Enpress uses new technology in its manufacturing business to make smarter decisions that improve operational efficiency. With its own leading edge technologies, Epicor Kinetic was a natural solution for their ERP. After a rapid implementation, Enpress quickly took advantage of Kinetic tools to improve communications and data flow across the enterprise.
Water covers nearly 75 percent of the Earth's surface and is arguably the world's most essential element. Since 2002, Eastlake-Ohio based Enpress LLC has manufactured composite pressure vessels used primarily in the water treatment industry. The company also develops water filtration systems with easy-to-access top and bottom openings for use with various filtration connections and solutions. Enpress' goal is to ensure that the moment water enters a house or business, it's clean, sanitized and disinfected for safe use.
Enpress prides itself on leveraging new technology to make smarter decisions to improve operational efficiency. To this end, Enpress wanted an ERP solution that was responsive, easy to use, which enabled better internal collaboration and communication with its customers, and which featured today's leading next-generation technologies.
The company moved to Epicor ERP version 10 in March 2014. Once the ERP system was in place, Enpress immediately took advantage of everything Epicor ERP 10 had to offer. "From order entry to cash receipts, Epicor ERP 10 is easy to use and has great functionality, allowing us to do more with less," said Anthony Gercar, plant accountant, Enpress LLC. "Epicor really took the time to make Epicor ERP 10 a quality product.
"One of our goals was to improve communications from the front office to the production line," "The social collaboration component of Epicor ERP 10 is customizable and supports communication to all departments on schedules and the status of production orders."
The social collaboration...is customizable and supports communication to all departments...
The collaboration and real-time access to data has also helped Enpress better manage its inventory, which in turn helps manage cash flow resulting in lowering expenses. The instant access to data enables Enpress to quickly retrieve data any time without having to constantly wait for an e-mail to arrive with the requested information.
Enpress further enhanced its collaboration by leveraging the Epicor Social Enterprise collaboration tools in Epicor ERP version 10. The company installed two large LED displays - one near the time-clock area and the other in the boxing area where finished goods are packaged - to enable employees to read messages and communicate with each other in real-time on project status and other developments. The messages are organized in groups such as accounting, maintenance, manufacturing, and shipping, allowing users to read and respond to messages that are relevant to their specific focus areas. Every evening, a group digest email is distributed, which summarizes all communications within each group each day.
"We are embracing the communication with Epicor Social Enterprise, and I have been surprised how many people are using the tool," said Gercar. "The second and third-shift teams love it because they know their messages will be reviewed quickly. It's like having our own type of Twitter."
Mobility was another key reason Enpress selected the Epicor ERP 10 platform, which enables the company to save time on tasks. "The mobile aspect is tremendous. I can now walk around the plant with my tablet PC and schedule machine run times with a few taps of my fingers and give back an hour to supervisors who can concentrate on other important issues," said Gercar.
While social collaboration and mobility play key roles in accessing and utilizing data, Epicor ERP 10 sub-queries provide a view of the entire bill-of-materials (BOM) in one query and with a sub-query connected directly to it. This allows Enpress to have a complete view of its operations and how it relates to the BOM.
The process of migrating to a new ERP platform can be daunting to many companies, but Gercar says implementing Epicor ERP 10 was "the simplest migration process I have been a part of."
The simplest migration process I have been a part of.
"Epicor was very responsive to our needs and the entire process took a fraction of the time in comparison to past ERP implementations," said Gercar. "We shut down the system on Friday and were 'live' on Monday, and migrating the database to Epicor ERP 10 took less than three hours, compared to days with past ERP platforms."
Not only was the implementation of Epicor ERP 10 fast, product updates and patches are also faster. "Before Epicor ERP 10, there were nearly 100 pages to go through to install a patch, and now there are only 8 pages. The update process is so much easier and now I do not have to hire a consultant to assist, which saves both time and money," said Gercar.
Epicor ERP 10 also provided the catalyst for Enpress to expand its operations to create a new company to support a new water treatment product. With Epicor ERP 10, Enpress can login to one system and view work schedules, shop floor data, and reports for both companies without investing in new technology.
"Enpress is in a fast-paced industry that is constantly changing. Epicor ERP 10 allows us to create reports to analyze historical information about products and product groups. This also helps us predict the direction the business is going in so we can make critical decisions in real-time," concludes Gercar.
