ERP roll-out to bring company-wide visibility

Increased efficiency and performance throughout customer service, engineering and manufacturing are the expected benefits from a 30-user Syspro ERP system from K3, due to go live at Fareham, Hants-based fkilters manufacturer Microfiltrex by the end of the summer. Microfiltrex is one of the four divisions of Porvair Filtration Group, and the first to introduce new manufacturing and accounting IT. John King, group IT manager, says the plan is to roll the new system out company-wide, to eliminate the currently separate and different systems and thus to provide integration and visibility. Microfiltrex is going first since it is the most complex and demanding of the businesses, so will provide a good proving ground. As a supplier to the aerospace sector, for example, it needs robust traceability, but also good cost management and work flow for its subcontract operations. “Our IT people are experienced in migrating systems and they also have a good understanding of the business,” says King. “This implementation gives us the opportunity to take a closer look at how and why we do the things we do; K3 has very good consultancy skills, which will be a great help to us in that process.” Because of the complexity and diversity of its products and customers, King needed a system with extensive functionality covering from product-based, make-to-stock, to bespoke, project-based manufacturing. “It’s often difficult to predict what’s going to happen next and we need to have visibility to be able to exert control,” he says. “Syspro will give us that through superior, more sophisticated and flexible reporting.” Roll out at the second site begins at the end of the year.