pipework and valve stands in Super Duplex, alloy steel and Inconel clad pipe materials.
