BKW Case Study

One of the UK’s leading instrumentation engineers has slashed the time it takes on stock reordering by 50% after implementing K3|dataswitch from K3 Syspro.

BKW Instruments is a leading supplier, manufacturer, and distributor of instrumentation solutions across a number of industries including water, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, oil and gas, energy, HVAC and more. The business is a long standing customer of K3, having first implemented a SYSPRO Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution from the business over twenty years ago. When the business sought a solution to help automate its complex reordering processes, K3 was the obvious first port of call.

Mike Honeyford, Operations Director at BKW Instruments explains the difficulties the company was previously encountering. He says: “Our previous re-ordering system didn’t encompass a restock trigger, and as a result the task of re-ordering was done on an ‘as and when’ basis. There was no process to follow and this meant items ran the risk of being reordered multiple times, or not at all. With K3|dataswitch, we are saving on paper usage and have slashed the time it takes to carry out this process by 50%.”

Further Automation

Using K3|dataswitch and existing barcode scanners, BKW has created automated stock triggers to ensure stock is reordered ahead of time. This is carried out by scanning a barcode, which then creates a bin note, and a purchase order within K3|dataswitch. These purchase orders are then consolidated overnight using K3|dataswitch, which utilises a number of existing factors such as previous order quantities and supplier costs. The purchase orders are then automatically sent from K3|dataswitch to K3 Reports, which sends a copy of the purchase order via an email distribution list, for full traceability.

Mike Honeyford explains how the automated process is benefitting the entire business. “Automating our reordering process has seen us make significant time savings across the business; purchase orders are consolidated and processed overnight, meaning that during working hours our team is able to use the time previously afforded to this process to concentrate on other areas of the business,

“With K3|dataswitch, we are saving on paper usage and have slashed the time it takes to carry out this process by 50%”