Northern Ireland’s Boyce Precision Engineering (BPE) has transformed its purchasing, stock holding and customer auditing since adopting the Forterro MRP solution, 123Insight, achieving 20% year-on-year growth and reducing stock by 25%.
The County Armagh-based firm provides precision engineering services to companies in the aerospace, defence, pharmaceutical and automotive sectors. It was enjoying rapid growth but knew that its purchasing and stock handling processes – a combination of an in-house-designed database, spreadsheets and paper-based systems – needed overhauling if the company was to grow further.
After a thorough review of the MRP options, BPE selected 123Insight, as Brian Perry, Operations Director, explained: “It simply wasn’t sustainable to grow using the systems we had in place. We already employed two full time admin staff and needed a third. I had seen the 123Insight MRP solution a customer of ours was using and it felt like the perfect fit for our requirements.”
Having decided to use 123Insight, BPE set about examining its data and processes and worked with reseller QMS Insight on an implementation plan. It also mapped out its processes and workflows on paper to ensure the data was MRP-ready.
The company went live just two months after selecting 123Insight. Despite the company relying on many legacy systems for years, the transition to the new way of working was rapid. BPE saw an immediate upturn in visibility and control across all areas, with the process of generating purchase and works orders drastically reduced. Before 123Insight, BPE had two people each spending 39 hours a week raising orders – this is now done in just two hours.
Stock holding also saw significant benefits – with more strategic purchasing, better visibility of forward orders and parts history and by only ordering what it needed, BPE could reduce stock by 25%.
“BPE has always maintained tight control of cash flow, but because of lack of visibility in the existing system, inefficiencies were inevitable,” continued Brian Perry, BPE. “With 123Insight, everything became more discreet, and all the inefficiencies disappeared. Better forward visibility also helped our suppliers, as we no longer placed small orders with urgent lead times. Overall, our stock accuracy is now never less than 98%.”
As BPE predominantly works in the aerospace, defence and medical sectors, it must adhere to strict quality accreditation standards, such as AS9100. 123Insight’s batch traceability functionality means that auditors can be satisfied within minutes.
BPE has now returned to pre-pandemic growth levels of 20% per year, which Brian attributes in no small part to 123Insight: “What I pay in subscription wouldn’t pay an employee on minimum wage and there’s a return on investment every day of the week. 123Insight will easily cope with double the business we’re doing today without needing more people to drive it.”
123Insight is an MRP product from Forterro, a software solutions provider to more than 13,000 small- and mid-sized industrial companies in Europe.
“For smaller companies, an MRP solution can seem like something you can manage without, but BPE is a wonderful example of how a manufacturer can fully digitise and reap the benefits almost immediately,” said Steve Fearon, President, Northern Europe, Forterro. “It’s a company ready for future growth – agile, scalable and highly efficient.”