SME Manufacturer Uses Epicor to Manage 70% Growth in Global Demand Without Increasing Staff
RMF Systems makes the type of products that are highly technical and invisible to ordinary people, yet are essential to our everyday lives. In fact, green energy generation relies on companies like RMF Systems since its products clean and protect the lubricants needed in wind turbine machinery.
RMF Systems (part of the Des-Case group) manufactures and markets equipment that cleans and maintains lubricants used in hydraulic systems. The company’s range of desiccant breathers, filtration systems, analysis and monitoring solutions are used primarily for large industrial machinery and equipment. The company is the world leader in desiccant breathers used to filter out moisture and particles. Applications include mechanisms inside wind turbines, machines used on vehicle production lines, mining equipment and at the lower end of the scale, for cranes and lifting gear on the back of trucks.
Although the 100-employee business is relatively small, it produces and distributes over 3,000 items a month to 50 countries around the world. This includes manufacturing its own products, producing custom-build solutions, and reselling pre-made items.
The company is improving and digitizing its business operations to help ensure it supplies products to customers efficiently and on time. For example, in the past, handling inbound goods in the warehouse had relied on paper-based information. Spurred on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the company is shifting its IT environment from on-premises to the cloud.
In line with its cloud strategy, RMF Systems has now migrated its industry productivity solution to Epicor Kinetic deployed in the cloud and further enhanced it with Epicor Mobile Warehouse. “Transitioning from Epicor Kinetic on-premises to the cloud was a pretty smooth and seamless operation,” said Leon Stoof, Regional Controller at RMF Systems. “We scheduled a full weekend for the switch over but completed it by 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon.”
Based on their deep industry knowhow and technology expertise, RMF Systems relied heavily on Scherpthe B.V., a local Epicor Premium business partner, for their Epicor Kinetic cloud migration. As well as solution deployment and managing the cloud migration, Scherpthe provide ongoing support, specifically backend requirements, business process consultancy and advice.
RMF Systems uses Epicor Kinetic to manage their manufacturing operations such as quoting and sales, pre-production materials planning, scheduling, manufacturing and inventory control. Epicor Mobile Warehouse is used for internal logistics, recording incoming products and raw materials, and their movement from the warehouse into production.
Handheld devices scan and receive inbound materials and pre-made products for resale. The devices also pick materials for producing customized items. For its high-volume manufacturing operations, RMF Systems uses the Kanban Backflush method that records, in Kinetic, the costs associated with making an item post-production. Kinetic is integrated with Microsoft Power BI for data visualization. It also integrates with Microsoft SharePoint for some document hosting but will eventually host all of the company’s paperwork including quotes, orders, invoices and supplier purchase orders.
RMF Systems is still embedding the Epicor applications and plans to further increase automation and digitization. This includes handheld device barcode reading and photographing inbound goods. It also plans to use the Epicor Kinetic manufacturing execution system (MES) function that monitors, tracks, documents and controls the process of manufacturing goods from raw materials to finished products.
“Compared to other industry productivity solutions, with a little knowledge you can quickly and easily use Epicor,” shared Stoof. ”You do not need a consultant to discover and use important data and business information. Epicor is very intuitive so almost anyone in our business can use it effectively.”
Compared to other industry productivity solutions, with a little knowledge you can quickly and easily use Epicor. You do not need a consultant to discover and use important data and business information. Epicor is very intuitive so almost anyone in our business can use it effectively.
Over the last year or two, business and production volumes at RMF Systems have grown by up to 70%. Epicor has helped the company manage the increase in demand with the same number of staff. Stoof explained that one of the advantages of Epicor is the quick and simple drag-and-drop function, used instead of having to find the relevant customer, date and other information. This is speeding up processes and making it easier and faster to find information. Additionally, RMF Systems adheres to financial and manufacturing industry standards such as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. As it expands its use of Epicor to improve data access and auditing, it will make both compliance – as well as proving compliance – simpler.
“Epicor Kinetic is a very easy solution to use,” remarked Stoof. “RMF Systems is not a large manufacturer, so we are finding the balance between a full-swing industry productivity solution and spreadsheets. Our manufacturing manager uses Epicor Kinetic to record everything for a job and only needs a few clicks for the next step. That is more efficient compared to someone manually using information on bits of paper.”
Epicor Mobile Warehouse has also enabled RMF Systems to replace paper-based processes with automated, digital ones. “Epicor Mobile Warehouse is proving to be very efficient and easy for staff,” added Stoof. “It removes the need to send someone with a printout into the warehouse to collect various components and materials.”
RMF Systems has started using the Active Homepage dashboard in Epicor Kinetic which provides a snapshot of business operations covering information such as executive, finance, manufacturing and supply chain. The company uses Active Homepage to create job schedules outlining which items need picking from the warehouse. Currently, Active Homepage is via a desktop, but RMF Systems will soon make it available on its warehouse handheld devices.
Using Epicor Kinetic deployed in the cloud has meant the application can be used easily by other locations in France and Spain to process orders and sales. A couple times a day, Epicor Kinetic automatically syncs between these offices and the head office, importing orders into the product schedule. Previously, France and Spain used spreadsheets and complex VPN-based connections to communicate with headquarters.
Epicor is key to and in the center of business processes and operations at RMF Systems. Our business and our reputation rest on the commitments we make to customers, and keeping them. Epicor helps us efficiently and accurately deliver what we promise to customers.
“Epicor is crucial and in the center of business processes and operations at RMF Systems,” concluded Stoof. “Our business and our reputation rest on the commitments we make to customers, and keeping them. Epicor helps us efficiently and accurately deliver what we promise to customers.”