Mar-Bal, Inc. Receives the 2015 Evolution of Manufacturing Award

Link to the Smart Business – Cleveland Article

2015 Evolution of Manufacturing

February 1, 2015

We are very proud of our own Aaron Bable – Director of Information Systems & Customer Service, winner of the 2015 Evolution of Manufacturing Award by Smart Business.

Mar-Bal Inc., led by President and CEO Scott Balogh, manufactures thermoset composites components for the appliance, electrical, food service, industrial and transportation marketplaces. The company had been experiencing operational challenges during the past few years because of its outdated customized enterprise resource planning software. This prevented the necessary increase in manufacturing activity Mar-Bal needed to stay competitive in today’s global economy.

As each year passed, it became more expensive to operate the old ERP system because of the specialized support required to maintain and upgrade it. Mar-Bal sought out a new ERP provider that could offer a modern system with more capabilities that wouldn’t add more operational costs. Ultimately, IQMS’s comprehensive, industry-specific ERP solution rose to the head of the pack. EnterpriseIQ installation began at company headquarters in June 2010, and then at Mar-Bal’s three other facilities. Central to that implementation was Aaron Bable, Mar-Bal’s Director of Business Process Systems. By 2011, Mar-Bal started using the ERP system enterprise-wide and saw immediate results.

IQMS’s manufacturing ERP solution saved the company $270,000 annually across its four plants as well as nearly 5,000 potential machine hours that were no longer lost to downtime for monthly physical inventory checks.

Savings were realized through more efficient inbound order electronic data interchange processing, capacity for outbound EDI invoice and advance ship notice processing, the elimination of regular and monthly physical inventories, quicker month-end close, accurate production reporting through the RealTime interface, and accurate reporting of global material purchases allowing for more negotiating power with volume purchasing.