30 years of software solutions

Available installed on premise or as a full cloud hosted Software as a service (SaaS), the major reinvestment and relaunch includes a number of new features and benefits, resulting in record sales for the first quarter of 2019. PES learns more from some of its end users.

One of Redthorn’s recent success stories has been KRG Engineering Services which specialises in asset new build and lifecycle solutions for clients covering a range of industries including oil and gas, MOD, rail, food, renewables and aerospace.

Following a change of ownership, the KRG management team took the decision to drop its incumbent Microsoft system, which was both expensive to maintain and cumbersome to use, and implemented Redthorn.

Jim Taylor, KRG’s purchasing manager begins: ‘A number of the staff had prior experience of the Redthorn system, so we knew how straightforward implementation would be. Redthorn’s cloud-based solution was the obvious choice as it meant we had no upfront hardware costs, which was cost-effective, and we could connect securely to the system from anywhere in the world.

“In addition, the installation and training went smoothly and with Redthorn’s support we were able to transfer from one system to the next over the course of a weekend.”

Warren Services which has a multi-site facility providing high quality components and mechanical/electrical sub-assemblies has also embraced the cloud solution – in particular the Software as a Service (SaaS) pricing model.

Will Bridgman, Warren’s CEO says: “We consider ourselves forward thinking here at Warren and understand the changing landscape for software delivery, Redthorn’s SaaS model fitted with our company strategy perfectly.”

In fact, Warrens management team worked in collaboration with Redthorn’s commercial team to ensure the pricing was right for the engineering sector.

John Wells, Redthorn’s sales manager and recent addition to the team explains: “When I performed a competitor analysis, I soon realised that a lot of the SaaS pricing structures were thinly disguised replicas of the traditional capital and support fee structures.

“Whilst we appreciate that there are many companies who still want to purchase software like this, we were keen to get the SaaS structure right with low start-up costs and low monthly fees that can flex with the number of users required. I believe our modular system has allowed us to achieve this objective.”

Mr Wells has previous experience selling SaaS products in Australia, where he found it to be ahead of the curve when it comes to providing SaaS, and technically in advance of the UK, particularly in digitalising engineering.

In the oracle

The Oracle 12c based product managing Warren and KRG’s business is a continuation of Redthorn’s primary product, which was developed from the original late 80s DOS system. The latest developments ranging from Material Back-flushing to shopfloor tablet-based inventory management have been the result of recent customer feedback following customer workshops, site visits, tradeshows and consultancy.

“Because we manage all aspects of our software, from system development to training and implementation we are able get a very strong understanding of what customers want, and work with them to develop software that has an everyday benefit on the shopfloor as well as the board room,” says Tom Rootes, Redthorn’s operation director.

“Our software strategy is also heavily influenced by the consultancy side of our business. Redthorn’s consultants have a combined 80 years’ experience delivering a diverse range of projects into high value engineering companies covering subject matters such as policy deployment, continuous improvement, and leadership and management.”

Prior to taking his current role, Mr Rootes was a lead consultant on Gardner Aerospace Group’s continuous improvement and business excellence programme.

Redthorn has delivered consultancy projects on a global scale – in Canada, Europe and Australia. The company was a key strategic service provider within the £8.4 million North West Aerospace Alliance’s supply chain excellence programme launched to create a world-class aerospace supply chain in the region.

Since then the software developer has become an accredited training provider on the long-term advanced supply chain (LTASC) programme supported by JCB; Redthorn’s joint CEO Mark Hughes currently sits on the Welsh Aerospace Forum Steering Board.

In depth

Unilathe, long-term JCB supplier and Redthorn MRP software user for 18 years has benefited from this depth of experience. The company has retained Redthorn as a strategic partner for operational improvement consultancy for over three years, latterly under the LTASC programme.

Andrew Sims, Unilathe’s managing director describes the relationship: “Redthorn has played a key role in the strategic development of Unilathe over the last four years. This has included the structure of the business, management training, operational planning and organisation as well as a review of its markets and economic performance.

“The Redthorn team is professional, experienced and knowledgeable as well as being supportive and challenging in equal measure. During this time we have seen real growth in our business and Redthorn has been particularly effective in supporting our entry into the aerospace market.”

In 2019 Redthorn has also been selected as a training provider on the new SC21/National Manufacturing Competitor Levels (NMCL) programme. Talking about the application process Mark Hughes says: “We concentrated on the leadership and management aspects when we applied as we saw an opportunity to expand on our already successful Front-Line Management (FLM) programme which has already been deployed at a number of tier 1 and tier 2 global aerospace companies.”

He continues: “The wider opportunity for Redthorn however is to digitise our consultancy services and combine them with the MRP product. It has always been our vision to develop an intelligent system that can not only run an engineering business but help improve its performance through applications that control best practices, continuous improvement and problem resolution.

“In addition, we are seeing a trend in the OEMs taking an active interest in the software systems their suppliers are using, and software accreditation is on the horizon. Fortunately, our MRP products have been deployed in the aerospace sector for many years, so traceability is a given. Security though is becoming a critical concern and so our cloud servers are Cyber Essentials Plus certified and we at Redthorn are currently pursuing the Cyber Essentials accreditation.”

Redthorn is celebrating its latest MRP software release, the launch of a new website with a dedicated user resource centre, and its 30^th birthday, which it says it will be celebrating with customers later this year.

Redthorn www.redthorn.com