Read how precision engineer Tarvin Precision used E-Max MRP software to organise their workflow & trace parts & orders to win new contracts & expand

Case Study

 

Tarvin Precision, a precision engineering company servicing scientific, aerospace, automotive and defence industries, needed to organise their workflow and trace parts and orders to win new contracts and expand. Their paper-based system, in conjunction with a Sage accounts package, couldn’t provide enough information to help them efficiently plan for new orders.

E-Max was installed at Tarvin in 2016 and has enabled Tarvin Precision to achieve greater levels of efficiency, manufacturing control and traceability. Ultimately E-Max has made it possible for Tarvin to obtain and retain new customers in regulated industries such as defence.

With E-Max, Tarvin Precision has been able to:

– track and record every item going through their factory

– know their capacity and use this information to increase workflow

– gain transparency of cost and profitability of every manufactured item

 

About the Client

 
Tarvin Precision is a high performing precision engineering company that offers a quality service to companies in the Aerospace and Defence industries. Their dedication to producing high quality, precision CNC machined and assembled solutions, from singular be-spoke components to large batch quantities, has enabled them to play a key role in the supply chain of many leading businesses, including Eurofighter Typhoon, Lockheed Martin JSR F35, Airbus, Rolls Royce and Bombardier. Tarvin Precision has also long been a supplier of components and parts to niche industries such as scientific instrument manufacturers, for whom the top quality components produced by Tarvin Precision are an absolute necessity to ensure highest level performance of their instruments.

The company has been in business since 1995 and, in 2012, following significant investment in premises, plant and infrastructure, relocated to Flintshire at the heart of the North East Wales aerospace industry. The company is family owned and operated and last year enjoyed a turnover of £2 million.

 

The Challenges

 
Like many smaller engineering companies, with fewer than 20 employees, Tarvin were using a Sage accounts package in combination with a paper-based system to run orders through the company. Although this enabled them to successfully get their jobs out the door, this system didn’t give the engineers at Tarvin enough quality information to enable them to plan for forthcoming projects.

Some of the key problems they faced were:

– having zero idea of their capacity

– an inability to schedule work orders

no traceability for parts and orders

This lack of knowledge was restricting Tarvin’s development as the company recognised that without a better system of organising their workflow and having the ability to trace parts and orders, they would be unable to take on contracts within certain industries.

 

The Solution

 
After a rigorous selection process, in March 2016 Tarvin Precision made the decision to implement E-Max’s ERP system. This would provide them with the functionality they required to take on new contracts and build a wider customer base across additional industries.

As with many companies, the price of the software was an important factor in their final decision and the team felt that the range of functionality and features within E-Max software offered greater value than other systems they had reviewed.

Coming from a mainly paper-based system, the implementation and crossover period needed to be carefully managed by both Tarvin Precision and E-Max Systems. Tarvin had many different parts which needed to be added and built on the new system and regular testing was undertaken to ensure these were all logged accurately at the outset to avoid errors or duplication after implementation. After an initial testing period, during which E-Max was run in parallel with Tarvin’s existing system, in September 2016, the old system was switched off and all orders were put through E-Max.

Several months after the move to E-Max, Tarvin Precision chose to introduce E-Max’s capacity planning and scheduling modules. This gave the team a greater understanding of their shop floor capacity and ensured they were optimizing the amount of activity on the production side.

 

The Benefits

 
Tarvin Precision started to see the benefits of having an enquiry to invoice ERP system at once.

Josh Harris, Engineering & Planning Manager at Tarvin Precision, notes “E-Max has allowed the identification and progression of jobs through the factory to become smoother.” As a result of this, available capacity can now be easily identified and more work can be scheduled in, with minimal downtime.

Traceability was also a big advantage for Tarvin, with all parts now fully traceable and trackable throughout the entire production process. The level of detail recorded and stored in E-Max’s software opened up multiple new opportunities for Tarvin. These included the acquisition of a new customer, which provided a 10% increase in annual sales, and also enabled Tarvin to start submitting tenders for defence companies, including one which manufactures vehicles for the UK military.

Putting together a bill of materials (BOM) became an easy task. E-Max’s BOM stores all previous work activities, including routes, templates, calculations, sub-contractor details, existing materials. Any of these can be accessed in an instant and used to create a new BOM. This saved significant amounts of time for the production team, freeing up their time to work on concurrent jobs on the shop floor.

Purchasing was also an area which was much improved. As E-Max’s ERP system collects information from all areas of the company, including the quote, the actual sales order and the BOM and feeds this information into the purchasing area, so that required materials can be ordered.

Josh’s favourite feature of E-Max is “the ability to see a part’s history from one place”. E-Max stores every transaction that a part has been involved in. These range from dates a part was manufactured, when it was transferred into stock, issued to a job, returned from a works order into stock and more. Every transaction against a part is recorded in one area and is easily accessible. Any of these transactions can be copied in one click and used when creating a new BOM.

But Josh explains the most important benefit for Tarvin has been that “E-Max has given us the ability to monitor job progress and to manage the part costings for us to see what makes the money.”  E-Max ERP provides transparency across costings and has given Josh and his colleagues a true understanding of profitability levels across items. This information allows Tarvin to decide which jobs should be prioritised and even which contracts should be bid on.

  

The Results

 
Since implementing E-Max ERP, Tarvin have been able to apply for contracts in the defence and aerospace industries which they previously would not have been eligible to apply for.

The company has continued to enjoy steady growth, made possible in part by the addition of E-Max’s software. The implementation of E-Max enabled Tarvin to gain quality certification from one customer, leading to additional orders from that company.

Josh states “E-Max has given us the opportunity to reflect on our internal procedures and make specific changes to aid the smooth running of our systems.” By streamlining their processes and providing the ability to capture key information, E-Max has helped Tarvin achieve their growth targets.

E-Max has enabled Tarvin Precision to:

– track and record every item going through their factory

– know their capacity and use this information to increase workflow

– gain transparency of cost and profitability of every manufactured item

Josh sums up what E-Max has meant to Tarvin, “One of the most important investments since the company relocated to Flintshire has been the E-Max system. This enabled us to achieve greater levels of efficiency, manufacturing control and traceability. Due to the nature of our customers’ orders there is a high variety in the work we produce, so being able to track and monitor the through put has significantly changed the dynamic of the company, increasing productivity and being instrumental in our expansion into the Aerospace and Defence sector

So would Josh recommend E-Max to other precision engineering companies? “Definitely! It’s an affordable system that will enable any company to get better organisation of their internal procedures.”

 

For more information on how E-Max has helped other clients achieve their goals, read more of our case studies. If you’d like to find out how E-Max can help your business, why not give us a call on 0141 644 4424email us or schedule a free, no obligation demo of E-Max ERP.