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Planit Group, Expanding its orbit

Manufacturing in Action, Source : The Manufacturer
Zone : IT in manufacturing
Published : April 2007

Sales manager Keith Breadmore explained to Jayne Flannery why small to medium sized manufacturers are increasingly turning to Jobshop, the advanced production planning and control system which is the key brand of the Planit Group

Optimising production efficiency has never been more vital to the small and medium sized manufacturers who constitute Britain’s manufacturing base. When these smaller manufacturing enterprises decide to invest in a lean tool box, sales manager Keith Breadmore for Jobshop within the Planit Group believes that there can be no better investment than in the com-pany’s manufacturing, production and business management software and solutions. The product is a world famous manufacturing and production control system that delivers unbeatable functionality across a broad range of industrial sectors at a fraction of the price of comparative offerings.

Jobshop is a principal member of the Planit Group – a global supplier of design and manufacturing software for the engineering, woodworking and stone industries. In essence, the company provides its customers with products and services that enable them to improve the productivity of their machine tools, shorten design and manufacturing time, optimise material usage and deliver products and services to the highest possible quality standards.

Breadmore was quick to point out the benefits of being part of a larger company. “As we are part of an organisation with a multi-million pound turnover that is well managed and with a global reach we are seen as a much more secure proposition. We can now also take a much longer term view on software development and we are seeing a new level of maturity to our product,” he said.

“Jobshop represents quite simply a great value for money proposition,” he continued. “It is not only very cost effective, but also offers big savings on implementation time. Thirty to 40 days consultancy spend is typical when dealing with the average MRP vendor, whereas Jobshop will offer the same level of functionality with just 15 days needed for the implementation.”

He believes that Jobshop also offers a much more pragmatic solution. “Bigger systems have too many controls. Small to medium sized manufacturers need a very high level of flexibility and agility and that is what we offer. It is immediately apparent that Jobshop was written by and for people who totally understand the issues that manufacturers must confront as opposed to something that was dreamed up by software engineers who have never seen a shopfloor.”

Breadmore is delighted at the growing interest in the product, the latest generation of which has been showcased at a number of trade fairs. A major implementation with Aish Technologies based in Poole, Dorset, is one of the most recent contracts. Aish Technologies is a design and manufacturing company, which specialises in multi-function consoles, flat panel displays and cathodic protection systems, is using Jobshop costing, estimating, order processing, manufacturing, stock control and reporting modules. Over the past five years, Aish has invested more than £1.5 million in providing the latest design and manufacturing tools. The latest Jobshop manufacturing and production control software has been installed to integrate all its systems and reduce lead times.

“We are using the latest design and manufacturing tools and adopting lean process techniques to improve operational effectiveness,” explained Aish managing director Ed Bates. “Sustained investment in capital equipment and training has also required replacing our business system with one offering a high degree of functionality.”

The Jobshop system, which Aish anticipates will have 35 users with an additional 20 touch screen shopfloor data capture terminals, was selected because it offered very good value for money for an integrated system. It also closely matches the company’s contract cost driven business and has excellent scheduling capabilities – features that are essential to the efficient running of the company.

“We aim to be fully live with the system by June 2007,” says information systems manager Paul Hardwick. “By which time we expect to significantly improve our scheduling of work in order to better utilise capacity and reduce WIP.”

Planit’s solutions are already best-in-class within their respective markets and Breadmore believes that this type of investment is ever more fundamental to the strength of Britain’s manufacturing base. “We are definitely seeing a shift away from Jobshop being a tier three product to being a tier two product. Moreover it comes with a very attractive price tag which I believe none of our competitors can match when it comes to functionality,” he concluded.

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