“SYSPRO gives us the capability to become a trusted supplier through its serial and component tracking capability. We are now able to compete for serious, high level contracts because we can demonstrate strong control processes throughout our supply chain.”

Laura McBrown – G&B Managing Director

Customer Profile

G&B Electronics began as a design and development business with low volume manufacturing capabilities. Recently, it has shifted its business model to become an electronics manufacturing business with test development and post-sales, non-warrantee product support services.

The Mission

As part of the drive towards transitioning the business model from design to manufacturing, the company has had to implement new processes for dealing with warranty support, re-calibration and product re-configuration.

The Solution

Facilitating this evolutionary business model transformation has been a SYSPRO ERP solution, first implemented by K3 Syspro in 2012. The fully integrated solution provides G&B Electronics with a single source of information for all mission critical business information.

The Outcome

The solution has enabled G&B Electronics to reduce the time it previously spent on administrative tasks, and by automating standardized processes, has also provided strong foundations on which the senior management team can build a more effective business model.

Greater Integration for Quicker, More Accurate Processes

The company’s previous end of line business application was effective for design, but lacked in manufacturing functionality. The business required greater data collection capability, Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS), and wanted to integrate its financial package into its manufacturing execution system.

A real benefit of G&B’s SYSPRO implementation is the time the company has saved on creating part numbers. The company is using SYSPRO’s standard processes for creating part numbers and accelerating this by integrating the ERP solution with DataSwitch, K3 Syspro’s data manipulation and integration tool. This is enabling G&B to reduce the time it used to take to create part numbers from up to 10 days at a time to just a day, and sometimes hours. Furthermore, because the process is automated, the business is also benefitting from more accurate data, and reducing the risk of human error.

By reducing the time it takes to perform manual processes, key figures within the business have been freed up to consider the effectiveness of the overall business model, and the impact this has on general market conditions. The global drive towards Industry 4.0 – the fourth industrial revolution – has meant that electronics manufacturers have had to prepare for shorter times-to-market, greater individualization of products and flexibility, and therefore, engineer smarter business models built around factory interconnectivity and heightened productivity.

As part of the drive towards transitioning the business model from design to manufacturing, the company has had to implement new processes for dealing with warranty support, re-calibration and product re-configuration. SYSPRO’s Serial Number Tracking functionality is making it possible for the business to effectively track the movement of all manufactured items through the production line and the wider supply chain.

As G&B Managing Director, Laura McBrown, explains, this has also enabled the business to further segment itself into the aerospace and defense markets.
“We had already done some work for the aerospace and defense markets before we implemented SYSPRO, but this was on a very low scale compared to what we do now. Traceability and quality are key in these industries and SYSPRO gives us the capability to become a trusted supplier through its serial and component tracking capability. We are now able to compete for serious, high level contracts because we can demonstrate strong control processes throughout our supply chain.”

Small Benefits that Make a Big Difference

McBrown explains how all of these individual business benefits of SYSPRO come together to make a big impact on the company’s overall business model, its market position and importantly, its bottom line.

“Businesses in the electronics manufacturing industry that still have to perform time-consuming manual tasks are struggling to compete. We quickly recognized that we were losing valuable manufacturing and production time to data entry and needed an immediate solution to this. SYSPRO has enabled us to automate our manual processes, better connect our supply chain and enable us to grow our business.”

Catapulting the Customer to the Heart of Operations

As the business model continues to evolve at G&B, the next step for the company is to continue to put the customer right at the heart of operations. The business is already working closely with K3 Syspro to continue to utilize its integrated ERP solution effectively and provide customers with more information on where a product is in the manufacturing supply chain.

Laura McBrown concludes: “If you look at the evolution of manufacturing, everything around connectivity and servitization is all about better understanding and servicing customers. We are catapulting the customer to the heart of our operations and our business model. We want to understand how our services are going to give our customers an edge within their market, and identify how we can we use our systems better to deliver this.”