All of our clients, to some degree, have had their businesses disrupted during COVID. The response to this is usually one of two options – either try to “weather the storm”, or re-imagine what the business can do in short, mid, and long-term to drive growth. The latter strategy takes significant vision, leadership and work to pull off, but it may end up saving the companies and ensure their continued success.
Two companies in particular have made substantial changes to their businesses to respond to COVID-19 opportunities. With the deployment of Epicor Kinetic ERP and team at Six S Partners, this transition has been made easier.
AarKel Group and Eclipse Automation have shown tremendous resiliency and innovation over the past few months. Not only did they have the vision to coordinate a response to COVID, but they also recognized the need to do so efficiently. As a result, Six S Partners worked tirelessly with both firms to enhance their ERP deployment and support new product lines. We couldn’t be prouder of both manufacturers!
AarKel Group: Ventilators and Production Scheduling
The AarKel Group specializes in the design and manufacturing of die cast dies and plastic injection molds. They’ve been a customer of Epicor and Six S Partners since 1996. In this time, they’ve successfully deployed Epicor at four business units. This has been invaluable as their team has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. Epicor has helped keep their staff employed while being more flexible to new manufacturing opportunities.
One very important tool to assist them with this was the Epicor Scheduling Module, originally deployed in 1996. Due to the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic, they needed to refine/review and further maximize production facility use.
With smart updates to Epicor’s Scheduling Module, customer needs continued being met while also keeping their staff fully employed.
Simply managing their current business was not enough for AarKel Group, who instead wanted to be part of the solution to COVID. As a result of their outstanding reputation in the tool and die industry, and extremely versatile workforce, AarKel has also been developing die cast dies and plastic injection molds for nine components of life-saving ventilators. These will be used by companies like General Motors to produce parts and get much needed equipment into the healthcare sector.
Eclipse Automation: Collaboration for New Product Lines
Recognizing the need to produce personal protective equipment (PPE) at scale in Canada, Eclipse Automation was quick in responding to create a new business unit and show its commitment to helping others. In an unprecedented move, Eclipse secured contracts with leading global companies to manufacture, sell and distribute N95 face masks and ventilators. Doing so not only required significant work from company executives, but also required the full team to be on-board and ready to rise to the challenge.
Six S Partners and Epicor were chosen by Eclipse Automation to help respond to their new production plans. Six S Partners were tasked with integrating three new production lines with a go-live date of five weeks.
Eclipse is currently ramping up to produce one million face masks per week, Eclipse Automation required significant support to ensure this was all done effectively and in strict compliance with health and safety regulations. Six S Partners services and the Epicor software will be instrumental.
Adapt your ERP and Manufacturing Operations for COVID-19
Responding to global trends and rising demand requires innovation and agile business operations. Epicor Kinetic ERP can help ensure you meet customer requirements while providing visibility into how each process or component of your business factors into the bigger picture. Having the support of an experience ERP consultant can help avoid common pitfalls and ensure your team has everything it needs to deploy ERP with confidence.
To learn more about how Epicor Kinetic ERP can support your business’ response to new market opportunities, please register for an upcoming ERP webinar.