Marlor Tooling is a tool regrinding specialist which helps companies improve the performance and reduce spend on precision cutting tools as well as improve processing times. For over 40 years the company has been involved with engineering, however in 2002 the company focused on manufacturing and regrinding exclusive cutting tools for various industries including automotive, aerospace, oil and gas and general engineering.
In a recent visit to Berkeley Myles Solutions, Kevin Taylor, Managing Director of Marlor Tooling was interviewed on why he chose ProgressPlus to help manage his operations.
Since 2002 Marlor Tooling has used manufacturing software to help manage their business processes. Recently, Marlor Tooling felt frustration with this manufacturing software vendor. Kevin Taylor said: “our previous manufacturing software supplier wasn’t giving us what we needed. We felt the company wasn’t interested in giving us the support and functionality we requested – we know this wasn’t just us, it was other users as well.”
The other solution Marlor Tooling used was called Match-IT. Kevin said: “Our previous system was very admin intensive so some processes were bypassed and due to some of its inefficiencies it forced us to manually load the shop floor. For example, the racking in our factory was organised by customer, we noticed staff going to the racks and were prioritising by customer and ease of the job – not the delivery date! The result was that we were early 50% of the time and late 50% of the time. We wanted a system that was not biased and managed on delivery dates.”
99 Problems But My New Software System Isn’t One
Marlor Tooling felt its old provider, had 100 little problems rather than one big problem. Kevin commented: “visually the previous system was dated and it didn’t inspire people due to its grey background with black text. ProgressPlus system is colour coded, which drives employee adoption as you can instantly see when sales order have been delivered or invoiced.”
The previous system was resource intensive for Kevin: “it took up a lot of my time helping people or fixing things. For example, an approved invoice could be undone and amended. This caused issues as we found if employees made a mistake they would try and get out of it, in turn making more mistakes.”
No requirement for complicated software
Marlor Tooling felt some of the features in the old system meant you had to be a genius to decipher. Kevin said: “The scheduling system in our previous system was stunning, they won a SMART award for it. It is incredibly clever however you have to be incredibly clever to use it. We didn’t use it as we needed it simplified.”
Marlor Tooling believed Match-IT was dealing with problems that were not an issue for their company and only made it more complicated for users. Kevin said: “we kept requesting updates, some not so difficult, but they weren’t issued. On their last update they were really excited with it. If you planned an order for 100 but only had material for 40 the system would automatically split it for you. I thought that is really clever, but I didn’t want it and it’s no use to me. I believe they were putting what they wanted into the system rather than what the users needed.”
Kevin also experienced issues with lack of support from their previous software vendor: “In the beginning, you would ring up and get put through to someone. However, now you need to submit a support ticket and they will ring you back in 48 hours, if it an emergency they will ring you back in 4 hours. One time, I waited 2 days but I was out the office when they called back. I was then told to submit another support ticket as they felt that a returned my call was an adequate reply.”
A New Manufacturing System
When looking for other suppliers, Marlor Tooling investigated a variety of manufacturing systems such as Insight123, Javelin and ProgressPlus. “What we liked about ProgressPlus was visually it is very Windows like which helps employees buy into it quickly. Our focus was to address the existing admin burden and we wanted a system that will reduce middle management resources by involving and empowering the shop floor more using Shop Floor Data Capture to issue work-to-lists and aid them to be more organised.”
Benefits of an online demo
In the final stages of selection, the choice was down to two. “It came down to ProgressPlus and Insight 123. As we are based in Peterborough the distance between us and ProgressPlus in Scotland could have been an issue but because an online demo offered, it wasn’t. Berkeley Myles Solutions took the negotiations seriously as their MD Tony MacBride carried out the two online demos. In the second demo I involved 6 other people in the decision-making process. With Tony we felt more comfortable and friendlier and in the end, Tony’s personality won it along with us liking the system and Insight123 being more aerospace focused and regimented. Additionally, the fact an online demo was used in the sales process showed us the support can be done that way and we like electronic solutions.”
When asked about the use of ProgressPlus, Kevin said: “it does everything it says on the tin! Everything we want, it does.”
Kevin continued: “there are lots of features pleasing us. Shop Floor Data Capture (SFDC) is perfect, it is a little gem. It is great generating work to lists. We are thinking of putting tablets on every machine to communicate more electronically at the shop floor level. Overall we love its simplicity and it is easier to use.”
ProgressPlus is helping Marlor Tooling plan better and deliver on time. Kevin commented: “For example Mitsubishi Corporation is our biggest customer. Before our analysis of deliveries was 49% early and 51% late. We can see we have the right capacity but we are doing it in the wrong order. ProgressPlus is fixing the process and allowing us to organise the work in the right order.”
Kevin continued “other side benefits includes integration with Sage as well as a specialist modification/bolt on to handle the EDI scheduling assessment requirements and emailing invoices from the system, which we haven’t had before.”
Overall Marlor Tooling is very impressed with Berkeley Myles Solutions. Kevin said: “We like the regular seminars and found it really useful. Berkeley Myles Solutions is open as a company and it is easy to access people. I like to score out of 100 rather than 10. Progress is up at 95 – I don’t give 100% for anything!”