Growing ambitions 

The company soon realised that its existing procedures would not be capable of supporting the planned expansion. After assessing options for production control software, it became clear that only a few suppliers catered for a small subcontract precision engineering company with significant growth ambitions.

It was vital for DP Engineering that its expansion should be supported by robust software that offered the functionality and adaptability to meet the company's evolving needs. PSL Datatrack fitted the bill exactly and has continued to be ‘the heartbeat of the business’ according to DP Engineering's managing director, Richard Trevail.

PSL Datatrack's modular approach has enabled the Redruth-based company to focus its efforts effectively, only purchasing additional modules as and when a business need has arisen: “This is obviously a cost-effective approach for smaller companies as the software is scalable, PSL's business with us has evolved hand in hand with our own growth.” says Mr Trevail.

DP Engineering's customers include a variety of blue chip companies from many industries with the aerospace and oil and gas sectors making up the biggest proportion of the company’s business.

The company has AS 9100/ISO 9001 quality management system accreditation and has attained the aerospace and defence SC21 Bronze Award. DP also helps its customers realise their own engineering ideas and achieve their production objectives. High levels of support are offered through five engineers using offline programming and simulation with Mastercam, Autodesk and Vericut software from CG Tech.

Batch volumes vary from five to 500,000 pieces per annum, manufactured on modern machining centres and CNC lathes. Many products are safety critical parts for which traceability and visibility of the production process is absolutely vital, PSL Datatrack provides this level of control. In addition, the company also holds around 300 different components on Kanban which are controlled by PSL Datatrack with call off requirements, scheduling, shop floor monitoring and analysis.

PSL Datatrack modules that support DP Engineering's day to day activities include quotations, sales/purchase order processing, process layouts, stock control, scheduling, shop floor data collection, non-conformance, gauge management and traceability.

“It copes very well with our production volumes and enables us to offer quick responses to requests for quotations,” Mr Trevail explains. “These are typically provided within 24-48 hours. Most importantly for us, all the PSL Datatrack modules are integrated and work together to form a robust foundation for the business. Effectively, it’s the glue that sticks everything together.”

DP Engineering utilises PSL Datatrack variance reporting to highlight jobs that are not in line with original estimates. When a manufacturing variance has been highlighted, the Factory Wiz software then provides more in-depth analysis to see exactly what happened in production. The company is then able to employ Lean manufacturing tools to improve processes and eliminate waste.

“The PSL Datatrack team understands our requirements and responds well to our ‘wish-list’ requests so that the system can be customised to meet our specific needs,” Mr Trevail concludes.

PSL Datatrack www.psldatatrack.com

DP Engineering www.dpengineeringltd.co.uk