Aluminium Bending Specialists — construction, architectural, commercial vehicles, exhibition, window fabrication, office furniture
The challenge
ABS had no real-time view of work in progress on the shop floor. Production status was hard to assess, capacity was hard to forecast, and quoting relied on experience rather than data. A legacy Microsoft Access system no longer reflected how work actually happened, and sales had no reliable link between what was quoted and what production could actually deliver. Lead times were an estimate, not a number anyone could stand behind.
How Simportal worked
Earlier attempts at real-time shop floor data had failed without buy-in from the people using them. This time, Simportal worked with ABS’s management team and shop floor staff from the start, not around them, to find where visibility was breaking down and what the operators themselves actually needed. Quoting began on a structured Excel template built around ABS’s own business rules, then moved fully into Simportal using Python-based logic, capturing bending rules, material characteristics, cycle times and cost drivers directly in the system. The iPad interfaces for capturing production data were designed and tested with the shop floor itself, not handed down to it, deliberately kept simple so they’d work for operators across a wide age range.
“We tried other systems before and they failed. This time, the Simportal team worked with our shop floor guys to build the system the way they wanted it.”
— Greg Russell, Managing Director, Aluminium Bending Specialists Ltd
The result
Real-time visibility of work in progress. Live dashboards on any device. Quoting is now based on actual job times collected by a trusted data collection system, not estimates. Lead-time accuracy above 80%, up from no reliable figure at all. More accurate job costing, and a business that can quote with confidence instead of experience.
ABS now operates with a clear, shared view of production and quoting. Sales, planning and production are aligned through reliable operational data, letting the business quote with confidence, plan accurately, and make better-informed decisions as the operation evolves.
