The beauty of
drive works, apart from anything else,
is standardizing the communications
because we've moved from words
to production drawings.
That's the beauty of the Drive
Works implementation.
So we are a design
led, high end
brand specializing
in decorative drapery hardware.
in terms of
what makes us special,
we have a very distinctive
design handwriting.
So we emphasize
simplicity of line, purity of form.
But if I could distill it down
to the one thing
that sets us apart from everybody else,
it's our approach to finishing.
that capability is reflected
in the fact that we offer 147
standard finishes,
which is completely unrivaled offer
anywhere in the
there's a challenge really
for for the client and our consultants.
So the client has got a window.
They know that broadly speaking
they know the dimensions of it.
They've looked at our collections
and they've identified
the look that thereafter.
But then they are very much
relying on the expertise
of our consultants
to allow
product to be specified correctly,
so it will install correctly, etc.,
And internally,
one of the big issues
we faced before drive works
was that our consultants
got the knowledge in their heads,
and they communicate it
through a set of standard
clauses, vocabulary, etc..
the difficulty is then
that any sort of variation
in what the consultant
is trying to communicate
through to the guy,
that's actually going to
make this for us,
and then the interpretation of
that person
in the past,
it has led
to us making things incorrectly.
The beauty of drive works,
apart from anything else,
is standardizing the communications
because we've moved from words
to production drawings.
That's the beauty of the Drive
Works implementation.
it used to be like
it looked like
it was designed for a dot matrix printer
with a whole blizzard of information.
Our quotes were
now they're very much simplified.
We've got a summary.
We've got all the detail they need.
But critically,
they also get a visualization
of the specification that they've made.
And if you think about 147
standard finishes,
it was impossible
for us to have a photographic reference
for every configuration
drive works lets us do close to
but what we do
in our presentation of the spec is
we add in a photographic chip
into the document.
So people have got a really clear
understanding of what they've specified.
And then, crucially,
they get a production drawing of exactly
what pole
we're going to make
for the medium term vision
which we're talking about.
Our target is at the beginning of 2027,
when we are 100% clear in terms
of debugging
and 100%
confident is
that they will have the opportunity
to experience
something that nobody else can offer,
which is that
you can actually
effect, an infinite
variety of options
are available from us,
and you'll be able to
go and do that
yourself and end up
with a properly specified product.
And obviously,
the rules and tables
that are intrinsic to drive works
prevent you
from specifying
something that we can't make for you.
And that is, I think, crucial.
So we will always want you to talk to us
and we'll always be happy to help.
But here's a tool
that is nobody else is offering
that allows you,
should you wish to, to be able
to specify the thing yourself.
what we've done at the same time
as implementing
drive works, we talked about
I talked about superb systems
being part of our strategy.
We've implemented a completely new
ERP and operating system
at the same time.
And the combination
of making those transitions,
we've gone from something
over a million item codes to the place
now where
we've got about 25,000 item codes,
because what we used to have
is we used to have a variation
of every single thing
that we did in 147 finishes.
What we've been able to do
with, with Drive works
is you can now go through drive works
and it's a drop down
and you you can pick the finish.
And then there is one part code.
And within our ERP system
we are just incorporating
the words that drive works are generated
to instruct the team what finish
they're putting onto that product,
dramatically change the way that
that we work as a business.
So the 3D visuals within drive
works a really important tool.
They help
our customers share a visual
with their clients,
but also give the flexibility
of changing configurations
to specific finishes, different finials.
It allows a lot of whilst
they are configuring the products.
the aim of the implementation
was to improve the purchasing process
and experience for the customer.
This gives them drawings to refer to,
but also accuracy
throughout the manufacturing process
to ensure
that they're getting the right products.
So that's 1 to 1 plot
that we're actually manufacturing
to, compared to a more manual method
where we were actually
marking out on the floor,
it was down to potential human error
of getting that wrong.
Now we've got these
1 to 1 plots that work.
They're the same every time.
If something gets damaged in transit,
we can then go back
and we can remake
even just a specific part of a pole,
not just the whole thing.
So it gives the customer confidence
throughout the whole process
that the qualities improve,
the accuracy is improved.
It just helps along the whole journey.
we set out with this project,
it was all about improving
the client experience.
And it was not a productivity exercise.
It is fair to say
though that we have experienced
some productivity benefits.
So the
the guys who
actually have to make the product,
we believe our saving
five minutes on average per Bay poll,
we make 2500, 2600 days a year.
So that's a significant saving
in time there.
there is
of course an issue in that
we've increased the time that we have
in the ministration to create the plot
that they now work to.
But the net saving is about three minutes
times 2600.
On top of that,
those of our bays that were difficult
would have required our design director
to go into SolidWorks
to create that template
to send out to the client.
And we've now at a place where maybe 3%
of all the bays
we do
require intervention from,
from that resource.
Everything else is being done for us
by Drive Works and SolidWorks.
