Leading steel bar processor Milltech selects SYSPRO to support Industry 4.0 and enhance its customer experience

Leading Australian engineering bar processor, Milltech Martin Bright has selected Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) specialist, SYSPRO, to enable it to provide a superior customer experience and accelerate its Industry 4.0 rollout.

Since 1992, Newcastle based Milltech Martin Bright has progressively grown to become Australia’s leading engineering bar processor, now employing in excess of 80 technicians, production and administrative staff located across four manufacturing plants around Australia. Producing more than 30,000 tonnes of engineering bars per annum, the company offers a comprehensive range of steel processing and engineering services using world leading processing technologies.

Through ongoing investment in world class equipment such as the ‘Superquench’ advanced technology continuous heat treatment line for bars up to 150mm, as well as the state-of-the-art ‘Marcrome’ continuous chrome plating lines, Milltech has achieved leading edge manufacturing status.  “However, we didn’t have an enterprise system to match our automation project.  We wanted a modern, flexible system that would capture information in real-time to support us as we move forward with Industry 4.0 to provide further efficiencies,” said Andrew Wilson, Business Manager at Milltech Martin Bright.

“SYSPRO will assist us in not only retaining our position as the market leader, but will help us to increase the gap we have on our competitors in terms of product quality, delivery times and service levels,” continues Andrew. “It will allow us to be more strategic, providing us with the capability to plan five or ten years into the future, rather than only worrying about the upcoming quarter.”

SYSPRO ERP will help Milltech achieve this through better management of production, dispatch planning, inventory management and reducing its stockholding, improving cashflow, remaining compliant, eliminating manual processes whilst providing the capability to support strategic planning.  In addition, SYSPRO ERP will enable Milltech to eliminate weekly manual business reporting, replacing it with real-time automated business reporting, so the company always has a single source of the truth at its fingertips.

This will enable the company to ensure its quality products are delivered to customers on time every time, whilst providing proactive delivery updates to its customers, rather than reacting to a customer’s delivery enquiry.

“We selected SYSPRO not only for its flexibility but also due to its team’s deep knowledge and understanding of manufacturing and warehousing. SYSPRO’s team of experts talked to us about the business value of the total solution and how it would integrate with our other systems. We were not just sold a standalone product as other vendors often do,” said Andrew.

“We’re thrilled to be working with the market leading engineering bar processor in Australia and are looking forward to a rewarding partnership that will enable the company to service its customers better whilst generating further automation and operational efficiencies and continue its digital transformation project,” said Rob Stummer, Asia Pacific Chief Executive Officer at SYSPRO.

Milltech’s SYSPRO 8.0 implementation is currently in the design phase and will be fully implemented by September 2021. It is replacing an ERP system that was designed for smaller manufacturers to enable the company to grow.