by Natalie Edwards

Sokoza Engineering, Matamata - case study

 

‘We’d just run out of product at times when we couldn’t afford to and we lost a lot of production due to that.'

 

We talk with Managing Director, Carl Blackman, and Production Supervisor, David Smith at Sokoza Engineering about the impact QUICKSTOCK's had on their operations.

Tell us a bit about Sokoza Engineering

Sokoza engineering is a truck building manufacturer based in Matamata. We specialise in service trucks so mainly we’re working with the tyre industry and trying to focus on anything that’s got something a bit fiddly in it like a tail lift or a crane truck as well. Sokoza’s a sister company to Camco Industries in Cambridge so the truck bodies really give us another string to our bow with the ute and van fitouts over at Camco. - Carl Blackman, Managing Director

What led you to exploring your options in how you managed consumable stock inventory?

We’d just run out of product at times when we couldn’t afford to and we lost a lot of production due to that. And I got the admin people up me the whole time for processing invoice after invoice on a monthly basis. Because we are a versatile company we do a few different things with different materials. Our main benefits I’d say is having all the stock on hand. If a drill bit breaks the next replacement is just here.  - David Smith, Production Supervisor

How did you manage consumable stock inventory before QUICKSTOCK™?

Before we had QUICKSTOCK David and I were doing a lot of the ordering ourselves. It did soak up a lot of our time just making sure the guys had enough consumables and bits and pieces. What really used to challenge us is just running out of something when you’re getting close to the end of the job or even half way through a Friday, running out of grinding discs or sanding discs while trying to get a job to the painters to start on Monday morning. Just meant a bit of frantic rushing to grab something from down the road to tie us over. - Carl Blackman, Managing Director

What would you say has been the best thing about getting QUICKSTOCK™?

Now we’ve had QUICKSTOCK for a while another one of the things that’s really stood out for us is just having one invoice a month. It just means that we’re dealing with it once a month rather than on a weekly if not daily basis. In addition to that we have a lot of stock sitting on the shelf that we haven’t paid for whereas previously we’d be only going to buy it in town when we needed it. So there’s a bit of time wastage there, but now it’s on the shelf, doesn’t cost us anything, doesn’t tie up cashflow, but it’s there when we need it. And at the end of the month if we’ve used them then we just pay for them then. So there’s no mucking around. - Carl Blackman, Managing Director

How has QUICKSTOCK™ fit in with your processes?

Regarding our QUICKSTOCK process that we’re currently using, we see the QUICKSTOCK cabinets as our warehouse. We stock our own shelves with the Euromarc products which the guys pick off there, and we just stock out of our QUICKSTOCK warehouse. However whenever one of the employees needs PPE or any of the consumables that’s kept inside the QUICKSTOCK cabinets I will open it with the key, issue it from there, close and lock the cabinet again. - David Smith, Production Supervisor

How would you say QUICKSTOCK™ has improved your business?

We haven’t really noticed any spike in monthly bills or anything from Euormarc. Seeing that we’ve got all the stock on hand, the amount of usage is still the same depending on the workload. To us it’s just a positive in all ways, with more time to focus on production.  - David Smith, Production Supervisor