Baugh & Weedon is a leading manufacturer of Magnetic Particle Inspection (MPI), Benches and Liquid Penetrant Inspection (LPI) Penetrant Lines. Established in 1967, they have a long history of supplying the NDT industry with high quality products and services. They are based in the UK, and with a wealth of industry knowledge, endeavour to continually exceed their customers’ expectations. With a growing team of employees and a desire for all staff members to be able to utilise and benefit from the ERP system, they sought a solution to bring them firmly into the 21st Century and digitise their experience. Their biggest challenge was being able to track and manage scheduling and planning. With many parts to this task and a lack of uniformity with people and machinery, it can be hard to get production right. As Baugh & Weedon began preparing their organisation for scalability and growth, they sought a business management system that had potential to expand with them.
Business Cloud Essentials (BCE) is a material planning system (MRP) designed to support small to medium sized businesses, by equipping them with a comprehensive set of features and readily preparing them for future development and growth. It unifies all elements of your business, empowering you with complete control over finances, operations, production, payroll, contacts and more. Baugh & Weedon’s hunt for a business management system led them to invest in BCE.
A focal driver being its cost-effective Software-as-a-service (SaaS) plan. SaaS is a model by which software is hosted centrally by a provider. Payments are made in a subscription model approach and are a monthly fee that include any support you may need, as well as any updates that are applied to the system going forward, with no hidden surprises. Not only does it make life easier for users, but this system is accessed online, (rather than being installed on premise) meaning it can be accessed anywhere and at any time. Cloud-based systems provide an extra layer of security, as sensitive data is stored online, rather than in a physical location (which might be vulnerable). The online access also makes it easier for security protocols to be updated as and when it’s necessary to do so.
Kate Gardiner, Operations Director at Baugh & Weedon explained: “We wanted to modernise our operations with a newer ERP solution that was cost effective, gave us all the features we currently need with the ability to expand in the future. We are currently experiencing rapid revenue growth and regularly adding new product ranges, so it had to be sized right for now and moving forward. Business Cloud Essentials did everything we needed for our business whilst being priced very competitively.”
Teresa Gittens, Sales Administrator adds “The whole team has access to it. Different people have access to different areas which accommodate their functional needs. The software was well received by the team, and it assists them in completing their day-to-day tasks.” Teresa further credits BCE for its sleek user interface and its ability to modernise the manufacturing software experience. She adds ““Business Cloud Essentials looks very modern, and it’s very friendly to navigate. The fact that the software is Cloud based is very handy since you can open multiple pages at the same time and on different platforms”.
As a manufacturer, Inventory Management, the process of maintaining suitable levels of stock so the business is adequately prepared, is a vital aspect of the business for Baugh & Weedon. There must be sufficient stock able to meet customer demand, but not too much so that materials and money are going to be wasted. The stock control functionality within BCE makes it easy to keep on top of stock and get a clear understanding of traceability, stock levels and stock planning.
Using a range of in-built and easily customisable stock reports and dashboards help you to make informed decisions, with information that is always up-to-date and accurate. It lets you get a clear understanding of stock availability across multiple locations and provides an accurate view of real time stock information so you can respond quickly to any changes. Kate Gardiner comments: “Business Cloud Essentials has helped us improve the way we do things particularly with short-falls. We have always had procedures in place for managing stock short-falls, but it was a manual process managed between Production, Stores and Purchasing. BCE helps us keep on top of stock, have great visibility of inventory levels which is accessible to all departments in the business, plan ahead and deliver on time.”
Advanced, through our implementation journey, aim to transform the way you work and grow with you. We aspire to build long term relationships which are designed for success. Kate comments: “I was impressed by how efficient the implementation process was. BCE is great, we haven’t had any problems.” “We were able to send things out of the door since day one.” Teresa adds: “Our Project Manager was really good. He made a real difference during that process. His knowledge is vast, and he was very helpful. Glyn, our Customer Success Manager also helped us a lot with hiccups that happened when we were importing data. Hats off to everybody for their support in our implementation, they played a key role in us getting up and running.”
Mark Dewell, Managing Director at Advanced, states “Business Cloud Essentials is a unique proposition for small manufacturers looking to grow and evolve as the need to go digital becomes more pertinent. We’re really excited to have Baugh & Weedon join the Advanced family and look forward to supporting them with their continued success and growth.”
