Access Supply Chain provides cutting-edge formation for Thermotec

Emley, UK - 7th January  2008 - Company-wide visibility and improved data accuracy are just two of the benefits anticipated by vacuum-forming specialist Thermotec Plastics, now that it has ordered a new ERP system from Access Supply Chain.

Component manufacturer, Thermotec Plastics of Witton, Birmingham, is a vacuum-forming specialist, which counts many large automotive and construction equipment manufacturers among its customer base, including Aston Martin and JCB. The company makes components ranging from small items such as ashtrays through to large wheel arch liners, from materials such as ABS and polypropylene.

Formerly part of the Sertec Group, the company was bought out in July 2006 and began trading as Thermotec Plastics. At the same time, it decided to look for a new ERP solution to help drive the business forwards. For Thermotec, technical excellence and exceptional service are a given. It had to find a system that could mirror these attributes and which would support it going forward. After investigation of the market, Thermotec narrowed the choice to two suppliers: "Access Supply Chain won the day on several counts," says operations director Rob Parsons. "The system seemed much more flexible and user-friendly, it was better value for money and their people really understood what we wanted to do with the solution."

As part of the 10-user system implementation, Thermotec Plastics is installing data capture centres on the shopfloor - touchscreens which will enable operatives to have instant access to job specifications, and which will give the management team an immediate view of work in progress at any point.

The implementation project is underway: both Thermotec and Access Supply Chain are setting the scope for the project, which will be piloted in phases. Parsons is looking forward to the planned go-live date of April 2008: "Once this system is up and running, we will be able to view data that is relevant, accurate and which has only been keyed in once. We won't need separate spreadsheets to gather information and we'll be able to compare material and job costings, for example, at the push of a button," he says.

For Thermotec Plastics, zero-defect quality has to be top priority and the new software will underpin process improvements across the board: "Access Supply Chain will run everything from cradle to grave: from order processing, through shopfloor data capture, finished goods despatch and beyond."

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ASC.070108.LS.Thermotec