A family-owned manufacturer of commercial and domestic flue systems is expecting to significantly improve efficiency for more than 200 workers, and launch a new online ordering service, after investing in a fully integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution from K3 Syspro.
Midtherm Flue Systems, which is the only British-owned major producer of flue systems, has invested in SYSPRO 7, complete with K3 Syspro’s own Equator HR application, shopfloor data collection, barcode scanning, and the SYSPRO Espresso mobile solution. SYSPRO 7 will replace an ageing accounting system and will eventually be rolled out across the entire family-owned Midtherm group, being implemented throughout multiple sites, across its flue, laser cutting, powder coating, catering equipment, and subcontract engineering businesses.
As a seasonal business, Midtherm experiences huge demand during winter months for its heating products. By utilising SYSPRO’s forecasting and warehousing modules, the company will be able to better prepare for peaks in demand, and sustain healthy order books all year round. SYSPRO’s automation functionality will reduce manual forecasting and stock management processes, saving the business up to 20% of each employee’s time a year for everybody working in the firm’s administration and office departments. This functionality will also enable Midtherm to launch online ordering, enabling it to respond more quickly to customers and provide real time updates on the progress of deliveries.
Richard Andrews, Director at Midtherm Flue Systems, explained: “A key criteria during the selection process was reporting functionality, and SYSPRO provides this in abundance. By gaining greater visibility of information throughout the business, we can analyse spending trends, exercise greater stock and inventory control, and ensure that we are always in a position to respond quickly and efficiently to our customers, across the Midtherm group.
“Many orders we receive are placed out-of-hours so by launching an online ordering system, we will be able to automate out-of-office ordering and make life easier, both for our customers, and for ourselves.”
Another important part of the selection process was finding a scalable solution that would support company growth, and ensuring that any ERP partner would be available to support the business over a number of years to help Midtherm get the most out of its ERP investment.
Richard Andrews continued: “It is not uncommon to purchase software and then find that the business you have bought from has been acquired by a major investor and all of a sudden, you are dealing with completely different people. K3 Syspro has a thirty-year track record, so we are confident that we can build a long term relationship with their people, which isn’t likely to change or be disrupted. The communication we have with them has been excellent and we are confident that we have selected the right long term partner to aid our future business growth.”
The SYSPRO 7 solution will be implemented on premise and supported by Midtherm’s in house team. The company is expecting to go live with the new solution in its flue systems business by July 2015, before rolling it out across the entire group.
