In 2005, the 15-person team at MFC Netform needed to persuade potential customers to take a gamble on the upstart supplier of automotive equipment.
Today, MFC is a leading supplier of powertrain parts for the automotive and agricultural industries. "We had to overcome marketing challenges and competition from larger, more established providers," says Jeff Schroeder, manager of information systems at MFC Netform. "To answer this challenge, we developed an ambitious plan to aggressively grow and secure business from large automotive and agricultural [equipment manufacturers]."
From the company's inception, its leaders wanted to center operations around ERP as a competitive differentiator. "There was a keen focus on providing a strong tool set for operations, quality and engineering," Schroeder says. "Working hand in hand with these departments, we eventually chose the Plex Manufacturing Cloud as our single system."
MFC established credibility by demonstrating that it could manage high production levels and surpass customer requirements without having to expand its infrastructure or hire more people. Live data reporting on the plant floor has enabled the company to process more than 64,000 characters of inspection data a day and avoid production mistakes and machine downtime.
"With Plex, we never have to prepare for customer visits or audits," says Tim Cripsey, general manager. "Our documentation is always up to date and in order."
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