Global leader in the Concrete and Recycling Industry Achieves Rapid Growth With EFACS E/8
Founded in 1969, Rapid International is a leading manufacturer of mobile
concrete batching plant, mobile continuous concrete mixing plant & concrete
mixers. The company supplies innovative mixing technology solutions to some of
the world’s leading concrete, construction and environmental companies.
Customer Profile
Rapid International was founded in 1969 and is a leading manufacturer of mobile concrete batching plants, mobile continuous concrete mixing plants and concrete mixers. The company is based in County Armagh.
The Challenge
The company wanted an ERP solution that could scale with the company as it experienced substantial growth. Rapid International required a comprehensive ERP system that could integrate all departments with one cohesive solution.
The Solution
The EFACS E/8 software solution was chosen as it had been specifically designed for
organisations involved in manufacturing. Since it’s implementation, the company has quadrupled the number of employees and the system has comfortably dealt with this
expansion.
The Benefits
Rapid International can now comfortably deal with the multi company currency environment that they operate in. The versatility of the software has allowed Rapid
to consistently improve all areas of the business.
Rapid International are based in Tandragee, Co. Armagh, is one of the longest users of EFACS on the Island of Ireland. The company started with EFACS in 1996 and went live in August 1997. Initially the support was covered via the UK. However, when Profitsflow started in 2009 they took on that account from the system authors EXEL Computer
Systems in England. That’s when the relationship with Profitsflow and Rapid International began. In the beginning there was only one company, Rapid International. Since then the group has achieved considerable growth. Today, there are now three other entities that make up the entire group, Rapid Power Generation. Rapid Fabrications Ltd and Craigavon Engineering Ireland ltd. Each of them uses EFACS now, with security and access rules governing what companies and modules with them each user has access to. This results in a consistent operational model for the group as a whole. In 1997 Rapid International had a turnover of approximately £3 million. This has grown today to £15 million for the group, and management foresees that growth trajectory to continue into the future. Over the same period, employee numbers have increased four-fold. Mervyn Cordner, Operations Director, states that “EFACS has comfortably been able to cope with this expansion, ” adding that he does not anticipate any issues with future planned growth into the medium and long term.
Rapid International have found that the flexibility of EFACS has been crucial for the organisation. Mervyn states that “The beauty about EFACS is that its so flexible and everything is on one system. Starting with the parts master, we use this to store all the BOMs of the parts we manufacture and purchase along with the routing through work centres of the products we manufacture. This integrates nicely into our procurement and stock management. That looks after Stock management and stores side of things.”
Despite being a long time user of EFACS, the company is still able to take advantage of the versatility of the solution. Rapid have plans to integrate their current design software with EFACS to automatically upload bills of material to the parts master, thus achieving an even higher level of integration across the organisation.
Another example of how the company is looking to utilise the versatility of EFACS is through the utilisation of mobile applications. The company is planning to collect real time information on the factory floor using the EFACS Mobile Workforce app. This will drive further efficiency on the production line.
One of the key advantages for the organisation is EFACS’ strong capability to handle the multi-currency environment in which they operate. Given the company’s dealings with international suppliers and clients this has proven to be a significant benefit.
