News Article

Brenk Brothers Inc. Precision Machining

By K. M. Linse

May 10, 2002

It's no secret... people talk. And it was a quiet conversation that led Tom Brenk to Bowen & Groves Inc.

Brenk is a Vice President (Engineering) at Brenk Brothers Inc., a precision machining company that operates CNC milling, turning, wire EDM, and laser part marking equipment in the production of customer designed parts. Brenk Brothers specializes in the engineering, development, and manufacture of not only prototype parts but often complete assemblies, including wiring and testing. Additionally, the company has the capacity for customers' repeat and longer run requirements, and excels in the development of prototype designs by offering cost-reducing suggestions while maintaining or improving function. Brenk Brothers Inc. is routinely involved in close tolerance (less than .0005") work on machined parts.

But Brenk's conversation with a colleague in the industry wasn't about working; it was about what was not working. Software.

As he explained, "I simply wasn't happy with what we had. Showstopper bugs had become the norm, along with 'workarounds', which almost always meant something does not work the way it's supposed to. Additionally, I was getting no after-support, and upgrades came with more problems than the previous version. There were lots of promises but no action.

His colleague, on the other hand, was very pleased with the software his company was running and convinced Brenk to investigate Bowen & Groves. Tom recalled that influencing his decision was also the fact that he knew someone at Bowen & Groves - the senior development manager. With his colleague's resolute recommendation and the feeling that he had access to "inside" credibility, Brenk made the call.

The result? As of the first of the year, Brenk Brothers has been running the Bowen & Groves M1 program and Brenk is more than enthusiastic. "I would tell anyone: Quit looking around and get with it. M1 helps keep our company competitive, no question about it."

Observing that M1 gets the jobs in order and cuts down on paperwork, he is most emphatic about M1's customizing abilities. "From the start, M1 closely matched how we run our operation, but the ability to customize was very critical for us."

He elaborated: "M1's customizing tools are extremely significant to us; as such, we've added quite a number of custom controls, forms, data fields, and reports. The Design Studio allows us to fine-tune M1 to work exactly the way we do - not the other way around. The ability to customize was a major reason for purchasing our original MRP system, and Bowen & Groves is simply light years ahead of anyone else in this area."

"I've always been a dig in and find out what makes this tick type of person and I have a good understanding of what happens behind the user interface. Capabilities such as opening a custom form from within an M1 module, sending data from the module to the form, processing what we need to do in the form, and sending updated data back to the module are invaluable to us - and are easily done in M1. The fact that it's integrated so well with Crystal reports is a real plus. It allows us to see and do exactly what we need."

Yet another feature that Brenk Brothers appreciates is the ease of use and the availability of related data. "We can find any data associated with a quote, order, job, PO, or shipment with one or two 'clicks'. The Table of Contents is a real time-saver, as all data associated with any of the above is displayed there. For example, in Job Entry any sub-assembly, operation, or material for the job is accessible with one click." Another feature that Brenk likes is the Open With function that is available in search grids.

"I've been using computers for over 25 years, and I have yet to see any software company as responsive as Bowen & Groves in any area, whether it is operational questions, enhancement requests, or fixing bugs, which I have to mention are extremely rare. I've come to consider M1 patches as upgrades, and I know a lot of other users feel the same way. We've been running Netware servers since the early 90s, and I never had a good enough reason to install a Windows server until I reviewed M1."

Of course, Brenk saves the best for last: M1 saves time and money.

"M1's design saves us time in virtually every aspect of data input. The M1 tree makes it quick and easy to enter new quotes, orders, purchase orders, jobs, and shipments, because details such as materials and operations are added without having to open and constantly move between different screens."

Stability was another major factor in Brenk Brothers' decision to purchase M1. With the old software, there were numerous occasions when everybody had to be booted out of the system so Brenk could repair the database, which would get corrupted when the software itself crashed on a user's system. As he relates, "There was no rhyme or reason for the crashes and the vendor was never helpful in resolving them. We were licensed for over 20 users, and with all those people waiting for the ERP system to get fixed... the dollars added up in a hurry.

"I was somewhat fortunate in having the ability to repair the database myself.I could usually fix it within an hour, whereas most people using that software are forced to send their databases to the vendor for repair, which would shut them down for an entire day or more. "Reporting that they have not had a single instance of data corruption with M1, Brenk emphasizes that M1 simply doesn't crash. Ever.

"I really believe that Bowen & Groves is the most responsive software company on the planet in every area . . . support, enhancements, and new features. With Bowen and Groves M1, we can do some really amazing things. We have virtually no limits."

About Bowen & Groves Pty Ltd

Bowen & Groves was established in Australia in 1992 and expanded into the USA in 2000 with the specific focus to provide quality software and support to the Manufacturing Industry. Over the past nine years they have accomplished a reputation for excellence in customer support and professional service. More information about Bowen & Groves and its products and services is available at Bowen & Groves' Web site www.bowen-groves.com.