PPS Selects Jobshop to meet its criteria for Quality and Reliability

Against a backdrop of an increased risk of terrorist ‘dirty bombs’ and major incidents such as the Buncefield oil depot fire, it is imperative for manufacturers of decontamination equipment and protective clothing to be at the forefront of technology if they are to meet the stringent demands of customers.

Leading supplier and designer of air-fed suits, Milton Keynes-based Professional Protection Systems (PPS), has responded by installing the latest Jobshop manufacturing and production control software to manage all of its business systems.

With its processes firmly rooted in quality and reliability, PPS is well equipped to meet increasing demands for its protective clothing worn by personnel working in hazardous environments including nuclear, chemical and biological. Jobshop was selected as the best fit for the company’s requirements, in particular, its ability to interface with the enterprise-wide Exchequer accounts system installed at the same time.

With the system being utilized across the business, its implementation has involved several individuals at PPS, in particular, general manager Jacey Venables and financial controller Wendy Yates.

“Having most of the information on one screen and from here being able to check on sales/works/purchase orders and most of the other things that have happened to the item, is very useful for us,” explains Venables. “As is the ability to attach other documents to it as well as a picture. We have not had chance to use graphical BOMs yet but I can see that this feature would simplify both identification of items and the training of personnel on a large product range.”

It is essential for PPS to harness the very latest industrial technologies to streamline its operations, improving supply chain efficiency, marketing effectiveness and sales penetration.

“We were looking to replace our existing ERP system with one that would efficiently manage our entire business from stores through sales processing, MRP and accounts,” says Yates. “Jobshop fulfilled all our criteria for an easy to navigate Windows-based costing solution. The system has simplified the process of finding information. With further training on Crystal Reports we will be able to develop our own reports which were somewhat limited previously, and assign price books to customers.”

The installation of a 10-user system running on a standard server configuration, has proved a sound investment for PPS with support from Jobshop meeting the company’s high expectations.

“I believe that any problems we might have with the system would be sorted out to our level of expectation,” says Venables. “We have every confidence in Jobshop (which is why we selected it) and have received a high level of support since we started using the system. We had a slight hitch last week with more sessions running than we had agreed licenses for (due to some not being closed off). This was sorted within an hour, from identifying the problem to everyone getting back onto the system.”

Due to the previous system and its server being located in the US, users had to wait until they came online, which could have resulted in a whole day being wasted.

“Our business is fast moving and it is important of us to have a system that we can rely on,” continues Venables. “We feel that we have achieved this with the introduction of Jobshop. The team involved in the implementation was extremely dedicated and we all wanted to see the benefits that we knew a change to Jobshop had to offer. The overall switchover went very, very smoothly.”

A sentiment echoed by Wendy Yates:

“Jobshop has met our expectations in being easy to use and providing a good link with the accounting system.  We thought we might experience a few ‘teething’ problems on the first day but all went well, probably because we had been advized of what information needed to be extracted from the old system and were ready to upload the majority of our information in the week prior to going live. We are seeing both time and cost savings with a greater understanding of manufacturing costs. The system also enables us to keep track of jobs as they pass through the various processes and the level of support and back-up from Jobshop has been of a very high standard right from the start of the installation.”