Viking Precision Engineers case study
From errors and duplication to flexible, integrated efficiency
The Company
Established in 1965 Viking Precision is a successful family managed business providing high quality precision engineered components and assemblies for the passenger transport, aerospace, defence and offshore industries.
A large Computer Numerical Control (CNC) turning and milling section is complimented by a range of conventional milling, turning, drilling and grinding facilities and a metal fabrication department.
Viking’s success has been based on a total commitment to meet or exceed the standards demanded by their customer base, through substantial investment in machining technology and best engineering skills and has resulted in the achievement of the ISO9001 quality standard.
Project Brief
For a number of years, Viking Precision have managed their accounting needs with two separate systems hosted on legacy operating systems. One system provided financial information and the other dealt with the production of quotations, purchase orders and the management of jobs through the work shop.
Neither system was easy to use, leading to a substantial volume of duplication and errors on both systems.
In addition, whilst the production of most items are to order, it had never been possible for finished goods stock quantities to be reliably managed from within the computer system.
It was decided to replace these with a fully integrated system to cover all the aspects of both existing systems under one banner. The chosen system would have to be very easy to use and be flexible enough to achieve a close fit to all of Viking’s requirements. And a system fit for the 21st century.
The Solution
It was clear no single off the shelf package would meet the demanding requirements of Viking Precision without a level of modification.
The most user-friendly solution demonstrated to Viking and subsequently chosen was SAP Business One. This largely satisfied Viking’s requirements with many of their needs as standard, as well as providing APH with a platform to develop the required modifications using the SAP Business One SDK system.
A detailed Specification of Requirements was drawn up by APH for the bespoke software, which provided seamless integration with the standard financial and inventory modules of SAP Business One.
Existing financial data was extracted and uploaded (using the SAP Business One DTW) from their legacy accounting system and Viking went live at the start of their financial year as planned.
Extensive work was also undertaken within the forms editor to allow for the production of customer and supplier documents with a fresh and modern image, but care was also taken to reproduce their usual end of month reports, in a familiar format.
Viking personnel, encouraged by its ease of use, embraced the system quickly. The complete lack of any need to duplicate work provided an immediate benefit.
For the first time, the stock position and other commercial information for major customers of Viking Precision has been made available in one place. The brilliant “drill down” capabilities of SAP Business One allowed users to navigate through the system with ease. At the time of receiving a new order, the stock availability and pricing were immediately known.
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