Over the past 35 years, the Joedan Group is reported to have established itself as a leading player in the aluminium and PVC-U market with brands including Joedan, Wessex, Micron and Coastline. It is a fabricator, installer and trade supplier of its very own accredited Joedan aluminium system and operates across retail, trade and commercial markets.
One of the key areas where Joedan says it has distinguished itself from its competitors has been in taking control of as many of its own design and manufacturing processes as possible – from the moment the raw material is supplied, to the point at which the finished product leaves its Gloucestershire factory.
The group claims that its reputation has been built on efficiency and quality, and there is a huge emphasis within the business on staying in control so that it is always in a position to deliver on the promises it makes to customers.
When Joedan reviewed the software requirements for its commercial aluminium system therefore, it says that its priority was to identify a customisable product which would allow it to create a bespoke database for its own product range and be better able to create its own design and manufacturing efficiencies.
It chose the LogiKal software solution, exclusively distributed and supported in the UK by BM Aluminium. This decision was driven largely by the fact that LogiKal can link quotations through order processing and design and, ultimately, all the way to manufacturing.
Because BM Aluminium was able to work with Joedan to customise its LogiKal set up to exactly suit how the company operates, it meant that Joedan could maximise control and achieve important efficiencies at every single one of these stages.
For example, BM Aluminium has helped the IT team at Joedan to programme a bespoke database for the Joedan commercial aluminium system which includes within it all of the company’s third party hardware and gives them full control of their order entry processing. The order processing team can also now create library positions within LogiKal which speed up their work and, in turn, use these to create cross sections which save further time within the drawing office.
BM Aluminium has successfully linked the software to Joedan’s two FOM LMT65 multi-spindle machining centres and pre-programmed all of its routine CNC preps delivering additional time savings and improved material optimisation.
A further element of customisation has come in the form of bespoke reports which Joedan is now able to generate from within LogiKal, for example on margin/cost analysis, material cutting optimisation and fabrication worksheets, which are minimising paperwork and improving the business information available to the management team.
Since the installation of LogiKal, BM Aluminium and Joedan are said to have established a strong and successful partnership and are working together to ensure that LogiKal delivers on the company’s requirements as it continues to grow.
For example, there are already plans to link Joedan’s new ERP system to LogiKal via an export link created by BM Aluminium in order to optimise the effectiveness of both programmes.
BM Aluminium’s managing director, Dean Hodges, commented: “As this project shows, there is a huge amount of flexibility built into LogiKal so that it can be tailored precisely to the needs of every fabricator we work with. Customers can obviously choose from a wide range of off the shelf modules, but our team are highly skilled in customisation and enjoy the challenge of creating something which is truly bespoke.”
Dan Cowl, software and IT director at Joedan, said: “BM Aluminium hasn’t shoehorned LogiKal into our operation. Instead, they have worked closely with us to understand exactly what we wanted to achieve and have delivered a software package which we know will make a real and ongoing contribution to our overall efficiency.”
