| Company Name: | American Friction Technologies |
| Industry: | Auto Parts |
| Location: | Garfield Heights, OH |
| # Locations: | 1 |
| Website: | americanfriction.net |
| Software Systems: | Sage 50 (Peachtree) Quantum and MISys Manufacturing |
Description of the Business:
American Friction Technologies (AFT) was established in 1996 and is a leading manufacturer of high performance brake pads for the transportation industry, including high speed trains, automobiles, motorcycles and even bicycles. AFT is the largest North American producer of sintered metallic brake pads for the power sports industry, and a major manufacturer of ceramic clutch buttons. AFT employs advanced manufacturing technologies and is ISO 9001:2008 Certified.
Previous to purchasing Sage 50 Quantum with MISys Manufacturing, what system(s) did you use to manage your manufacturing operation?
Peachtree accounting, spreadsheets, MS Access database program and manual recording of data and purchases.
What other systems did you consider before purchasing Sage50/MISys?
None. Sage 50 Quantum and MISys was our first choice.
What challenges did you face in your business that led you to look for a manufacturing control system?
Our business was growing with the addition of new customers, new products and items. While the growth helped level out the seasonality in our business and manufacturing load, it revealed weaknesses of how we were managing and planning our inventory purchases. Some of the raw materials we use have 12-week lead times which were not built into the purchasing process, resulting in frequent stock-outs. We realized we needed a tool to help manage the different aspects of both our business and customer requirements.
How did Sage 50 Quantum and MISys address the challenges you mentioned above? What specific solutions did this system bring to you?
Sage 50 Quantum and MISys Manufacturing gave us the ability to analyze requirements against what was required not only today but also over several months. The integration with Sage 50 accounting allows us to continue loading sales orders and shipments and use them to drive the MRP system to calculate labor and material needs.
What have the results been like? Have you quantified them in terms of ROI, order fulfillment, etc…?
Sage 50 Quantum and MISys Manufacturing has helped our company satisfy our customer’s changing needs and requirements. Stock-outs have been reduced to almost zero and on time shipments are at 100%. With long term planning available to us we are establishing better supply chain performance and vendor management relationships.
What was implementation like for you?
Implementation is the most important part of any MRP installation and we spent three months setting up the system. We did the implementation ourselves, following the direction and suggestions of the MISys SureStart coach to configure material standards, confirm lead times, and establish our item master and bills of material structure. The accounting integration was very straight forward and works as documented. We went live on July 1, 2009 and have been running without any major problems since that time.
Do you have any recommendations to someone considering Sage 50/MISys as a solution?
MISys Manufacturing is a great tool for companies that have an accounting system in place but need the capabilities of a material planning program to help grow their business. Its modular approach lets companies select only the specific modules they need to run their business.
Over all, we are very satisfied with the performance and customer support of Sage 50 Quantum and MISys Manufacturing.