After moving to larger premises PTFE specialist Tefloturn has increased capacity with new machining, sliding head and fixed head turning capacity.
Having relocated from Flitcham to larger premises in King’s Lynn, Tefloturn Limited has been able to take on more staff and, as a result, more work. The company is also looking to greatly increase its capacity by adding a 32mm sliding head lathe to complement their current Star sliding head and XYZ turning and milling machines. These investments are being made on the back of existing PSL Datatrack production control software which continues to give Tefloturn far reaching benefits in its business administration and production control.
Tefloturn supplies components in PTFE and a variety of other plastic materials to industries as diverse as food and dairy, electrical, medical and engineering. Products include everything from gaskets and seal washers to more complex sensing probes, thermocouples and compression fittings. As a small company priding itself on personal service, Tefloturn's main problem in managing its business had been the amount of time – 5 days a week – taken just manually generating and typing quotations for customers. This was a clear obstacle to the success of the business and was having a detrimental effect on customer service.
That changed when Managing Director Mick Finney heard about PSL Datatrack production control software from a colleague in the metal subcontract engineering business who was already a PSL Datatrack user. “This was the type of system we needed as a plastics parts manufacturer. It could relieve all the manual administration around quotations and having arranged for PSL Datatrack to visit us and give a demo, we quickly made the decision to invest in a software package.”
The company initially opted for modules that covered the key aspects of its business including quotations, works orders, process layouts, deliveries, invoicing and job costing. Subsequently, purchasing, goods received and material stock control modules were added and even more may be added in the future.
“This means that we now have everything needed to run the Tefloturn business efficiently and professionally. Any subcontract engineering business would find PSL Datatrack helpful as their business would also likely be based around multiple customers needing varying batch sizes or call offs and where components have to be supplied in many different material types and variations,” says Mick.
Indeed, with several variations of PTFE materials used regularly in plastic parts manufacturing, and with suppliers' records held within PSL Datatrack, Tefloturn can see all of the variations available from different suppliers including when they were supplied and how much they cost. This allows price comparisons to be carried out and checks on whether deliveries from a supplier have been satisfactory. With this information Tefloturn can be much more confident when quoting customers in terms of speed, reliability of delivery and cost.
The ability to speed up the process of creating customer quotations has been a very important benefit. These are now produced in a matter of minutes and it is also much quicker to requote companies who may come back frequently or ask to be quoted once every few years. “This is vital for many of our customers who need to quote quickly themselves. They know they are getting accurate and reliable information from Tefloturn and that inspires confidence,” says Mick.
“Whenever they contact us we can simply enter their name into the PSL Datatrack system and retrieve the relevant information – what we quoted previously in terms of quantities, prices, materials used, material costs, our suppliers and so on. Once a customer is in the system they are there forever and we have all the historic records we need. With this information ready to hand we can quote for a new job much more quickly and give informed details on delivery times.”
Learning how to use the software was straightforward and a training day was spent at PSL Datatrack's headquarters looking in more detail at particular aspects of the system that would be utilised regularly by Tefloturn in the initial period. This process took away the fear factor and Tefloturn staff were able to learn more as they went along. Telephone support service has also been provided and PSL Datatrack can take over Tefloturn's computers remotely if necessary in order to demonstrate how to do new things or to improve on anything.
Getting products out of the door is Tefloturn's number one challenge and there are some 50 regular customers who require delivery of everything from one-offs to batches of up to 10,000. By centralising everything through PSL Datatrack the company is able to fulfil their requirements in the most efficient way and there is no hindrance to the potential for taking on more business.
“We have just recruited an additional staff member and we know that by using PSL Datatrack that person will be quickly integrated into the effective running of our business,” says Mick. “I cannot recommend PSL Datatrack as a company and as a product highly enough. The software runs our business, has enabled us to dramatically cut down long hours of administration and given us a reliable platform for growth, all-round quality management and customer satisfaction.”