SSL WinMan delivers strong functionality, state-of-the-art technology, value for money, and strong customer service

SSL WinMan, a leading supplier of .NET ERP Software solutions for manufacturing and distribution companies that support both lean and traditional methodologies, is delivering its WinMan.NET ERP solution to Clevedon Fasteners. The company is a specialist manufacturer of Commercial, Automotive, Self Piercing and Aerospace Cold Formed Components, supplying to the UK and worldwide.

Formed in 1939, Clevedon Fasteners has seen a recent period of sustained growth with turnover increasing from £1m in 2000 to almost £3.5m in 2006, which equates to manufacturing 45 million pieces per month. The company's disparate legacy systems were based on old technology and designed for a very small company. In short, Clevedon Fasteners had outgrown its existing systems, and recognising the need for a fully integrated yet very flexible system based on the latest technology, commenced a thorough search for a replacement in mid 2004.

Following the abandonment of an initial trial of a leading ERP system after it was decided the system wasn't really suitable, Clevedon Fasteners approached SSL WinMan and very quickly decided to invest in WinMan. Managing Director Steve Hardeman explains why. "In addition to finding the people extremely pleasant to deal with, we liked the power and flexibility we saw in WinMan. We didn't want a system that couldn't grow with us, or required costly and time consuming requests for minor customising. WinMan provided the best starting place and the best path forward."

After a quick implementation period which was done in conjunction with replacing the company's hardware through SSL's preferred supplier CSCM, WinMan successfully went live in Dec 2006. "Both SSL and CSCM were superb", comments Hardeman, "they helped the entire project run smoothly and delivered exactly what we required."

Clevedon is already experiencing substantial benefits from WinMan, most notably in the areas of Stock Control, Stock Visibility, and Manufacturing Visibility. The integrated nature of WinMan has replaced the need to manually re-enter the same data for each different phase of business, for example quotations, orders, invoices etc, which has massively reduced transaction times. Hardeman comments that when busy, it could take over a day for a quotation to be re-entered as an order. "Now with WinMan it's instantaneous, just the push of a button. And because it uses the same data, we avoid all the data entry errors that were possible before."

With the old systems being DOS-based, a single data entry error might exclude an item from showing in stock whereas with WinMan, Clevedon has completely reliable and accurate data, which is accessible to everyone across the company. This itself has helped bring a much greater sense of cohesion between departments with everybody now much more informed about the value not just of their own role in the company, but how their role impacts on the ability of others to do their best. This in has positively impacted the performance of the entire company and the greater co-operation and efficiency has been a causal factor in sustaining the company's growth.

This visibility has also directly led to efficiency gains in terms of the company's production planning and manufacturing. As many different products begin with the same raw item which then has subsequent processes applied, the company now achieves much more optimal batch sizes and flow routing. Moreover, due to the very high volumes of parts manufactured, there is always a degree of variance between parts projected and parts actually produced which can lead to stock control issues. As Hardeman explains, "With WinMan, not only can we manually adjust the actual amount made, we can do so in a fully traceable way which provides valuable information into any areas in the company where further efficiency gains could be made."