As the threat of a downturn looms, many fabricators will be looking at their business and either looking for ways to reduce costs or get more bang for their buck.
Machinery has always been a particular focus when enquiries start to slow because many benefits can be realised. If you can afford the capital expenditure, then new machinery can speed up operations, allow you to add new products to your range and delay taking on more staff.
“Automation, while it comes at a cost, is key for fabricators looking to deliver market-leading products in a competitive timeframe,” says Greg Beachim, Sales Manager at First Degree Systems. “And like most things, its advantages can only be truly realised if it is used efficiently.”
Beachim suggests that in an ideal world, a window fabricator would simply buy a new welder or machining centre, plug it in, and feed it profile all day long. But managing that throughput is not the responsibility of the machinery – it’s either done manually or through the right software.
“All machinery – new or old – can only work as fast as the information being fed into it,” Greg says. “And if there is a bottleneck in the design processing side, for example, then machinery could be standing idle, which eats into potential profits.”
Window Designer
Window Designer from First Degree Systems is one of the most widely used window design processing software in the industry, but many fabricators could be realising extra benefits by upgrading their package. According to Beachim, these upgrades can help reduce errors, minimise stockholding and increase the throughput of product in the factory.
“Many fabricators bought Window Designer years ago and haven’t updated or added to it,” Beachim says. “For them it was a necessary purchase at the time, but they’ve since pushed it to the back of their mind.
“If they were to move to a rental model, they could capture many additional benefits because these can be added on easily. This is because the Window Designer software can follow a design from quote all the way through to delivery, which introduces extra efficiencies at the manufacturing stage.”
Beachim goes on to say that sales teams can sit with homeowners and use Fengo2 to design windows that help win the sale, which gets fed into Cloud Retailer allowing window installation companies to create an instant quote, release the jobs to manufacture and see that an order has been accepted in near real-time.
Stock Assistant
“Once the order is with the fabricator, Production Manager offers visual planning for greater productivity, and Delivery Manager populates delivery routes,” Beachim says. “Other bolt-on software includes Stock Assistant, an integrated stock management system, which gives fabricators full oversight of their stock holding. It can offer on-demand stock ordering, pre-allocate requirements, and even reconcile invoices.
“This means that fabricators can reduce their general stock overhead and reduce their stock levels, releasing money tied up in stock. Having that extra cash available creates flexibility for the future because companies are not overburdening their stock requirement.
“I have seen, even from medium-sized businesses, around £150,000 of released capital thanks to effective stock control, which can be critical for any business.”
A significant knock-on effect of this is that fabricators don’t have to find extra space to put stock in, freeing up additional floor space, which can be used profitably.
“There are other bolt-ons too, but the key point is that simply introducing new machinery to your operation will not realise full efficiency without the right design processing software,” Beachim says. “And it is quite possible that you are only a phone call away from activating those efficiencies because you are already a Window Designer user.”
To find out more please visit www.firstdegreesystems.com, email [email protected] or call 01283 808042.