Job done

Regional Small Business of the Year, Arrowsmith Engineering, spent the ‘quieter' months of 2009 preparing for the upturn, including bringing in Jobshop as its ERP/MRP system, and building an additional 5,000ft² factory.

According to Arrowsmith's managing director Jason Aldridge, Jobshop has become a crucial part of the company's SC21 implementation and its Continuous Sustainable Improvement Plan. “We're aiming to become a world class supplier to the aerospace industry,” he affirms. “We wanted a system that would grow with us, and Jobshop ticked all the right boxes.”

The Coventry company won the 2009 Small Business of the Year Award organised by the Coventry Telegraph in conjunction with Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce. It is now emerging from a busy period applying SC21 practices and working with the Manufacturing Advisory Service on its upskilling, restructuring and expansion programme. “The aerospace industry will need to commission a lot of work, and thanks to Jobshop we're now ready to take it on,” Mr Aldridge adds.

Providing a range of aero engine components for clients such as Rolls-Royce, Goodrich, Pattonair and Gardner Aerospace, along with parts for Formula One racing car engines, Arrowsmith had reached the stage where its existing ERP/MRP system was reaching its capacity.

“A major customer advised us that we needed to implement a new system,” Mr Aldridge reveals. “We looked at the marketplace, did a lot of research and met a lot of companies but Jobshop was the one that provided everything we were looking for, and our staff felt very comfortable using it.”

He elaborates: “The Jobshop system will allow us to quadruple our turnover and be able to control it. It is an absolutely vital and integral part of the future development and success of Arrowsmith. Quite literally, we can accurately show customers how we're going to produce their components on a particular machine in terms of start times, finish times and capacity.”

While Jobshop plays an important role in improving the On Time, In Full (OTIF) capability, it also provides information to populate Arrowsmith's Business Operating System (BOS) charts, which Mr Aldridge says are significantly important for the company. “We can now collect shopfloor data which then feeds our KPIs, enabling us to carefully control OTIF, quality and scrap.”

His prediction is that Arrowsmith will use all of the important functions which make up Jobshop's flexible, scalable and intelligent system of advanced functionality and value in the key areas of manufacturing and assembly. Using the array of specialist features simplifies procedures such as operations, scheduling and costing – but in particular it enables manufacturers to meet traceability standards in being able to provide full evidence right the way through the production process.

Through using Jobshop, Arrowsmith now has the capacity management and data to populate a visual system of management for OTIF, quality, returns, scrap and supplier performance. All of these are monitored daily with a view to improving efficiency.

“We started with capacity management and then got the MRP system running. Now we're intending to use it to manage the administration of our FAIR (First Article Inspection Report) traceability standards and calibration, along with estimating.”

The system means Arrowsmith can readily manage a variety of procedures: estimates and quotations; sales order processing; MRP; purchase orders; work orders; scheduling; shopfloor data capture; materials control; costing; and document management.

The company has also used Alphacam, another Planit software application, for around five years to drive its variety of CNC turning and milling machines, and has recently upgraded to the 3D modelling unit. “This is extremely beneficial to us both for our aerospace and Formula One customers. Alphacam now enables us to unfold the 3D models and work with them.”

Arrowsmith's workforce of 36 is based on a 10,000ft² site on the outskirts of Coventry which includes a new 5,000ft² factory and office areas.

Jobshop
www.jobshop.planit.com

Arrowsmith Engineering
www.arrowsmitheng.co.uk