Wide-ranging ERP system benefits gained by Martel Instruments

rost 15/05/2018 14:20:24

Success Stories

Discrete Manufacturing

Martel Instruments

Customer: Martel Instruments

A platform for growth

Martel Instruments, based in Durham, is a long established and successful manufacturer of specialist printers and printing solutions. With an extensive product range, coupled with design software, tooling and manufacturing expertise, the company serves the automotive, industrial, law enforcement, medical, retail and scientific sectors and exports around 75% of its production mostly to Europe and the USA.

As an electronics business, Martel has had to adapt to new technologies, market opportunities and response to customers’ requirements. In 2007, Martel was acquired by an investment company, enabling the company to develop further as a respected manufacturer and supplier. Based on a combination of manual recording and stand-alone, PC-based tools, Martel’s systems had become increasingly inadequate. Growth was inhibited by a lack of management information, business controls and effort was being duplicated. Martel made the decision to implement a fully integrated ERP solution, heralding a big change for the company and its employees.

Considerable benefits

Martel has seen wide-ranging business benefits from implementing K8 Manufacturing. In headline terms, it has helped to support the growth of its product base from 200 to around 500 lines, with an estimated 3,000 variants. “In difficult trading times we have had to become more competitive to serve more customers in more sectors often with exacting requirements. As a supplier of ‘peripheral’ products – our products are mostly integrated into third party-supplied equipment, the system enables us to handle more complex orders. Materials planning for example, is a much more efficient and accurate process than previously. In production areas, the use of barcodes captures every process and component movement, giving us real-time visibility of what’s going on and we can back trace everything if any issues arise.”

K8 Manufacturing’s integrated functionality has enabled Martel to improve how their departments work together. “With a combination of regular call-off orders and customised projects which can have an 18 month gestation, the system is proving its worth in helping us to manage our component ordering with lead times of up to 20 weeks. And to enable orders to be delivered quickly, we use the system to help us forecast our sub-assembly requirements and economic build quantities.”