MRP Case Study: AGW Electronics Ltd

AGW Electronics Ltd, based in Staveley, Derbyshire, manufactures electronic wound components and assemblies. Soon after the company went live with 123Insight they had to deal with the double-dip recession, which was especially tough on the electronics sector. While the business has since recovered and turnover has increased by over 50%, they wanted to ensure that it was still manageable as they continued to grow.

Diversification

The company has diversified in that it is now seen as the go-to supplier for more complex winding products, which Nigel believes is down to the flexibility that 123Insight provides; “We can react quickly in making samples and developing products because we can immediately find out whether we have stock of components, and if it isn't available we can quickly find out who our suppliers are. The other advantage is that our design and development engineers have been taught to use standard components when developing. It's a big plus in terms of our profitability and being able to supply competitive products to customers, as we're using components that we might have bought in larger quantities and have a price advantage on.”

AGW has to provide first article inspection information for many customers, including information such as the components used along with who supplied them. Nigel notes that 123Insight has drastically reduced the time taken to produce this; “123Insight can be interrogated and bring that information together very quickly, which saves a lot of time for the quality department in issuing these reports. It has brought it down to something you can do in minutes rather than hours. Previously, you could be talking half a day to a day's work.”

AGW also use CRM+, although Nigel admits they are not using it to its fullest within sales, its use has, to his surprise, expanded into many other areas within the company; “CRM+ has given our sales department a much better ability to respond to questions from customers. We also use it to check our KPIs on lateness of deliveries. I did go through a period of thinking that maybe we shouldn't be using CRM+, as we were not fully using it on the basis of what I initially thought we might. When I brought up the possibility of stopping the use of CRM+ I was knocked back, with staff saying 'we use it for this' and ‘we enjoy it for that’.”

Accreditations

The company holds the Underwriters Laboratories (UL) accreditation for component temperature classifications, and Nigel cites that 123Insight's Bill of Materials (BOM) structures have been instrumental to their ability to comply; “123Insight ties into it on the BOM, and that is the critical part of the accreditation that we have. We have effectively a ‘menu of components’, and if you stick to that list issued by UL then you are able to mark that product with the UL number. So, we have to ensure that on our structure we have the correct components there, we have the notification on that structure that this is a UL product and that no components can be substituted that are not within the UL menu.”

Ongoing support

On the few occasions AGW has had to call the Help Desk, Nigel said; “My experience has always been very good. You always speak to somebody who knows what they are doing, and on the very rare occasion that they don't know they will soon get back to you having found out themselves. I get the impression that they are not overworked, so you never get the situation where you are sat thinking ‘I'm 11th in the queue and might get answered in an hour’. I’ve always taken that to mean that 123Insight is a very stable piece of software that people don't need a lot of help with, and that reflects in the number of times that I've had to ring the help line – very, very few.”

Over the last few years AGW employees have noticed an increase in both suppliers and customers using 123Insight; “It's nice when you recognise the template of a customer purchase order or or supplier invoice. You realise that they're also using 123Insight, and it gives you the confidence that they are running a system where they know what they’re doing.”

10 years on

10 years on and Nigel is still confident that the system will help them achieve their target of sustainable growth, whilst still maintaining control. He concluded; “We actually employ less admin staff than we did 20 years ago with a much lower turnover back then, and could easily grow another 25% on the same number of admin staff as we have now – if not more.”

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