Production

In terms of the complexity of business and processes taking place in companies, the manufacturing industry poses the greatest challenges. We present a company from the steel industry in the case study below. We have been cooperating with the client for 2 years, during which time we managed to achieve:

We helped obtain funding of approximately PLN 1 million to increase exports
We increased production profitability by 7% thanks to the incentive system, improved production processes and a more transparent calculation method
We have introduced a system of management reports regarding product profitability and financial liquidity
We achieved a 35% increase in inquiries thanks to the company's rebranding and digital marketing activities

Customer description

Client: production industry (steel), multi-generational family company, annual turnover over PLN 50 million, employment: 78 people.

The company has developed dynamically in recent years, doubling its turnover and introducing new products to foreign markets. The dynamic development significantly improved the results, but significantly undermined the company's financial liquidity. The company implemented an ERP system years ago, but in many areas of the company it functioned only theoretically.

The main problems with which the company reported to us:

- lack of management information, data sent to the management board from accounting, production and supply was inconsistent and full of errors

- the company did not plan financial liquidity, and the increase in production in progress resulted in a situation where the supplies of materials were blocked by suppliers

- the company did not know the full profitability of its products

- calculations and as-built calculations were created using separate methodologies and did not take into account full profitability at various margin thresholds

- even though the company was acquiring more and more orders, it had the image of a company from a previous era

- there was competence chaos in the company and a number of conflicts occurred, which resulted in high employee turnover, especially in the administration area.

- inventory levels did not correspond to reality

Development potential analysis:

We started our cooperation with a thorough analysis of the company, focusing on the areas:

- financial, taking into account the analysis of the ERP system

- production processes

- HR analysis

- sales and marketing, including competition analysis

- supply analysis

- warehouse management analysis

Analysis result:

7 experts participated in the analysis, and the project itself lasted 6 weeks. Finally, we presented our post-audit conclusions and our implementation recommendations to the owners in the form of a workshop.

Finance and ERP system: we found a significant difference in the data in the system between modules, the level of reports provided from the system was very poor. This was partly due to low employee awareness of the system and the principles of working with the system, as well as implementation errors. The need to change the IT system suggested by the owners turned out to be unnecessary at this stage. We held a meeting with the system supplier and it turned out that the functionalities that the company reported as needed were available in the system they had previously.

The board did not have basic analytics to make decisions, even though this information was in the system. The company developed several prototypes a year, but it never took advantage of the research and development tax relief, which is why it paid far too much tax in recent years.

The client did not budget, based only on historical data, which was sent to top management with a 2-month delay.

HR area - the client has doubled its turnover in recent years, significantly increased employment, but has not introduced a single change in the organizational structure, employees moved from department to department, took up new areas of tasks, but most of them did not have defined scopes of responsibilities or had them in very general form. The scope of duties was therefore of a contractual nature, i.e. as understood by the employee.

Sales and marketing area - the company did not have defined sales processes or the entire CRM module in the system. Sales processes were not tracked (times of individual stages), the price calculation process was not transparent.

In the area of ​​marketing, we analyzed the activities of Polish and foreign competitors and found that the client significantly lags behind market standards. We have demonstrated abuses in the current cooperation with a marketing agency (the agency did not provide access to Google Analytics and Search Console). The company differed significantly from the image standards of its competitors.

Design work

After presenting the recommendations, we started a number of projects in the audited areas.

Finances:

In the area of ​​finance, the company benefited from the constant support of an external financial director, who coordinated work related to changes to the ERP system, changes to accounting processes, and coordinated the implementation of the financial controlling department in the company. The first management reports were delivered on time. The new year resulted in a radical reconstruction of the chart of accounts in the system to obtain more transparent analytical data.

After simultaneously organizing warehouse management, the company was able to create for the first time a reliable financial liquidity plan, on the basis of which the company increased its working capital loan and, in the case of a key customer, used a factoring mechanism to secure financial liquidity. For the outstanding periods, the client saved PLN 1.3 million in taxes through the use of research and development relief.

The company achieved significant financial benefits by optimizing the costs of electricity and gas. At the same time, the company obtained funding for its export activities in the amount of approximately PLN 1 million with 85% funding.

Sales and marketing

The client carried out a complete rebranding of his company, starting from the logo and ending with a new website. Through SEO activities and Google Ads campaigns, the client received 35% more inquiries.

HR

Together with the client, we redefined the company's organizational structure and adapted it to the development of the company.

We have implemented HR processes within the company under the supervision of our expert and initiated the provision of a training package for the entire team.

We created a concept and implemented a motivational system for production and administrative employees.

Measurable effects achieved:

We increased production profitability by 7% thanks to the incentive system, improved production processes and a more transparent calculation method
We helped obtain funding of approximately PLN 1 million to increase exports
We have introduced a system of management reports regarding product profitability and financial liquidity
We achieved a 35% increase in inquiries thanks to the company's rebranding and digital marketing activities
The research and development relief allowed the client to pay PLN 1.3 million less tax.
We reduced employee turnover by 25%

If you represent a manufacturing company and are facing industry challenges, take advantage of a free consultation so that we can analyze how we can help you. Use the contact form, contact us by e-mail at vnav@vnav.pl or call 501 248 867