Over the last ten years, specialist pump manufacturer Ernest Hill has undergone significant development in order to maintain the competitiveness of its business and provide a launch pad for future growth. One of the key business relationships over this period has been with integrated business systems provider, McGuffie Brunton.

Today, McGuffie Brunton not only supports the smooth running of Ernest Hill's SYSPRO ERP software, but also supplies and manages the company's IT network infrastructure. At the same time Visuality, a McGuffie Brunton subsidiary specializing in new media and internet solutions, has enabled Ernest Hill to exploit market and sales opportunities through e-commerce websites.

In a highly competitive business environment, where responsiveness and efficiency are key differentiators, there are many small SME's which would like to try and operate a fully integrated and networked business management system, or be part of the e-commerce 'revolution'. Yet, not only can implementing the necessary IT hardware and software be relatively expensive for small businesses; maintaining it can also place an additional significant burden on management teams, especially when resources do not stretch to dedicated IT staff. 

However, Ernest H. Hill Ltd is a £2 million turnover SME that has developed an extremely viable IT solution that has enabled the company to employ one of the most modern ERP systems available, operate e-commerce websites, and maintain worldwide communications, without overstretching its resources. 

Forward looking

Established as an engineering and manufacturing company in 1841, the company has been involved in the innovation, design and manufacture of fluid transfer equipment for the past 165 years. Although still based in Sheffield, the company, which employs 28 people, now operates from a modern industrial unit. It's large product range includes hand, air and electrically operated pumps and pump kits, along with oil, fuel and grease dispensers and auxiliary equipment. Much of the production is branded for global 'blue-chip' customers and used in automotive and industrial lubrication, petrochemical, industrial, agricultural and aerospace fluid transfer applications. 

Because of its long history, the company understands the need to look forward, and to constantly search for ways to change and meet new market conditions. Therefore, by the mid 1990s, while high quality engineering and innovation have long been decisive factors, the firm's management team realised that they also had to radically enhance their service offering.

But with an old Unix based finance package and a host of manual systems at their disposal, they did not have the internal processes or management systems that were capable of supporting their new service objectives. "At the time, our internal sales, manufacturing and delivery operation was often closer to anarchy than a managed process," reports Dominic Hewins, the company's Sales Director.

To resolve this IT issue, the company undertook a project and employed a graduate through a joint government / university scheme, to assess the company's present and future requirements, and investigate the market for a viable business management system. From a final shortlist of options, a SYSPRO ERP package was selected for a number of clear reasons.

As Hewins explains, "It was one of the few Windows based products on the market and, more to the point, its modular nature and flexibility meant that it was the best suited to meet our requirements at the time. Added to this, we felt that our future needs would most likely be met by the ongoing development of the system and the relationship with McGuffie Brunton. This has proved to be the case."

This view is shared by Chris Dale, the company's Finance Director. "It was unusual for such a small company as ours to invest in a relatively expensive and complex system. Yet, the only alternative was to spend more on administration staff, which we realised would be far less likely to deliver the process improvements we were looking for."

Service breakthroughs

The importance of this decision is now very clear. Ernest Hill has been able to develop the business around SYSPRO's integrated finance, manufacturing and distribution system. This has significantly improved efficiency in all areas; from reduced administration, improved sales order processing, far better production planning, and the effective management of WIP, and inventory.

"Managing raw materials and over 3500 different component items was previously a nightmare. But with these equating to 40% of our costs, gaining control has had a major impact on the business," notes Dale.

Equally, before deploying the integrated system's manufacturing and distribution modules, the company's production and delivery record was 'not good'. In theory it operated a rapid product supply service, yet it could take a week for an order to get through the old administration system, and for the works order and necessary drawings to reach the shop floor. Then, production would often be further held up, because all the necessary components were not in stock. In the end delivery was often taking 6-7 weeks to complete.

Now, instead of trying to make to order, the company has established a customise-to-order approach, whereby it produces generic sub assemblies to stock and then finishes and brands these to order. Combined with immediate sales order visibility and effective inventory control / finished goods management, this now enables the company to successfully operate a 24-hour delivery service.

"Our manufacturing and logistics operation is now a world away from how we used to operate, and our customers recognise this," states Hewins. He adds, "We not only get daily orders from customers, who require us to supply and deliver direct to their clients anywhere in the world, but a number of customers also ask us to source, stock and distribute parts for them that we do not even make."

Moreover, having gained control over production, Ernest Hill is not only more responsive but also far more efficient. More specifically, by effectively employing the ERP system's forecasting capabilities, daily MRP and the close management of sub assembly stock levels, the company has eliminated the huge peaks and troughs of production loading that it used to face, without crushing the business under a huge finished goods mountain.

Fast response

"We are also now extremely fast on our feet when it comes to getting new products and variants on the market," claims Hewins. A link with the company's 3D CAD system means that structured Bill of Materials (BOMs) for new products can be transferred into SYSPRO, while design drawings and images can be quickly imported and attached to the item descriptions within the inventory database. As a result, the company can design a new product, have the necessary information in the production system and be ready to manufacture the first order, all within 48 hours.

Overall, the long-term deployment of the ERP system within Ernest Hill has undoubtedly enabled the business to significantly improve its performance. While increased efficiency is evident from the fact that turnover has been maintained - against extremely stiff foreign low cost competition - these sales are now achieved with almost 50% of the people that were employed a decade ago.

However, the ERP system is only part of the company's IT development and its wider relationship with McGuffie Brunton.  For example, Visuality has not only produced the company's main business website and portal, but has designed and built a full e-commerce site for the company's niche air rifle pumps market. This new web site and orders from customers are now all managed by Ernest Hill staff using Visuality's smartCMS website e-retail management system.

In addition, McGuffie Brunton has also taken over the management and support of the company's IT network. Previously, the company directors undertook the task of keeping the network running, sorting problems and managing upgrades. But as Dale observes, "We are not IT experts and this internal management was proving an increasingly time consuming role."

Strategic IT relationship

Therefore, when the need came to fully upgrade its hardware and infrastructure, and McGuffie Brunton proposed to not only provide and implement the new network but also fully support it, the management team decided it was time to let go. This change has worked well. "A high level of service and support has always been a strong part of McGuffie Brunton's offering, and we are still very happy with the support we are getting from their staff in Manchester," states Hewins.

From the start, the new network was fully configured and tested prior to installation and as a result, the company only suffered a few hours of downtime. Since then, not only has support for the network been effective, but Ernest Hill's management have been able to call on McGuffie Brunton's expertise to rapidly develop and implement enhancements, such as establishing a Virtual Private Network (VPN) that has enabled directors and sales staff to access the SYSPRO system off site. As a busy sales director, often traveling around the globe, Dominic Hewins needs to remain in constant contact with his business. He can now wirelessly access the company's network server using the latest Vodafone 3G, pocket PC driven by Windows Mobile 5.

As Hewins and Dale jointly concur, this arrangement has proven to be another important step forward for the company. Not least because its means that they now put their effort and focus their full attention on what matters most, which is running the business.