Military vehicle maker ramps up on configurator

£10m all terrain vehicles manufacturer Automotive Technik is gearing up for growth on a 30-user, Syspro ERP system. The company has signed a £100,000 deal with VAR Information Engineering, and the system is due for go live in November, with £10,000 of additional modules to follow next year. Alan Stanley, Automotive Technik’s Group CEO, says that following acquisition of rights to the military vehicles brand, and manufacturing set up over here, his legacy systems were running out of steam. The body shells are built in the company’s ‘Body in White’ factory in Fareham and then shipped to the vehicle assembly plant in Guilford, where they are finished to customer specification, using up to 7,000 different components. Stanley found Information Engineering after seeing reports on its implementations at fire engine manufacturer Saxon Specialist Vehicles and bus builder Transbus International. On the specifics, he says: “The product configurator is particularly useful for us. It will allow us to turn quotes round quickly and more accurately, and give us greater control over our stocks. And as we necessarily increase the volume of outsourced production, the ability of the system to handle sub-contract operations will also be invaluable. “We are very interested too, in the work Information Engineering has done to link CAD drawings to Syspro – particularly the Internet-based spares ordering system that lets customers identify and order a vehicle part using the vehicle’s VIN number and original CAD drawing.” Automotive Technik’s vehicles are used mainly as troop carriers and gun tractors by the military, and as ambulances and fire engines. They can carry a payload of 2,500kg at 50 mph across rough terrain. The company can produce up to four vehicles a week but with two big new contracts coming on stream this year, production is set to escalate.