We spoke with Eire Composite’s Procurement Manager, Declan Foran, on their adoption and usage of ProgressPlus. Read on to find out how we managed to blow him away with our software based on its ability and functionality compared to its overall cost.
Eire Composites and their sister company, The CTL Group, are based in Ireland but operate across Europe. While Eire Composites are responsible primarily for the design and manufacture of lightweight, high-performance, fibre-reinforce composites materials, The CTL Group are responsible for testing those composite materials.
When Eire Composites first approached Berkeley Myles Solutions, their dated systems didn’t include inventory management, meaning the employees had the painstaking and laborious task of manually updating stock records. While this was only one issue, the manual process of this issue was “painful” and “it wasn’t workable” said Declan. It was also clear that the current approach to operations ‘wasn’t scaleable’ – Declan stated that these were among the main reasons Eire Composites invested in a new software solution for their operations.
Problems Eire Composites Faced:
- Manual processing of costings, stock allocation, staff management, finance control
- No data captured from processes
- No automation or traceability of work/job orders
- No visibility during annual audits or reporting
Declan stated that the decision to purchase ProgressPlus was that of their Finance Controller, Gerry. Declan told us that ProgressPlus came recommended to Gerry despite shopping around, and it had stood out to him as “for what you’re getting for the price point, Gerry was blown away”.
Since Eire Composites purchased ProgressPlus, it has been Declan’s job to ensure that the business is getting the most from the software and that they are using all the relevant features where possible. The system gave Eire Composites more power to use their data to make decisions and fixed all their previous issues.
“We didn’t have inventory management previously. We didn’t have shop floor data capture either. Those two things alone will give us massive amounts of information,” said Declan. “It’s very rare that I come across something I want to do on ProgressPlus that I can’t”.
While setting up the system, Declan was very hands-on with the product and was more than happy to learn by doing. “one of the things I always do is I’ll always try and do it myself” he stated. “I don’t mind spending a bit of time clicking the wrong buttons as I can quickly find my way back or discover extra useful features I’ve not used yet”. We’re proud of the intuitive nature of ProgressPlus; Declan’s feedback puts into perspective the ease of use and user-friendly interface.
Setting up a new software can be a timely procedure. However, this was no issue for Eire Composites as they knew the rewards of implementing ProgressPlus were too substantial to focus on any potential downtime. “It took us a bit of time to set up, but now that we have it, it allows us to make better decisions when it comes to costing, when it comes to allocating materials or when it comes to purchasing” – stated Declan.
Before implementing our software, employees would have to check stock levels manually; this is something Declan was most pleased about addressing with ProgressPlus. “We can click on something, see when it came in, see the price it came in, all at the click of a button” Declan states with excitement. “That type of thing saves us money and time, and it’s also potentially saving us having to buy something twice because we know it’s here rather than it being somewhere in a corner and no one knows about it.”
The traceability aspects lead to the final significant solutions for Eire Composites, annual audits and reporting. Having a traceable and data-driven software package now allows them to be ‘fairly bulletproof’ when it comes to auditor reports. Declan stated that Gerry has placed his trust in ProgressPlus, and he “doesn’t feel he’s ever been in such a good position coming up to an audit.”
Our trainer, Steven, helped Eire Composites implement ProgressPlus, and they couldn’t be more thankful for the service. “I don’t know how it could be any better. Everything with the support has been top-notch, same with the training as well” said Declan. “There’s just a peace of mind now, across the CEO and across everyone in senior management, that we’ve got something that will work for us for the foreseeable”.
At Berkeley Myles Solutions, we take pride in every step of the journey for all of our clients. We know how essential a fully functioning software is for a manufacturer, be it the initial demo request, decision, implementation, or ongoing support. With our expertise and robust software, we addressed the problems that Eire Composites faced, saving them time and money and increasing their efficiency, traceability and reliability.
Ready to follow in the footsteps of Eire Composites? Request a free, live and interactive demo here.