Bifold Marshalsea Case Study by MW Interim Finance

Marshalsea Hydraulics Limited t/as Bifold Marshalsea

The Bifold Group of companies required delivery of operational and financial integration for their engineering subsidiary based in Somerset. Aligning the business with other parts of the group was considered by the Group’s CEO and CFO as a critical path activity to drive improved customer performance, production excellence and focused management reporting.

The Solution

• In conjunction with a supply chain consultant implemented the separation of the major primary and secondary production operations and the creation of discrete instances of ERP/MRP on a common systems platform.
• Identified and allocated; MRP and other key resources, restructured BOM’s and routings, updated costings for the two production operations and developed appropriate periodic key performance indicators for internal and Group management.
• Restructured weekly, monthly and annual management reporting to provide summary and detailed analyses of performance at standard and actual cost complemented with variance accounting.
• Re-assessed the role and structure of the finance department, support systems and IT infrastructure and delivered necessary changes to upgrade hardware and software to implement SAGE 200 and an interface with the ERP/MRP systems.

The Result

• Operations personnel in both primary and secondary production focused on customer performance and delivering production output on time and in full.
• Improved purchasing activities, reduced stock levels, increased production efficiency and effective usage of the ERP/MRP system.
• Implementation of detailed monthly management reporting for the individual manufacturing operations and consolidated performance of the business and satisfying both internal and Group requirements.
• Provision of a robust IT accounting platform, with the ability to record transactions accurately for the main production operations coupled with further development of business reporting.

Skills Needed

• project management, manufacturing supply chain, standard costing, management reporting, operational and financial restructuring, business systems development.

www.bifold.co.uk

Testimonial

Neil McArthur, Group CFO, commented; – “Martin worked on a sensitive and complex assignment and successfully delivered over and above the objectives set. With wide ranging experience Martin is a respected professional, with skills as an advisor and mentor, in whom I have the utmost confidence and would recommend to any business.”