Enabling growth for specialised and custom manufacturers

Ask some hard questions

There are any number of reasons that your current systems could be detrimental to the growth of your manufacturing business. Key to understanding this is recognising that you need a solution that’s capable of managing the complexities of what you do – your workflows aren’t rinse-and-repeat.

If you’ve been worrying that your business is stagnating, and that you seem to be working longer hours without anything to show for them, you and your management team need to sit down and consider the following:

1. Should we be hiring more staff to cope with demand?
   One of the most common problems custom manufacturers face is when their staffing is at capacity, but they’re wondering if there are smarter ways to deal with an increase in demand than simply adding more people. If your employees are feeling burnt out and overworked, their productivity is going to decline and this will be reflected in the quality of the customised products you’re manufacturing. What’s needed is a solution that streamlines your workflows, thereby reducing the stress on your team.
2. Do we have proper documentation around processes?
   This is a problem that often crops up when someone’s on leave, or moving on, and all the processes around their role are locked in their head, not documented. It’s essential to have clearly defined processes that are available to everyone through documentation.
3. Are we using too many workarounds?
   What happens when issues crop up around busy times – and most custom manufacturers are busy all the time – is that issues are temporarily resolved with a workaround that will fall apart under increased pressure. In the custom manufacturing industry, processes are developed organically, and sometimes they’ll be at odds with your current software, meaning you’re not maximising or properly utilising what you have.
4. Are customers and suppliers demand increasing?
   Ask yourself if you and your team are spending more and more time dealing with customers and suppliers demands around core processes like reconciliation, shipping and invoicing. You want to avoid devoting chunks of precious time to admin tasks that don’t generate extra revenue.
5. Are we making too many mistakes?
   A few errors are inevitable, but if you find yourself spending too much time chasing them up – the wrong product was shipped, the pricing was incorrect, the quality assurance wasn’t up to scratch – then the end result will be you wasting time correcting those errors and damaging your bottom line by having to issue refunds and replacements.

If you’ve answered ‘yes’ to any of the above, then your business growth is being hampered by out-dated systems. Not only that, but your staff are growing increasingly frustrated, your customers are losing confidence in you, and your profits are being impacted.

Having the courage to grow

This may sound odd, but sometimes business owners and their management teams are afraid of growth – or rather, what it takes to achieve it. Common fears include:

• The pain of learning new technology – you know, deep down, that what you need to enable business growth is to move with the times and update your systems. But you’re worried about what it will take for you and your staff to learn a new system – especially if some of your employees have used a legacy system for many years and are stubbornly clinging to it, insisting it does what it needs to.
• The costs of implementing a new system – no-one wants to spend a lot of money, but what you have to look at is the ROI associated with it. In the custom manufacturing industry, harnessing new technology is essential, because it means gaining a competitive edge and remaining relevant. Investing in a new system that will streamline your processes, make your employees lives easier and speed up productivity will have a positive impact on your profit margins.

Think of it this way: if you’re a business owner that has outdated systems – or no systems at all – then you ARE the business. Which means that how much profit you generate is entirely down to how many hours you put in. If you want to increase your profits, you’ll need to work longer hours. And so will your team.

Is that really how you want to move forward with your business?

Flooring leaders have efficiency covered

Belgotex design, make and distribute high-quality broadloom, carpet tiles and needle-punch with custom solutions available. They are a member of the multinational Belgotex International Group, and have outlets in Auckland and Christchurch, and a Distribution Centre in Auckland.

When Endeavour and Belgotex initiated their working relationship in 2011, it was to move from their previous software solution to MYOB Greentree, one of 3 main ERP systems Endeavour supplies for custom manufacturers. The outcome of this implementation provided significant benefits in terms of gaining measured efficiencies and streamlining processes.

In 2015, Belgotex implemented Warehouse Bin Management (WBM), a module within MYOB Greentree, to further improve on their stock location identification and tracking and in 2017 took this even further by making use of the WBM scanning technology to further automate their stock movement tracking.

It's also been favourably embraced by the staff, with even the fiercest critics now enthusiastic advocates.

They now have:

• Improved accuracy and efficiency with their freight integrations
• Improved stocktake performance and strengthened stocktake integrity
• Invoice dispatching - there's been a 20% increase in the number of invoices going out
• On-time delivery performance has been greatly enhanced
• The culture of the company has changed, with staff feeling like they can make changes that will improve their productivity.

READ THE CASE STUDY HERE

What’s the answer?

There’s no secret or trick to it, and you’ll have worked it out by now – what you need are systems that can streamline your highly unique business processes, iron out inefficiencies, and create automation wherever possible.

When you implement the right ERP solution, you’ll be able to:

• Remove manual and repetitive tasks and streamline your administrative workloads.
• Define and simplify processes using modern, intuitive software.
• Invest in scalable systems and free your staff to undertake more value-add functions.
• Help operational parts of the business work together – by capturing, storing and sharing information.
• Make sure that internal processes are properly defined, and don’t evolve organically.
• Create documentation that means your business will continue to run smoothly when an employee is on leave or handing over a role.

If you think back to the initial questions asked in the section above, you’ll see how you can resolve them. By streamlining the administration of your business, you’re enabling your staff to spend more time focused on what they do best, rather than having to devote a large chunk of their day to admin tasks. This will reduce the need to increase your staffing capacity, reduce errors and improve the quality of the custom products you’re manufacturing. Not only that, but having the right systems in place, tailored for your business, mean that you’ll achieve scalable – or ‘manageable’ – growth, and your business will be running to maximum efficiency.

What kind of systems suit custom manufacturers?

We've worked with both custom or specialised manufacturing and engineering businesses to implement an ERP solution that's aimed at improving their efficiencies and streamlining their business processes.

MYOB Greentree, one of the 3 ERP systems Endeavour supplies, for example, has been the solution of choice for a number of these businesses, because it targets a number of key areas specific to custom manufacturing and engineering companies.

Since going live, our engineering and custom manufacturing customers have gained efficiencies in these areas.