Precision Engineering Company Cuts Administrative Load by 70% with MRP Software

Allied Global Engineering is a multinational engineering group with ambitious plans to unify long-standing engineering businesses in the UK. The recent implementation of MRPeasy in one of their recently acquired subsidiaries is setting the stage for sustainable growth and increased efficiency.

Celebrating the legacy of the UK’s precision engineering

EGL Vaughan is a CNC milling and turning company with a 40-year legacy that has established itself as a frontrunner in the UK’s precision machining sector. The company is dedicated to delivering top-tier, precision-engineered parts to domestic and international markets and fostering strong, personalized customer relationships. Today, EGL Vaughan has 7 full-time employees and boasts a budding turnover of around £700,000.

In 2020, amid the challenges of the global pandemic, EGL Vaughan was acquired by Allied Global Engineering, an engineering conglomerate focused on unifying and celebrating the legacy of long-standing engineering businesses in the UK. As a company poised for expansion and eventually planning to merge its subsidiaries’ operations, Allied Global Engineering was looking for a production management solution that would streamline work processes and help set the stage for growth.

The quest for a manufacturing software platform that could boost efficiency and offer system-wide traceability without breaking the bank led Allied Global`s newly appointed Director of Operations, Jan-Marc Pickhan, to MRPeasy in 2022.

The path to precision – implementing MRPeasy

Until the change in ownership, EGL Vaughan had relied on Excel spreadsheets for its production and inventory management. The new Director promptly recognized the need for an upgrade to tackle the lack of visibility and operational delays inherent in manual data management. The decision to adopt MRPeasy ahead of a sea of alternatives was driven by the software’s cost-effectiveness and ease of implementation.

As MRPeasy is purpose-built to be self-implemented, Jan-Marc took the process upon himself. Following EGL’s initial adjustment period with the new software, Jan-Marc brought MRPeasy’s basic functionalities online over a single weekend in June 2023. He then proceeded to import production data like stock items and bills of materials to the system over the next couple of weeks.

Despite some initial challenges arising from the fast transition, the staff adapted well to the new system. Employee training and the incremental nature of MRPeasy’s features were instrumental in helping to ease the transformation. The spreadsheets were phased out gradually. From a specific time onwards, new manufacturing orders were taken on using MRPeasy, while existing ones were allowed to be completed using the old system.

Administrative load cut by 70%

Shifting from manual data entry to a unified cloud software’s data management capability has decisively boosted EGL Vaughan’s operational efficiency over a short span of time. Jan-Marc Pickhan particularly touts MRPeasy’s streamlined quoting capabilities: “It used to take at least 2 hours to launch something into production just because of all the data that had to be transferred in Excel. Because we didn’t have a sophisticated system, it was a lot of manual data moving, and that’s just asking for trouble.” With MRPeasy, converting quotes to manufacturing orders and sending purchase orders to suppliers is done within minutes, dramatically reducing setup times.

Traceability has also been wholly enhanced thanks to MRPeasy’s automatic lot number generation, allowing EGL Vaughan to gain visibility throughout the manufacturing process. Jan-Marc explains:

“Everything now has an automatic lot number created by MRPeasy. We are stamping them on the materials so they become traceable throughout the system. One of our customers even started using our lot numbers to trace their own operations.”

MRPeasy is also enhancing EGL Vaughan’s production scheduling, increasing capacity planning accuracy and on-time delivery rates, and simplifying managing the company’s many subcontractors. All in all, the new software has cut EGL Vaughan’s administrative load by as much as 70% since its implementation in mid-2023.

Positioning for sustainable growth

To other small and medium manufacturers looking to adopt production management software, Jan-Marc underscores the importance of a staged implementation and clearly communicating the new system’s benefits: “Implement it in the back-office first, then bring your supervisors up to speed, and finally introduce the changes to the shop floor. As long as you can clearly express the benefit of the new system for your employees, they will be happy to make the switch.”

He also lauds MRPeasy’s demo videos: “Our supervisor was somewhat reluctant to adopt the new system at first since he was receiving goods and had his systems in place. But the many detailed demo videos helped tackle the novelty and convinced him of how much more visibility and clarity MRPeasy brings.”

Jan-Marc Pickhan is convinced that as EGL Vaughan’s use case of MRPeasy gradually grows and more functionalities are implemented, operational efficiency will be further boosted well into the future. He also looks forward to implementing the software in one of the parent company’s other subsidiaries, the recently acquired Mantec Engineering Limited, and enabling MRPeasy’s multiple production sites and facilities functionality.

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