Manufacturing Success Stories
M&K Engineering Boosts Sales
“The Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership has
proven to be a most valuable ally in our struggle to meet the demands
of an increasingly competitive marketplace.” — Henry Bernardo,
President
M&K Engineering, Inc., in Woburn, Massachusetts, is a small contract
machine shop specializing in the production of Swiss screw machine precision
components. This minority-owned business also has expertise in all-around
machining, CNC (computer numerical control), and milling and turning.
The company has been in business for over five years and almost 90%
of its business is geared to military contracting.
Situation
Continually looking to the future of his company, President Henry Bernardo
realized that he needed to change the ways in which he was doing business
to better meet the demands of M&K’s market. They could no longer
afford a four- to six-week turnaround time on delivery, and they needed
to invest in the latest technology and “best business practices”
to be able to manufacture their products better, faster, and cheaper.
He began looking to the feasibility of implementing a customized material
review process (MRP) to accomplish this goal. Faced with the dual pressures
of running his business and administering a project that would accelerate
the company’s move toward the 21st Century, Mr. Bernardo turned
to its local Manufacturing Extension Partnership affiliate, the MassMEP,
for assistance.
Solution
For the past five years, M&K’s accounting, purchasing, job
costing, and invoicing systems had been maintained separately from each
other, and many of the systems were still handled on paper. Mr. Bernardo
realized that this situation needed to change. M&K had already laid
the foundation for upgrading their computer systems to better meet their
increasing demands and to streamline their internal processes. With
the assistance of the MassMEP, M&K investigated several systems
that were designed to streamline these particular tasks. However, the
costs associated with several of these options represented a significant
computer capital investment and were clearly not viable. Together, MassMEP
and M&K brought in a software developer who custom designed a program
that would run in a Windows environment and allow the company to handle
these administrative tasks with only incremental hardware upgrades and
at minimal cost to the company.
Results
Although the first phase of the project has just recently been completed,
the company is anticipating significant returns on their initial investment.
Because of an increase in inventory turns to eight day, the company
expects a significant increase in sales with an additional $100,000
savings in inventory control. They also expect that the project will
result in a reduction in rework by 10%, saving the company about $10,000
through scrap reduction. |
