Northamptonshire based precision engineering sub-contractor G23 Engineering Limited describes the PSL Datatrack production control system as “brilliant”. The company believes that their investment in the system has more than justified itself by underpinning the dramatic growth of the company over the last year, helping achieve ISO 9001 accreditation very smoothly and giving their customers fast and full component traceability and manufacturing history.
The family business, run by brothers Adam and Dan Green, was initially centred almost exclusively on the top-level motorsport and luxury automotive sectors. With many years’ experience under their belts in precision turning and milling, the opportunity to expand the business using these acquired skills was very attractive. They knew, however, that proper production control was of paramount importance for any transition and growth as the company’s existing administration procedures would not be good enough.
“We knew simply recording and storing customer and production information on the company iPad would not be sufficient. We were already missing some jobs or sometimes not invoicing correctly. So, bearing in mind all the likely combinations of orders for different components, quantities and materials that an increased customer base was likely to bring, things had to change.” says Adam.
Another pertinent challenge was to acquire ISO 9001:2015 quality accreditation. “As a company with a passion for quality, excellence and customer satisfaction, the credibility and status of gaining ISO accreditation was never in doubt.” says Adam. As it turned out, it was the company’s ISO consultant who suggested that PSL Datatrack production control software could be the solution for all their requirements, having already witnessed how other companies had benefited from it in their quest for ISO 9001.
Twelve months later and G23 Engineering Limited now has many new customers on board from markets as diverse as aerospace, nautical, defence and the medical sectors to name but a few in addition to their existing automotive business. Using state of the art machine tools, the company offers three and four axis milling on its vertical machining centres complemented by two and three axis turning with live tooling to produce complex turned and milled components. Coupled with sophisticated CADCAM systems, the company is able to take on a full range of prototypes, test pieces and full production contracts.
G23 Engineering Limited now runs its entire business using the PSL Datatrack system. Having quickly gained ISO 9001:2015 accreditation the company now has a system that can recall full documentation of every job for every customer instantly and ensure complete manufacturing traceability. The aim is always to quote for work within 24 hours and PSL Datatrack is enabling them to fulfil this pledge. “Anything the inspector asked for, we could access immediately through PSL Datatrack. We can call up historic information quickly and quote accurately with consideration for variable stock holding, materials and manufacturing quantities in full knowledge that the quotations will be accurate and not over or under priced.” says Adam.
Having already invested in a variety of PSL Datatrack modules from quotations to invoicing with sales and purchase order processing, component and materials stocks together with gauge calibration the company can look to the future in a considered way in the knowledge that the PSL Datatrack investment can be extended exactly when needed and with minimum fuss.
Adam Green reflects positively on the decision to invest in PSL Datatrack. “It is the most flexible and fit for purpose production control system on the market. Having compared it to others, which left us cold, PSL Datatrack was focused on exactly what we needed – a simple, flexible system to which we can add extra modules and user licences as our plans for further expansion come to fruition. You get what you pay for. We invested wisely and the payback will be very quick.”
Established in 2010, G23 Engineering Limited has had continued success ever since, firstly in automotive and now in the contract engineering market. Its engineering capabilities in producing both simple and complex parts in a variety of batch sizes are now much more widely utilised and PSL Datatrack has added the stability and the credibility factor to support the company’s continuing growth and their plans for the future.
