Pobjoy Mint Ltd
In the heart of the Home Counties lies Pobjoy Mint,
Europe's largest private mint. The family run business manufactures
coins, medals and tokens - ranging from currency for overseas
governments and specialist commemorative coins, to tokens for
casinos, car washes or vending machines.
The challenge
Three years ago, it became apparent that the company's business
software was struggling to keep pace with the operation. It was
clear it wouldn't support the company as it moved forwards. "It was
about future-planning rather than fixing something which was
broken," says managing director, Taya Pobjoy. "We're a relatively
small company but we want to be the leader in our field and we
wanted a system which would help push us into the future, with the
supplier telling us what we should be doing with it rather than us
dictating what we wanted."
Pobjoy's existing system was not Windows based and needed a full
time dedicated IT professional to run it and Taya says they were
just too dependent on his skills and knowledge.
"We wanted a user-friendly system that anybody coming in from
outside would be able to come in and use with little or no
training." Mike Aldridge, production administration manager,
agrees. "Whilst it had served us well, it had really reached the
end of its useful life," he recalls. We had got to the point where
it couldn't support the number of users we needed and people had to
log off so someone else could do their work. Also the system had
become heavily customised, making it more cumbersome and giving us
ever- increasing programming costs."
It's common to find, in situations like this, that people
compensate for inflexible software by running their own 'micro'
systems: "This was certainly what was happening here," says
Aldridge.
"We had some people who kept numbers on spreadsheets, others
kept information on paper or even in their head, so we weren't
always entirely sure what data existed, or where."
This made it incredibly laborious and time consuming to produce
reports for the business.
And without a handle on up-to-date figures, it was becoming more
difficult to ensure that efficiency and service levels continued at
the previously high levels.
"It used to take up to three hours to generate works
orders every day, now it takes half an hour." Mike Aldridge
Production administration manager
Solution
Pobjoy opted for Access Supply Chain after what Mike
calls, "a very professional demonstration." Key staff were asked to
attend demos of a number of systems and to vote for their
favourite. Access Supply Chain and one other were shortlisted and
the Access system was finally chosen on the basis of
price-performance.
Of particular merit was the system's reporting capability, says
Mike: "We could see that the level of data we would have from this
software would enable us to become more efficient across the
business. With our old system, we had to spend a lot of time and
money to get a new report - we could see with Access, that worry
would be removed."
Both Mike and Gill agree that the people from Access Supply
Chain were - and continue to be - impressive. "From the first
person involved in our system set-up, they have all been extremely
helpful and supportive," adds Westbrook. A year on, Gill and Mike
are responsible for the day-to-day running of the system; something
which demands neither all of their time nor specialist IT skills.
Gill's previous systems implementation experience also
allowed her to reassure her MD. "I said that we didn't know how
lucky we were with this system; compared to what I had experienced
before, the implementation ran extremely smoothly."
When the 32-licence system went live, there were only a few
'minor hiccups', all of which were resolved without any
problem.
The transformation has been significant. Access
Supply Chain runs all elements of Pobjoy Mint's operation, from
purchasing, to design, manufacture, despatch, and more. "It's the
central thread running throughout the business," says Mike.
The objective to secure a new, Windows-based system, with added
functionality, was met straight away. More than that, however, it
has given Pobjoy Mint's management team vastly improved visibility
across the business. "We can see, at a glance, whatever we need to
know as managers," says Mike. "This has improved efficiency because
we now have such detailed data at our
disposal. But it's not just the depth of detail, it's the ease with
which we can get at that information."
"For example, it used to take up to three hours to generate works orders
every day; now, with the Access Supply Chain system it only takes
half an hour. And the production scheduling and planning data is
now available at the press of a button," says Gill. "Before, it
took one person more than an hour every morning just to get the
relevant information from all parties and key all that data in
manually."
Another example is the site's annual stock-take. "In the past, when we
returned after Christmas, we would wind down production to allow
everything in the stores area to be bonded and counted," explains
Aldridge. "The stock-take could extend to as much as two weeks,
costly in terms of time and labour. Now, with Access Supply Chain,
we have a running stock check every week; in effect saving us up to
two weeks' lost-production time."
What's more, the company's accountants are very happy and
confident in the data that the system produces. And they need to
be: with such high value inventory the need for pinpoint accuracy
is vital. Pobjoy Mint's precious metal inventory is driven very
much by the price of materials: "Because we have up-to-the-minute
information on inventory, it allows us to plan for and respond to,
fluctuations in the price of precious metals, which can save us a
lot of money," says Mike.
"We've been able to become more efficient, to sharpen our
processes: the MRP reports enable us to set minimum stock limits,
so that we can be confident we're not compromising on service."
Whilst the company still needs support for its IT infrastructure
(something it now outsources), there have been significant savings
in the cost of running the system. "Even allowing for Gill's and
Mike's time, we're better off because the cost of specialist IT
skills and programming alone were more than £100,000 a year -
and we've saved on training too because Gill and Mike are now able
to train new staff on the system themselves," says Taya.
Access Supply Chain has given a new transparency to the
company's production system eliminating stock-outs and improving
performance. Taya says, "We're producing thousands of different
products all the time and you can't go and check that you've got
enough blanks, boxes and certificates in stock every time you put
an order on. Before we had the Access system, we sometimes didn't
find out we'd run out of stock until it was time to ship. Now,
because the system is fully integrated, when you put a new coin on
the system, it immediately checks that you've got what you need -
and if you haven't, it tells you that you need to do something
about it. It's saved us weeks in delays."
Concluding, Taya says; "The system has delivered everything
we've demanded of it so far; we haven't hit a wall with anything
but if ever we did, it is so flexible you can easily add extra
functionality if you need it."
The most obvious benefit of the new system has been the amount
of time saved: now, the information the business needs can be
produced quickly and easily, meaning that decision-making can also
be better and faster. "We work much more efficiently," says Mike.
"We're a relatively small company in terms of headcount, so this
has allowed the expertise we have to be directed to more profitable
activities."
This handy guide covers the end-to-end evaluation, selection and implementation process, raising all the key questions you need to answer before meeting with vendors. With specific information for food manufacturers, this guide also covers the key elements of any good ERP solution.
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