Millar, Inc. Improves Productivity and Visibility with ECi's M1

As a leading provider of neurological and cardiac catheters to the clinical and research segments of the healthcare market, the Millar, Inc. not only has to meet a heavy burden of government regulations but also faces the hard reality that anything less than perfection in production could become a source of major problems for someone further down the line.

The good news, though, is that since the company switched to ECi's M1 ERP system in March of 2013, they’ve been more than able to meet those challenges and more besides. The healthcare market is growing and Millar has been experiencing growth. In 2013, headcount at the company stood at about 105; today, it’s close to 140 and growing.

Prior to converting to M1, on-time delivery rates at the company hovered around the low 90s. Today, they’re touching 99%. In addition, most of Millar’s manufacturing is built to stock rather than custom product and the superior visibility M1 provides has allowed the company to keep inventory levels lean while keeping on-time delivery rates high. With M1, the company has a level of confidence about its inventory that it just didn’t have before converting.

As an FDA-regulated business, Millar has very large regulatory demands in terms of the visibility of our product throughout the entire production chain. The company lot-tracks raw materials and components and serial-tracks finished goods for its entire product line. Since switching to M1, production managers can now pull up at any point in the production process a lot number or serial number and see the complete history of that item which not only allows them to maintain traceability on products but it also means the FDA can be provided with information quickly and easily.

Close to three years after Millar went live with M1, the company's enthusiasm for the program is as strong as it was on the go-live day. To read more, and learn how ECi's M1 ERP system can improve your business' productiveity and visibility, visit the ECi Newsroom.

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Success Story: Precise Manufacturing and M1 from ECi Software

Despite the challenges of a persistently weak economy and fierce competition, both domestically and from overseas, Precise Manufacturing doubled revenues over the past five years, increased sales to existing accounts, and acquired a nearby competitor to significantly broaden both its custom machining capabilities and its customer and vendor base.

Precise converted to ECi's M1 in 2009 and the implementation brought a whole new level of productivity and efficiency to the business. “With our old system, renewing quotes or making minor changes was a painful process,” said president and owner, John Whitcraft. “M1 does all that really easy and gives us the ability to take a quote to market much faster.”

Customer service at Precise also benefitted from the move to M1 as it allowed for immediate answers to questions as has financial management. Says Whitcraft, “With M1, we can complete a monthly financial close literally within just one or two days after the last day of the month. And because M1 uses an SQL database instead of a proprietary system, exporting data into Crystal Reports or Excel is so much easier.”

To learn more about the Precise Manufacturing case study, visit the ECi M1 website.

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