West View-Cunningham Co Inc.

Solutions for a Growing Shop

West View-Cunningham Co Inc. was in a rough patch. Their shop was growing, which is great, but they were also having problems. In the past, they had kept track of orders and repair jobs on spreadsheets, but as more orders and work came in they couldn’t keep up. Ty Honhart, a Sales Manager, knew they needed an ERP system to get their shop in order. He looked at about eight different ERP systems, but the E2 SHOP system from Shoptech stood out to him, and he’s glad he went with his gut. As Ty said, “Your salesman got me to buy the product and all he did was come through on everything he said.”

Using E2 SHOP and its structure, Ty was able to get his shop organized and keep track of everything. He also purchased Shoptech’s implementation services to help everyone in the shop to become familiar with the new software. Ty knew that would be the difference between just having the system and actually using it. West View-Cunningham has come a long way to get to this point.

West View-Cunningham started as two different shops that merged together. Those shops were West View Equipment and Cunningham Pump & Supply Company. When they merged, the shops had around four or five employees and they became a pump distributor as well as a pump repair shop. Today, West View-Cunningham has 14 employees and they’re planning to keep growing. They’ve worked hard, and this year has been a record year for them. West View-Cunningham had a lack of transparency and a few people ended up leaving due to mass confusion. Ty knew the shop needed to get organized if they were going to make it. He made sure that his employees’ positions were clearly defined and that everyone knew their role as part of the shop.

After they decided to get E2 SHOP, they worked with Shoptech’s implementation services to utilize the software to the fullest. As they became familiar with E2 SHOP, Ty used it to support the new structure. “I pretty much use [SHOP] in every way you can think of,” Ty said. Now, with the thorough implementation of SHOP and their new structure, there is full transparency and no more confusion. West View-Cunningham is able to keep track of every single order, whether they’re selling pumps or repairing them. This keeps their customers happy, and it keeps the folks on the floor happy as well.

However, Ty didn’t just do all of this work for what’s coming at the shop now; he has an eye on the future as well. As Ty said, “Your job as a manager is to prepare people for their next step within your company, but also outside of your company.” He knows that eventually, some of their employees will move on to bigger things, either in their shop or elsewhere, and he wants to be sure they’re ready. After all, if the shop keeps growing, they are going to need more managers. Now that West View-Cunningham isn’t overwhelmed by the day-to-day work in the shop, they can afford to look ahead and plan for the future. This sort of environment is great for employees and managers, and it will make the shop more productive and profitable.