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Company rolls on with management software

Sept. 1, 2002
Elrae Industries Inc., a leading producer of stamped and roll-formed metal components as well as custom assemblies, was struggling to meet customer demands in an increasingly fast-moving and competitive business environment. So, the Alden, N.Y.-based comp

With Made2Manage enterprise-wide management software, Elrae Industries views all its contract-manufacturing and metalforming jobs in real time and knows immediately if costs are starting to skew.

Elrae Industries Inc., a leading producer of stamped and roll-formed metal components as well as custom assemblies, was struggling to meet customer demands in an increasingly fast-moving and competitive business environment. So, the Alden, N.Y.-based company decided on a new enterprise-wide business system that not only improved scheduling but also other business processes.

The management software Elrae chose comes from Made2Manage Systems Inc. and features all necessary transactional systems — quoting, inventory control, purchasing, scheduling, shipping/receiving, and more. It also includes customer relationship management (M2M CRM) and supply chain management (M2M SCM) options.

According to Michele Mancuso-Krollman, vice president of marketing and IT at Elrae, the biggest benefit of implementing the Made2Manage system is the high level of visibility it provides into all aspects of the company's business operations. "In the contract-manufacturing/metalforming industry, accurately tracking job costs is vital," she says. "With Made2Manage, we see all the jobs we're running in real time and know immediately if costs are starting to get skewed. In conjunction with extensive data collection, we get an accurate snapshot of our business because the information is always current. This lets us analyze critical data, so we know exactly where we are in regard to cost as well as where the problems are."

Elrae runs a number of detailed reports with the software, including a job-order-status report. The company's foreman and accounting manager use this information to monitor individual jobs and overall efficiency. A system feature, called Command Scheduler, also gives Elrae the option of running reports or programs automatically at scheduled times. "If processing takes too long," says Mancuso-Krollman, "we run the program or report at night, which frees up time during the business day."

Using information gathered from the system, the company improves inventory accuracy. With details such as received shipments, job allocation, and back-flushed items, Elrae knows who did what and when and can identify where inventory issues are occurring and why. All of which increases inventory accuracy by more than 40%, says Mancuso-Krollman.

Another major benefit to the company is the system's integrated barcoding capabilities. These free up the time the company spent manually entering daily efficiency/labor sheets. It now uses barcoding for time and attendance and labor/job order collection, which saves time and money.

Made2Manage Systems Inc.
Indianapolis
www.made2manage.com
[email protected]