FisherCast replaces failed MRP with 123mrp.Net in three months

John Jackson, sales engineering manager at the Welshpool firm, says it had been running a bespoke AS/400 system, developed by its Canadian parent, until development ceased. Late in 2007, he says, the company selected a new accounts system, but when it went for the supposedly integrated MRP solution, it didn't work "due to its inflexibility of handling process routes, bills of materials and its drawing control". "We were then approached by one of our customers about 123mrp.NET and they gave us the multimedia DVD, after which we attended an evaluation workshop," says Jackson – which quickly led to the purchase. Production manager Dave Ashford says the company first imported 300 live parts, with BoMs and process routes, along with supplier and subcontract costs. "The data import pack allowed us to validate the data offline prior to importing, which was a major plus," he says. "The system did go in a lot easier than I thought it would. We had a few issues in the first few days, mostly relating to customising reports. After attending the advanced user course, this gave us a much better insight into writing reports correctly," he adds. Since going live, Jackson says the company has noticed significant improvements. All departments now have complete visibility of sales, works and purchase commitments. Stock control improved, and an automatic parts re-ordering routine has proved invaluable. FisherCast, he says, is now taking full advantage of 123mrp.NET's reporting capabilities, but still exports data to perform external analysis, although the CRM option is used to attribute analysis codes to any company record type. "We can now monitor the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns, be it telemarketing, trade shows or word of mouth, with the ability to see which methods are yielding the best results. 123mrp.NET allows us to assist the sales team to target resources to enable growth in sectors we want to focus on in the future," says Jackson. He adds that the company is now planning to expand its services, including introducing new manufacturing processes for existing components, using 123mrp.NET's ability to allow alternative routes for each part. Jackson: "We can quickly add new resources or process steps into the system, which can be cascaded back to other components. We now have our customer and prospect databases, quotations, components and tool ownership, drawing control, process routings and price lists all under one system which is linked together."