“We are not a commodity producer,” said Paul Steffanutti, president, National Coating Corporation. “Our company provides simple and flexible contract manufacturing solutions to complex coating problems.”
“Recently, we set the goal of achieving 30 percent growth over the next two years. The plan is to become as diverse as possible by better understanding our business and adapting to changing market demands. We never want to be impacted by a falling economy again. This will be accomplished by making sure we're always in place to respond to new opportunities with innovative products that appeal to a broad spectrum of industries.”
Identifying new opportunities with enhanced technology
In early 2016, National Coating Corporation entered the next phase of this initiative by upgrading to the latest version of the Epicor enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. National Coating Corporation originally went live with the Epicor system in 2009 after switching from a “bare bones” accounting system in 2009. The Epicor system has not only supplied quicker, simpler-to-navigate access to nearly every application company-wide, but also an even deeper level of actionable and accurate data that Steffanutti believes will directly increase revenues and cut costs.
“The Epicor system checked all the boxes,” explained Steffanutti. “It's given us a better handle on our maintenance and cost structures, allowing us to identify what we do extremely well and areas that need improvement across the organization. These are extremely valuable insights that have supplied very real competitive advantages.”
Connecting employees, customers, and management in real time
According to Anita Hill, human resources and payroll manager at National Coating Corporation, the benefits from the Epicor ERP (now known as Kinetic) system extend throughout the company by connecting employees, management, and customers in real time. Client questions are now answered seamlessly over the phone because employees have simple dashboards highlighting everything from accounting, payroll, labor, and inventory activities to the current and previous status of virtually any job on the production floor.
“The Epicor ERP system is an all-in-one package that gives us everything we need,” offered Hill. “We know the moment an employee gets in the door, the exact time they check out, and everything they've done in between. Actions such as invoicing and the posting of cash payments that took hours now take five minutes. If we generated the same amount of information with our former system, the paperwork would be a mile high.”
Improved operations with heightened traceability
At National Coating Corporation, profitability is measured not only by the yards of product produced in a day, but also the labor and material used in its generation. Through the Epicor system, the company has enhanced the visibility of this process to the point where the type and quantity of chemicals added can be directly traced to an exact time of day and the person responsible.
“Previously, we had to write everything down,” explained Tyler Phinney, floor leader, National Coating Corporation. “There was no way to monitor the progress of transactions. With Epicor, all the details are right out in front. We know exactly what our people are doing and when they're doing it. Everything is correct
without the need to interrupt operations and constantly check a job status.”
“I couldn't get through a day without the Epicor ERP system,” added Jenn Aruda, IT manager for National Coating Corporation. “The system is really designed to help you succeed. It's so simple to navigate between screens that are all connected to real-time data we can see at any time.”