B&K Corporation Selects Encompix ETO ERP

B&K Corporation has two Michigan manufacturing plants, one in Fenton and one in Saginaw. The company founded in 1952 recently transformed their technology process by implementing ETO (Engineer-to-Order) ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Leader Encompix, based in Cincinnati, OH.

Kurt Kuck, CFO for B&K shared some of the operational challenges the company faced on a daily basis prior to the Encompix implementation. Kuck noted, “We are a special order business. Every order we get is different in some regard, but many of our machines have some commonality to them. Our tendency was that when we received a new order, we had not simplified method of identifying what we could use from previous orders. That approach just added to the cost. What was needed was some standardization.”

Kuck also on the lack of efficiency in the old Syteline system from Symix (now Infor Global Systems). “Syteline was fine for tracking material and labor costs. But what was lacking was the capability to bring it all together into a job cost system that we could use for percentage of completion.”

Kuck noted they did not have a real time system. It was a very paper intensive system. The company would go into monthly job cost meetings that lasted hours and with three inch books of paper with all project budget recaps. The Syteline data was three weeks old.

Encompix benefits after just six months made a dramatic difference according to Kuck: “By eliminating the manual input that resulted from maintaining duel systems, B&K dramatically decreased our clerical time. This has made out month-end process much more streamlined and efficient. Encompix give us vastly improved information. We are able to see the exact status of all our projects. How we go into those meetings and we just pull everything up onto the screen and enter job notes right into the system. It is much more of a real-time system.”

Encompix (www.encompix.com) has filled the manufacturing software requirements of Engineer-to-Order companies since 1992. The company name reflects our commitment to developing business application solutions that encompass the complex areas of project-based and job-based manufacturing.

Encompix provides ETO manufacturers with a competitive advantage by improving bottom line results.

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