Global Business Standardizes on Epicor Kinetic to Automate Processes, Drive Consistency, and Prune Resource Demands
When is ERP more than a software package? When it becomes a catalyst for business transformation. Daniel Topp, VP of IT at TASi Measurement, revealed, “As we deploy Epicor Kinetic across our businesses, we see it as an opportunity to improve processes, save time, and increase competitiveness. Epicor offers a global platform to establish a center of excellence for running our operations.”
Industries as varied as energy and life sciences, automotive and agriculture, chemical and water processing share a demand for measurement and monitoring solutions. TASi Measurement provides temperature, level, flow, and pressure instruments and facilitates data gathering and reporting from remote telemetry products. Sixteen business units manage production facilities in the United States, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, and UK with additional sales offices in the Netherlands and China.
M&A is a significant contributor to growth, and TASi Measurement has recognized the need to establish a standard set of operating procedures and a common ERP solution to maximize efficiency and visibility. In 2017, the company adopted Epicor Kinetic which was deployed in the cloud with the goal of migrating all current and future businesses to the solution. Topp shared, “Epicor Kinetic is our ERP of choice, and six of our 16 businesses are already running it. Currently, we onboard one company a year, however we are planning that to double to two businesses annually starting next year.”
A key driver of moving the TASi Measurement business units to Epicor Kinetic is process standardization. “Epicor is very customizable, but we try to stay as off-the-shelf as possible to maintain consistency, streamline upgrades, and drive efficiency,” Topp clarified.
Consolidating on Epicor facilitates knowledge sharing and establishes best practices in reporting and automating; it also streamlines intercompany tasks such as purchase orders, sales orders, and invoicing between businesses, and standardizes part numbers and naming conventions. For example, when we onboard a new business they can leverage the TASi Measurement standards like the chart of accounts which replace business-specific account charts. “This eliminates hours spent gathering, cross-checking, and combining account lists across the businesses,” Topp observed. “Epicor Kinetic supports us in establishing ‘gold standards’ across the entire group.”
Similarly, deploying Epicor Kinetic in the cloud has expedited cohesion. “There are tremendous benefits to a SaaS model,” Topp imparted. “Uppermost are continuous updates to the latest and greatest functionality—that’s fantastic. Epicor also offers us flexibility; we do not have to be the pioneer, and we can choose to stay on a version for longer if needed.” The cloud also eradicates the need to manage an on-prem environment, which preserves resources while ensuring security.
As TASi Measurement acquires new businesses, Topp gains visibility to a range of ERP solutions and has a window to compare them to Epicor.
Topp shared a vital example: TASi Measurement sets an inventory turns target for its businesses. One company, Sierra Instruments, who manufactures high performance mass flow meters and mass flow controllers for nearly any gas, liquid, or steam application, could only meet that goal after deploying Epicor Kinetic. “Within 18-months, we reduced inventory by 40% and hit the inventory turn mark,” he disclosed.
Topp credited that achievement to the business focusing on this initiative along with utilizing Epicor Kinetic to specify parameters such as minimum- and maximum-on-hand and safety stock and attaching alerts to those parameters. He adjoined, “Epicor enabled that business to fully utilize MRP—which massively impacts how well the business operates—right-size inventory and creates a much more competitive posture for Sierra Instruments.”
Another TASi Measurement business, is about to go live on Epicor Kinetic and expects a substantial benefit. Today, the accounts receivable manager utilizes a 19 – 25 working-day manual process that requires her to consolidate data from disparate systems to create an invoice which is prone to errors. “Epicor Kinetic will eliminate an excruciating manual data consolidation process and slash the time required to less than two days—just a phenomenal impact,” Topp divulged. “That means the manager can work more meaningfully, focus on tasks that add value to the business, and be more present with customers.”
Topp noted that deferred revenue functionality is also a significant advantage. It allows the company to invoice for the next 12, 24, or 36 months while recognizing revenue over the appropriate time period.
Epicor Kinetic will eliminate an excruciating manual data consolidation process and slash the time required from 22 days to less than two days—just a phenomenal impact.
Automating processes with Epicor Kinetic can help to save money and facilitate company growth.
“Watching a business go from a sub-par ERP or a highly manual process to Epicor Kinetic is incredible,” Topp elaborated. “Epicor Kinetic is not just for where a business is now; it offers a platform to support growth for the next decade.”
With a regular cadence of implementing Epicor Kinetic, Topp and his team are becoming experts at the rollout despite the nuances of different operating models, such as the service-based monitoring and data collection business. He highlighted, “The current deployment is under budget and scheduled to go live within a 9-month timeline. To ensure smooth implementation, TASi ensures a debrief takes place after each deployment to share the best practices and lessons learned.”
“One of our businesses Pulsar Measurement a world-leading manufacturer and supplier of flow and level instrumentation and pump control technology, has taken advantage of Epicor and TASi Measurement group standards to embark on a journey to a paperless shop floor. By having documentation in a central place and easily accessible via terminals across the warehouse, paper usage has already been cut by a third,” Topp stated; “Pulsar is also exploring adding Epicor Enterprise Content Management (ECM) to accelerate the transition.”
Topp also appreciates Epicor Country Specific Functionality (CSF) packs as his team deploys the solution globally. “Epicor CSFs help us meet the unique needs of different countries, such as language and sales tax,” he explained.
Epicor dashboards keep teams aligned on tasks and schedules, and reporting informs improved decision-making. For instance, field parameters such as, lead times, minimum order quantity and price breaks help TASi Measurement procurement teams buy materials at the right time for the correct cost to optimize MRP.
I want IT to be more than a cost center. I want to demonstrate to leadership how we positively impact the business. In 2024, we’ve saved the business over $300K and saved our end-users more than 30 hours. Epicor has been a critical component supporting these achievements.
“Being able to sequence and prioritize work correctly delivers massive efficiencies,” Topp acknowledged. “Getting a handle on costs is a huge advantage, as well as understanding what a job should cost and what it actually costs in terms of materials, overhead, and labor. With Epicor, we have all that data at our fingertips.”
Topp continued, “I want IT to be more than a cost center; I want to demonstrate how we positively impact the business. In 2024, to date IT have saved the business over $300K and saved our end-users more than 2,000 TASi minutes. Epicor has been a critical component supporting these achievements.”
Another initiative on Topp’s agenda is supporting TASi Measurement’s sustainability team in achieving ISO 14001 compliance certifications (addressing environmental concerns, legal requirements, and ongoing improvement) across the businesses.
Topp described, “At TASi Measurement, sustainability is central to our corporate strategy. By managing sustainability, we reduce our environmental footprint and ensure business growth through strong governance, risk management, product innovation, and employee engagement. We are continually exploring new ways to reduce our environmental footprint through energy efficiency, waste minimization, life cycle assessments, and supporting sustainable sourcing. To ensure we hold ourselves to a high environmental standard, we are certifying all our manufacturing sites to ISO 14001, a globally recognized environmental management system standard.
Our global sustainability goals allow us to embed a culture of sustainability into everything we do and to share our challenges and success stories transparently. Our commitment to sustainability is good for the planet and good for business. Our products are used daily to track sustainability KPIs, including water usage, wastewater discharges, methane emissions, and reducing inefficiencies via industrial automation. We look forward to utilizing the carbon tracking and reporting functionality currently being built into Epicor Kinetic and sharing our progress with you.”
Standardizing Epicor Kinetic has become a transformative tool for streamlining operations, optimizing inventory management, reducing costs, and supporting rapid growth. Topp summarized, “Epicor Kinetic is more than a powerful ERP solution. It instigates standardization and consistency across our business to create a foundation for growth."
