Purchasing and production pre-planning

AT Precision has reported a record few months, after taking on several new customers over the summer.

The company has also invested in a new open-source ERP software to help streamline its services.

Sales director Michael Hewitt attributes the Durham-based company’s success – including an increase in sales of 342% since opening in February last year – to maintaining a ‘business as usual’ service throughout the pandemic.

“One of the main reasons for our continued growth is the strong relationships we have with our trusted suppliers across the UK, China and Portugal,” he said.

“Through careful pre-planning, we juggled between our various partners to ensure we always had the material we needed to operate.

“At the start of the pandemic, we were very aware of the possibility of running out of stock, so we amended our investment strategy to make sure we always had at least three months’ worth of stock in our warehouse at any given time.

“We also expanded our manufacturing facility to 18,000ft2 earlier this year, allowing us to hold the additional stock we needed.”

The company’s new cloud-based business management software includes tools for CRM, e-commerce, billing, accounting, manufacturing, project management and warehouse management, and has been tailored by the company’s own programmers to meet its specific needs.

“This investment has allowed us to integrate our services, manage our finances, and streamline our inventory and purchasing operations, allowing for a seamless process from purchasing and production, right through to sales and customer service,” Michael said.

“We also use it to calculate exact stock numbers, which allows us to draw up accurate product sales history reports and helps us estimate forward plans in terms of stockholding, ensuring we always have the products our customers need, and that they never fall short.

“We also plan to upgrade the software system in the near future to include an online ordering portal, making purchasing from us even easier for our customers.”