Automated Drive Systems

The Company: About Automated Drive Systems

Automated Drive Systems provides a complete offering of industrial and process control products and services. This includes system design assistance, installation, and service of variable frequency drives, soft starts, and DC drives. They have grown quickly in recent years and still strive to provide the highest quality equipment and customer support.

The Situation: Lost opportunities

ADS needed better buying power and more control in procurement. As President Brenden Fritz described it, ​“shipping and receiving was a scavenger hunt with nightmare paperwork.” They needed to enter part numbers manually so every BOM took several hours to build. Additionally, spare or unused parts were difficult to trace, often resulting in lost opportunities and wasted investments.

Time tracking was also a major problem. They knew most of their employees’ time wasn’t being recorded properly. Meaning some projects they took on didn’t turn a profit at all. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the data to tell them which jobs or how much they were losing.

The Solution: Total ETO ERP

With their previous ERP, Automated Drive Systems could only track 100 parts, which ​“quickly turned a project into chaos”, said Fritz. Furthermore, they knew they were \ missing out on a lot of data that would improve their efficiency, accuracy, and profitability. Staff were also overwhelmed by missing parts, paperwork, and a system that allowed for too many errors.

ADS had been searching for a solution for 18 months when they discovered Total ETO. They considered other ERPs that were 3 to 4 times the price but still didn’t provide the flexibility they needed. When the team experienced a demo of our ERP, they were immediately impressed — so much so that the Procurement Manager said he would quit if they didn’t purchase Total ETO.

The Benefits: Total ETO ERP Implementation Benefits

Accurate Accounting

Cost accounting is an important component for ADS’s accountant. This kind of information makes it easy to accurately judge the efficiency of a project, spot errors, and more. It’s a relief to the ADS team that ETO ERP integrates with popular accounting systems, including QuickBooks, which they use.

Shipping and Receiving are a Dream

From a nightmare to a system that is organized and efficient. Receiving can easily cross reference parts and quickly label them as they come in. This ensures they get to the right project. With Total ETO, ADS can open a screen on their device and see the parts that haven’t arrived yet, in red. It makes it easy for them to take action, minimizing both downtime and the stress of last-minute scrambling.

Additional Revenue

Thanks to the functionality that Total ETO has, ADS was seeing immediate additional revenue. With their old system, it was too difficult to sell spare parts. Now, if a client asks for parts, they just click a couple of buttons and have an immediate quote for them. It’s so easy and profitable, they’re offering that service to all new clients. They’re even reaching out to past clients now, being proactive about selling parts.

Increased Profits

Automated Drive Systems was using Mon​day​.com to track time-in-motion. They knew there were a lot of gaps and consequences with this method, but didn’t realize the severity until they used Total ETO. Not only was it easier for all the staff, but it was far more accurate. ADS immediately saw they weren’t billing clients properly. In some cases, the difference was so significant that it worked out that ADS was paying the client $350 to produce their project (the cost of the project to build, was $350 more than what ADS charged them).

Later when that same client needed a new project and was faced with a quote that was much more than they used to spend, the client was okay with it. ADS could show the data from Total ETO that confirmed previous costs were too low. Since the client could see the data, it was easy for them to agree and continue working with ADS.

Time Saved

Engineers, designers, and procurement staff spent about 1,400 hours a year manually building their BOMs. Not only was it redundant and time-consuming, but it also meant there were errors and other setbacks. Eliminating that double entry and redundant work greatly reduced errors and sped up the completion time for each project.