CASE STUDY
How Dyer Engineering Eliminated Cross-Departmental Bottlenecks with Natural Language Querying of ERP Data
Dyer Engineering is a Group of fabrication and machining businesses manufacturing metal components and structures. They also provide maintenance, repair and overhaul support services to keep equipment, facilities and processes running. When their purchasing team needed to improve visibility of their orders, efficiently query inventory and ERP data, and resolve cross-department bottlenecks, they turned to Kavida.
Industry
Automotive
Manufacturer size
51 - 200
Location
Co Durham, United Kingdom
Website
The Challenges
Dyer Engineering, with over 200 employees across production, engineering, warehousing, and finance, faced challenges with their ERP system. Despite it being an essential system of records, the ERP was hard to navigate, required extensive training, and limited access to real-time information. Employees across various roles faced difficulties retrieving data quickly, leading to inefficiencies.
- Complex ERP Navigation
The ERP system was difficult to navigate, requiring significant time and training. This complexity made it challenging for the team to efficiently manage and retrieve data, delaying critical decision-making processes. - Limited Visibility Of Inventory
Dyer’s purchasing team struggled with poor visibility on what materials were currently in stock, what was incoming, and the status of open purchase orders. The process of data analysis to get actionable insights also involved navigating through multiple ERP screens and manipulating spreadsheets, which was time-consuming. - Cross-Departmental Bottlenecks
Production teams relied heavily on procurement for order visibility and data. This dependency created significant internal communication bottlenecks, as procurement had poor order visibility, leading to further delays in decision-making and collaboration, ultimately increasing the risk of task-switching if materials were not available as planned. If task switching was not possible, downtime was inevitable.
“The overarching impact is going to be a reduction in costs, increase in delivery performance, increase in working capital and there’s also the softer issue of people enjoying their jobs a bit more because they’re not having to do boring activities”
Richard Larder
Business Improvement Director
“The overarching impact is going to be a reduction in costs, increase in delivery performance, increase in working capital and there’s also the softer issue of people enjoying their jobs a bit more because they’re not having to do boring activities”
Richard Larder
Business Improvement Director
Solution
Dyer needed a solution that would simplify data access across their entire operation, providing team members with instant, real-time visibility into the critical information they needed to perform their roles effectively.
- Natural Language ERP Querying
Kavida integrated with Dyer’s ERP system to allow internal teams to make data around active orders easily accessible in seconds, cutting down the time-consuming process of navigating through multiple ERP screens and manipulating formulas on spreadsheets to get the information they need. - Instant Material Availability Insights
The platform provides real-time data on orders and inventory, enabling purchasing teams to make faster decisions. Team members could easily ask Agent PO’s Copilot questions like, “What is the current status of order X?” or “When is 30mm steel plates coming in?”, and instantly receive the answer. - Better Collaboration
Internal stakeholders can now interact with Agent PO’s Copilot using queries in natural language, reducing back-and-forth communication required and preventing any interruptions to purchasing workflows.
Real-time insights for ERP data queries
Platform usage
- £X M in order value managed on the platform.
- Managed X order lines
- X automated communications and responses.
- Received X documents
- X Copilot queries.
Productivity
- X automated processes [Process A, Process B etc ]
- X procurement hours saved due to automation
Visibility
- X order lines with end-to-end visibility
- X order risk alerts
- X shipments tracked
Business value
- £X time value saved
- £X reduced cost of manufacturing downtime
- £X reduced cost of risk and delays
