Headquartered in Wasilla, Alaska, Alaska Roteq Corporation started out as a small OEM repair facility and has since grown into one of the largest machine repair shops in the state of Alaska, providing industrial distribution and repair services to companies in the oil and gas, power generation, water and waste water, mining, construction and other industries.
In the past, Alaska Roteq managed the business using several different software programs, including an accounting program that crashed on a regular basis. Seeking an integrated ERP system that could handle all critical aspects of the business in one software program, the management turned to Global Shop Solutions ERP software.
“We had one software package for job costing, one for accounting and another for time collection, so all the data had to be consolidated on spreadsheets or by hand,” says CFO and Co-Owner David Cucullu. “We wanted to have everything in one software system, and Global Shop Solutions offered a complete system that could handle all our needs.”
There’s another reason Alaska Roteq chose Global Shop Solutions ERP software – the ability to adapt the software to their unique shop floor requirements.
At Alaska Roteq, no two repair jobs are ever the same. Planners have no idea what a job entails until technicians spend hours inspecting the equipment to see what needs to be fixed or replaced. Also, the price to fix the same pump can vary widely depending on what needs to be repaired, which means new routers and work orders have to be created for every job.
With so much uncertainty surrounding each job, estimating, quoting and creating work orders used to be difficult and time-consuming processes. With Global Shop Solutions ERP software, these critical tasks have become faster, easier and extremely accurate. Alaska Roteq can now identify job costs with remarkable precision, resulting in more accurate estimating, quoting and margins.
“Once the job is complete we compare actual to estimated to determine our true costs and to see where we can improve next time around” says Repair Coordinator, Ryan Beisel.
“Global Shop Solutions ERP software has transformed the way we do business by allowing us to understand how much it takes in terms of hours and money to get the job done.”
Ryan Beisel, Repair Coordinator at Alaska Roteq Corporation
Alaska Roteq’s unique environment also requires tracking indirect labor with precision in order to capture true job costs. By having operators electronically log on and off all jobs and job sequences, Global Shop Solutions ERP software makes it easy to capture accurate times for each job sequence. It also prevents the mis-assignment of certain activities to indirect rather than direct labor.
“Our shipping and receiving person is a jack of all trades with about 90% of his time going to indirect,” says Beisel. “But if he’s spending two or three hours getting a big pump ready to ship, those hours need to be allocated directly to the job, and Global Shop Solutions ERP software allows us to do that.”
Since implementing Global Shop Solutions, Alaska Roteq revenues have climbed a robust 50%. Much of that growth is attributable to the company’s skilled workers and quality repairs, but the ERP software has also played an important role.
“By knowing our precise costs, Global Shop Solutions ERP software allows us to offer very competitive pricing,” says Cucullu. “It has also improved our on-time delivery rates. And that’s one area where we’re no different than any other manufacturer – if we keep our customers happy with delivery and price they will keep coming back.”
Both Cucullu and Beisel consider Global Shop Solutions ERP software’s ease of navigation and quick access to detailed job data as one of the software’s main advantages. They especially like the Shop Management application, which serves as a gateway to any level of information about a job or a customer without a lot of searching or navigating through different screens.
“Shop Management lets me do just about anything I want with just a few clicks of the mouse,” adds Beisel. “I can review all work orders, open or closed. I can get a quick screenshot of actual versus estimated hours for each component of a job. I can see who worked on it, when, and for how long. It even gives me the profit margin at the end of a job. Through this one screen, I can find out everything that’s happening in the business in exquisite detail.”
To learn more about all the ways ERP software improved Alaska Roteq Corporation’s business, download the full case study.