NanoDiamond Products 

About NanoDiamond Products

NanoDiamond Products (NDP), established in 2009, is a thriving and successful manufacturer of industrial diamond products.

The Irish company, based in Shannon, sells mostly to distributors in Europe, North America, India and the Far East, in addition to a small, direct customer base. Such is the nature of its products, quality has to be a given customer expectation; service levels and rapid shipment distinguish NDP and drive its competitive edge.

System selection

Prior to implementing K8 Manufacturing, NDP mostly relied on manual systems but had reached the point where paper-driven processes were becoming too onerous given increased business volumes. 

The decision was made that an integrated ERP system was required to take the business forward. 'We chose K8 Manufacturing for its best fit to our requirements; a primary consideration was for a system that we didn’t have to customise to manage the specialities of our business,' Alex Engels, Process and Development Director at NanoDiamond Products, said.

'Going from mostly manual systems meant that we didn’t have much data to convert – it was principally a clean sheet situation for our company in terms of creating data records.'

He continued to explain that, 'What was important; at the time we employed just seven staff, was to go live without stopping the business. Many of our customers work with us on a just-in-time basis; hence uninterrupted service was paramount.'

Working closely with the Kerridge Commercial Systems team, which had acquired a solid understanding of our business, the implementation went well and the immediate post go-live period was well-managed.

Alex Engles - Process and Development Director at NanoDiamond Products

Unique specialities

Given that the properties of each batch of raw materials coming into NDP have to be individually analysed, there’s no standard bill of materials situation to produce the company’s 3,500 different products. 

K8 Manufacturing’s flexibility enables us to manage our stock and manufacturing input. We are, in many ways, more like a chemicals business with material properties – such as size, toughness and density being crucial to meeting defined manufacturing specifications.

Alex Engles - Process and Development Director at NanoDiamond Products

Highlights

• K8 was the best-fit choice
• Successful transition from manual systems
• Integrated and controlled business processes
• Considerable manual effort reduction
• No major customisation requirements

Picking and Packing App

Another key component in NDP’s exacting stock control and order fulfilment processes is the system’s Picking and Packing mobile app. NDP specified some enhancements to the standard functionality, which once deployed, have provided the company with an effective, tailored solution that’s proved both essential and particularly successful.

'With a hand-held scanner, working in sync with K8 Manufacturing, the picking and packing process, including documentation and shipping preparations, works extremely well,' Alex said.

'Since implementation,' he said, 'we have not had a single short or incorrect shipment. Crucially, the system also allows us to track and trace the materials in every order should any quality issues arise at any stage ideally before our customers are affected.'

An investment in the future

NDP’s investment in the K8 Manufacturing system was much more than a need to deliver savings and financial gains, the company required a system that could enable the business to grow and progress.

Alex explained that 'We didn’t look at K8 Manufacturing to give us a return on investment per se, but demonstrably it has – we are consistently achieving double-digit growth in turnover.'

He went on to say, 'Since implementing K8 Manufacturing, we have doubled our staffing and have a much more stable business to develop. Short and long-term purchasing forecasts are now considerably easier and more accurate.'

There’s considerably less in the way of labour intensive tedious tasks that the system is now taking care of. And whereas we previously had to be very hands on at every stage, we have transitioned to a situation of letting the system work for us.

Having K8 Manufacturing means that we are able to focus more attention on managing our customer services and business development opportunities.

Alex Engles - Process and Development Director at NanoDiamond Products

Benefits

• Supports specialist ‘BOM’ needs
• Manages carat stocking/jar unit profile
• Fully functional picking and packing app
• Robust product/material tracking
• Quality certification export facility
• Supports business development needs