earlex limited visual planner customer story · macola es and progression. the earlex...

Earlex LimitedMark Maclachlan, Factory Manager

Visual Planner Customer Story

A Simple Request

Earlex is a leading manufacturer of power decoratingand power cleaning appliances for both theprofessional and DIY markets. Based in Guildford,Surrey, the company was looking for a new financeand MRP system in 2007, and chose Exact Macola ESsupplied by Lynq Ltd, Exact's partner in the UK.

Earlex's Factory Manager, Mark Maclachlan, was keento find out how Lynq could add value to the newMacola system. His innocent request for a productionscheduling tool with lots of features to replace theirExcel-based process, led to Earlex using VisualPlanner. Mark says:

Peter Hayes and the Lynq team already had aplanning tool in the wings. Visual Planner is part ofLynq's development of applications to work withMacola ES and Progression. The Earlex 'wish-list' wassubsequently incorporated into the feature set.

Spreadsheet Production Planning

With Earlex's previous finance and MRP systems,production scheduling was achieved using Excelspreadsheets. This involved data exports andimports, and extensive use of the copy and pastefunctions. When Earlex was busy, work on the Excelspreadsheet was a full time occupation for oneperson.

Using Visual Planner

Earlex's Macola ES system went live at the beginningof August 2008. An early release of Visual Plannerwas installed shortly afterwards, replacing thespreadsheet scheduling process. Mark Maclachlan is

gradually building a team of planners who are trainedin using Visual Planner to schedule Earlex'smanufacturing.

Other staff have view-only access, including theproduction team leaders, stock control andpurchasing, and HR and admin staff. For all thesepeople, Visual Planner has become an essential toolas they ensure the labour and material resources areavailable to meet the production schedules.

The reporting features in Visual Planner, such as theTrial Kitting function, are used extensively by Earlex.This is used to check the stores and components arein the right place when they are needed.

Mark is able to switch in seconds between differentviews of production: displaying three months is aseasy as a single day. And Mark can see all 12production lines at the same time when he needs to.Visual Planner allows him to see the peaks andtroughs in production, and gives him the ability tosmooth these by quickly changing resources and jobsfor any of the work centres.

Visual Planner enables Earlex to schedule productionaround meal and refreshment breaks, so the companycan accurately forecast how long a job will take, andwhen it will be completed.

5 The PotteriesWickham RoadFarehamHampshireUnited KingdomPO16 7ET

Fax: +44 (0) 2392 271009Sales: sales@lynq.co.ukSupport: support@lynq.co.uk

Registered in England no: 01541402VAT registration no: GB 322 0824 01

Visual Planner

Getting Staff on Board

Initially, many of the Earlex staff were nervous of

Visual Planner - like any new IT system, they didn'twant to use it because they thought it would beincredibly complicated. Mark easily overcame their

resistance:

Savings

Quantifying savings from a new system is oftendifficult, particularly when the effects are wide-

ranging. It is not always a high priority when

getting to grips with a new system. With the full-time spreadsheet planning task gone, Earlex isalready making better use of its experiencedproduction staff. Mark Maclachlan is sure the

increased efficiency and accuracy of schedulingwith Visual Planner has produced savings in his

factory.

Getting Support and Asking for

More

When asked about the support he gets from Lynq,Mark couldn't be more fulsome in his praise:

Mark has been working with Lynq to refine VisualPlanner and test new features.

Mark puts this down to Lynq's knowledge andexperience of manufacturing and distribution.

Lynq's development team keep asking questions

until they have a full and complete understandingof the problem and the solution Earlex need.

Summing Up

When asked if he could ever envisage droppingVisual Planner and going back to their old

scheduling system, Mark says: