Aluminium and glass fibre ladders, step ladders and towers manufacturer Lyte Ladders and Towers says it expects its new ERP system to facilitate new growth, thanks mostly to information transparency.
The company, based in South Wales, had been running with disparate IT systems that it says were, in the end, working against, not for, the company.
Philip Evans, finance director, says the company’s Global 2000 system, in place since the 1990’s, was the main culprit. “It was primarily an accounting system that took no account of our manufacturing requirements,” he explains.
“We had several other dedicated systems in place to work around this, but because of the old technology involved, none of these could be integrated. It was clear if the business was to continue its strong growth, we would need a modern, fully integrated, manufacturing system that would work with us, not against us.”
The company chose WinMan from SSL Says Evans:: “It was clear WinMan was designed very much with manufacturing in mind, and we felt our needs and industry were very well understood by the SSL team. We were particularly impressed with the integrated nature of the system, and the ease with which this makes it possible to access data at any point of the business and turn this into meaningful information.”
The company now expects to be able to eliminate all data duplication and variance issues, while opening up the business in terms of information transparency.
It believes that “significant cost savings will result from the reduction in man hours currently invested in repetitive processes”. It also says that the increased agility, resulting from being able to react to customer requirements, will secure ongoing growth.
Says Evans: “While we don’t see any system as a solution to all of our needs, we do see WinMan as the complete mechanics upon which our company will depend in order to move forward.”