Epicor software has become the nerve center of this growing engineering and manufacturing company. By streamlining operations, they've grown more competitive and profitable, doubling their annual revenue.
CV Technology manufactures solutions used to reduce the explosion and fire hazards associated with the handling of process powders and dry bulk materials. Launched in 1994, the company is now a worldwide market leader and vendor of choice for numerous Fortune 500 companies.
In recent years, CV Technology sales have doubled, necessitating the move to a new 28,000 sq. ft. facility in Jupiter, Florida. This move was needed to fulfill the monthly engineering and manufacture of hundreds of explosion mitigation devices, ranging from vents and isolation valves to flameless vents and chemical suppression equipment.
"CV Technology provides peace of mind to organizations involved primarily in the production of wood, chemical, and food items and related products," said Mariano Morales, chief financial officer, CV Technology. "Designed in accordance with the latest codes and standards, our flameless venting devices minimize the risk to environments susceptible to organic dust explosions and fires. These services also involve the testing necessary for determining potential problems and their mitigation. Very few competitors can match our depth of services or sophisticated product focus."
Over the years, CV Technology has refined this approach through the ongoing introduction and development of devices produced for this very specific marketplace. In addition to its current product array, the company also regularly works with clients to tailor their equipment to the needs of very complicated environments governed by strict compliance and safety regulations.
In 2008, these efforts were advanced through the implementation of the Epicor enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, which tracks the status of components and assembly of products through the production cycle. This includes the ability to more accurately deal with the lead times of multiple vendors-which could range from anywhere from two days to six weeks, as well as better predict and schedule the completion of jobs. As a result, the company dramatically reduced production delays and improved assembly times by 25 percent.
Epicor is the nerve center of our organization.
"Epicor is the nerve center of our organization," Morales revealed. "It has enabled us to integrate the activities of the entire company into one centralized system. Our products are significantly complex-requiring parts from 50 to 60 separate vendors. In addition, to accurately track inventory so we never fall behind at crucial times, Epicor helps us break down the costs to manufacture each product and the related labor and overhead."
According to Morales, CV Technology's revenue doubled since it began working with Epicor. Immediately after implementing the solution, the company benefited from the ability to prepare comparative cost analyses across its entire product line, better gauge labor times, and then either raise or lower the prices of its devices. This increased its competitiveness in the marketplace and its overall profitability.
Most recently, CV Technology upgraded its existing system to the latest version of Epicor ERP (now known as Kinetic). Developed to address real-world scenarios in a global economy with even greater performance and simplicity, the system is recognized globally for seamlessly mining information, summarizing data quickly, and centralizing operational functions. Epicor ERP has also become invaluable to companies looking for a real-time, accurate view of the entire process- extending from the order and inventory of raw materials through production.
The company's internal reporting system also received a boost with the ERP upgrade in May 2017. Rather than duplicating efforts as was done previously, sales personnel can now upload their quotes into Epicor, which then automatically formats proposals for submission to customers. In other areas, Epicor has simplified the generation of everything from packing slips and client vouchers to invoices. It's even provided another layer of accuracy to the tracking of inventory by tracing the company-wide use of parts.
"We now have access to features we didn't even know existed," said Rivera. "This includes the automatic generation of email alerts-notifying the right people at the right time-about key tasks and issues as well as the centralized logging of notes and references posted to client case files for instantaneous review companywide."
