Beckwood Press Uses abas ERP to Gain Visibility and Accelerate Growth

Successful custom hydraulic press manufacturer, Beckwood Press, uses abas ERP to integrate their business functions and systems. Based in St. Louis, Missouri, Beckwood Press Corporation designs and builds custom hydraulic presses for a wide range of B2B customers in multiple industries including aerospace, automotive and energy. Beckwood’s reliable, high-quality hydraulic presses can be used to form everything from high-strength alloys to composites, rubber, and plastics. The 40+-year-old company has seen impressive growth over the last decade due to the high quality of its products and services. 

Beckwood Press is justifiably proud that they don’t just sell great equipment. They’re really in the business of helping B2B customers solve manufacturing challenges, offering tailored equipment that can exceed their production goals. While many of Beckwood’s competitors sell standard press lines, Beckwood consults closely with each customer to understand their precise needs and design specialized equipment to meet them.

Interested in ERP Case Studies? Check out the ERP implementation Case Study:

How Langston Companies is Moving into the Future without Losing their Personal Touch

When asked what makes Beckwood stand out as an equipment/solutions provider, Josh Schroeder, Project Manager at Beckwood Press, says: “We help our customers achieve their goals by looking at their entire manufacturing process before designing a machine. This ensures the finished press is exactly what they need to increase production. We view ourselves as a solutions provider first, not just an equipment provider.”

We view ourselves as a solutions provider first, not just an equipment provider

Because Beckwood Press is a custom manufacturer, their customer network is large. Companies that make appliances, cars, and planes routinely come to Beckwood to gain manufacturing efficiencies. Beckwood’s customers enjoy the company’s collaborative, consultative approach to difficult manufacturing challenges. As Beckwood customer, Ken Kolman, quality assurance manager for aerospace job shop, Columbia Metal Spinning, explains, “Beckwood understood what we needed and wanted. We knew they could tailor a press to meet our requirements and handle the different materials we wanted to form. They were just fantastic to work with.” 

Why Beckwood Needed an ERP system

Due to customer demand driven by the high quality of their custom equipment and services, Beckwood Press has grown considerably over the past 10 years. When that growth spurt began a decade ago, Beckwood had one primary growth-limiting challenge: their IT systems were living on “islands.” Finance, production, scheduling, and inventory all used various programs to meet their own needs but lacked the continuity of a single software platform, making it difficult to see the “big picture” across all business operations. 

Schroeder describes how this IT system disarray led Beckwood to act: “We were looking for an ERP solution because we didn’t have work orders or the ability to see what POs were coming in for a particular job. We needed a way to track projects at any point during the manufacturing process.” 

This disconnect between systems had the potential to jeopardize Beckwood’s growth, so the company’s leadership team decided to act. In their search for an ERP provider, they started with a field of 30 potential vendors, narrowed it down to a shortlist of 3, and ultimately chose to partner with abas.

The Decision to Partner with abas ERP

Beckwood Press liked the way abas integrated with their existing systems and business areas. Especially important was the fact that abas ERP integrated with Beckwood’s design system, Solidworks. This integration gave Beckwood the ability to create BOMs through Solidworks and import them into the abas ERP system directly. This proved to be a huge time-saver for Beckwood’s engineering group, which had previously been using Excel sheets and manually inputting key production data. Beckwood also liked the flexibility of being able to fit their new abas ERP system around everything they needed to do from a business standpoint.

The islands where Beckwood’s systems had been stranded were effectively bridged, and they were soon able to connect and coordinate activities across the organization, gaining visibility into complete business operations.

The Ongoing Benefits of Partnering with abas USA

Choosing abas ERP a decade ago has allowed Beckwood Press to keep growing and seamlessly scale up their operations. It’s also given Beckwood visibility into, and use of, timely data to support decision-making. 

Beckwood uses abas ERP for estimating, offering timely quotes to customers and driving better cost control and heightened customer satisfaction.

“We’re now able to see when parts are scheduled to arrive,” explains Schroeder. “With this information, we can pinpoint bottlenecks sooner and make changes from the procurement side to get those parts in when we need them. This allows our production to stay on schedule.” 

Beckwood also uses abas ERP for estimating, easily offering timely quotes to customers and driving better cost control and heightened customer satisfaction.

Schroeder offers a final thought on Beckwood’s relationship with the abas USA team: “They’ve always been there to help us along the way. They understand what we’re trying to accomplish and have helped us customize the system so that it fits with what we want to accomplish from a business standpoint.” 

It is no coincidence that Beckwood has been offering that same high level of customized service to their own B2B customers for decades. As partnerships go, Beckwood Press and abas USA has been, and continues to be, a strong and enduring one.

ERP is critical to Beckwood's success. Learn what a modern ERP can do for your company!

Download this helpful guide:

How to Select an ERP System in 7 Easy Steps