The challenge
In 2009, Higginson decided to part ways with its 15-year-old business software. The decision was motivated by three factors. Firstly, its existing system was outdated, simplistic and didn't have a Materials Resource Planning (MRP) component. Secondly, the recession was driving a need to increase productivity without increasing manpower. And finally, the company received funding in the form of two government grants - one through the Yves Landry Foundation, and the other through the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters' SMART Program.

"I was already a big believer in ERP," said Bill Allan, president of Higginson Equipment. "With government assistance, I couldn't say no."

A 20-person company with revenues in the seven-million-dollar range, Higginson recognized the necessity of optimizing itself for the future.

"We've been steadily growing, but we needed something to help us get to the next level," Allan said. "We wanted to eliminate the inefficiencies and bottlenecks in our processes, and in doing so, we wanted to build a solid base for improvement and growth."

The solution
To facilitate its strategy, Higginson engaged its long-time VAR to perform an assessment and recommend an approach. After detailed analysis of its company-wide processes, Higginson was advised to implement a new, more advanced ERP system. Following due diligence, and on the VAR's recommendation, Higginson chose Syspro.

When it came time for implementation, Higginson did it with alacrity.

"We took what is usually a six-month process and did it in two months. We spent late nights inventing on the fly, and even made some rash decisions. Fortunately, the VAR that sold us Syspro gave us amazing support, and at the end of the day, we got what we wanted," Allan said.

As Higginson implemented its new ERP, most of the old, inefficient processes were funnelled into one of the following categories:
• Automated functions available in Syspro (e.g., automated work order creation from sales orders; automatic serial numbers generation for manufactured parts);
• Product configuration (to automatically define product specifications, Bill of Materials and cost at the time of quotation);
• Integration with office productivity tools (such as Microsoft Office); or
• Electronic faxing and remote connectivity.

The result
"Syspro has made us much more efficient, especially as far as the Bill of Materials (BOM) and work orders are concerned," Allan commented. "We used to have to do an Excel spreadsheet for every job, and then more spreadsheets to calculate cut-lengths of different materials. Now we just put the model number in and Syspro calculates everything for us."

Before Syspro, Higginson's system supervisor, a highly skilled machine operator, sat at his desk for three hours a day doing repetitive calculations.

"Thanks to Syspro, he's now gained three hours a day in production time. We've also managed to eliminate a good number of mistakes. Occasionally, in the past, we'd cut a batch of tie rods incorrectly - not anymore," he said.

Syspro's modular nature enables Higginson to add efficiencies to workflow as time and energy allow. The company plans to do more load levelling - the process of evenly distributing demand, in terms of orders or schedule, over a given period of time.

"We haven't quite figured out how to take advantage of it, but load levelling will give us a bird's-eye view of production. That will help us smooth things out, and see problems that might be coming down the road. It's a nice feature that we still have to leverage completely," Allan said.

When asked to consider Syspro's ROI, Allan gave thanks again to the government-sponsored grants.

"Taking the grants into account, Syspro is going to pay for itself in a year. The company is out-of-pocket approximately one person's annual salary. For a relatively small amount of money, we automated our business processes and removed the repetitive paperwork. But the real money-saving consequence of Syspro is that we can now do more with fewer people - and that makes us more competitive," he said.

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