A Tall story

£10-million print manufacturer, Tall Group, describes how integrated ERP software and shop floor data capture have transformed their planning and scheduling efficiency

Sunday, 12 October 2008

TALL Group provides a range of security print documents from business cheques for customers of major banks, to ballot papers for international authorities, to cheques for the Lotto. The group's customers include many blue chip organisations and all place very different demands on the business.

Founded in 1991, the group's head office at Runcorn now houses 100 employees, with a further 50 at a sister site in Hinckley, Leicestershire. Both sites work independently, but share capabilities for contingency purposes - a requirement for banking customers. 

Founder director Phil Long explains how implementing its integrated ERP system, Unity from Sanderson, has changed the culture of its staff and working processes: "Previously we had order input and invoicing and nothing much in between. The order input team used to key basic information into a word processing document on the old system and this didn't interact with anything. Now, as a business, we do all the planning, the paper allocation, the machine recording and time booked to jobs at the start of the job. So the order input stage is crucial in that it interacts with every process thereafter."

It's been quite an upheaval, convincing everyone in the factory to leave the manual processes and spreadsheets behind them, but the processes are now smoother, more efficient and fully integrated.
The latest addition to TALL's technology systems has been the installation of shop floor data capture as part of the Unity solution. Touchscreens are positioned throughout the shop floor and the improvements are already starting to materialise - particularly in terms of data visibility and accuracy. Previously, managers resorted to paper and spreadsheets to try to control workflow throughout the operation. 

Long continues: "The shop floor data capture system means any of our print managers can see the status of any job. We also have an accurate means of recording labour and materials costs for each job. Even better, this is incorporated with the system's capacity planning.

"TALL produces, on average, more than 100 jobs a day: each is fairly complex, with many design elements, security features and so on. If we make a change to any order schedule, we can see immediately what the effect will be. Unity is planning and scheduling the workload continuously, based on each order's despatch date." Without relying on paperwork and spreadsheets, TALL can now draw on the shop floor system to secure precise job costings and workload visibility.

"It's a little too early to calculate the exact cost savings from the shop floor data capture system," says Long, "but I have no doubt that it will save us money. In terms of information at our fingertips, it's already bringing immense benefit to the whole operation."

Previously TALL's production managers ran spreadsheets but these were laborious and time-consuming to update and, in effect, were only valid for that particular department. Now, the reports from Unity can be run by individual managers and are relevant not only to them but to the business as a whole. The difference? It's one set of data that is accessible to all.

"We have an instant, real-time view the second each job finishes because the data is captured there and then. If we tried to run a ‘due-out' report of all the jobs in the system, the report would take well over an hour to run and it would tie up someone's computer for that time. Now, the speed with which we can call off information is incredible: we can run a more detailed report on all outstanding work and it takes just a few seconds," explains Long. 

The Unity solution is underpinning TALL's move to a modern, more efficient way of working. "Without a doubt, the Sanderson system has changed the way we work - for the better," says Long. "This is a system that is here to stay for the long-term and, as our processes develop still further, we will be able to raise our game even more in terms of service and efficiency.

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