Twin City Plating is a Minneapolis-based plating company. Committed to excellence in quality and speed, Twin City Plating sets itself apart from the competition by offering same-day delivery with expedite options.
Twin City Plating accommodates large projects with up to 10,000 gallons of capacity on four lines with tanks and lifting capabilities to handle some of the industry’s largest Electroless Nickel plating projects. Along with EN, Twin City Plating also provides Anodize, Hard Coat Anodize, Electropolish, Passivation, and Hard Gold Plating services.
The Challenge
Twin City Plating faced a significant challenge when their previous ERP software, DWOS, discontinued support in January 2024.
Additionally, the outdated system lacked essential features like job costing, formulaic quoting, and other advanced tools, creating inefficiencies in their operations.
Twin City Plating, renowned for holding expedite capacity and charging premium rates, was particularly concerned about maintaining their reputation as the expedite experts of Minnesota. The shop's owner, Ben Minger, and his team were apprehensive about transitioning to a new system, especially after their previous software implementation took a lengthy eight months to complete.
The Solution
Twin City Plating opted for Steelhead Technologies' Power Package, which offered 26 key features to digitize, automate, and optimize their workflows. The deployment was led by Steelhead’s Deployment Engineer, Travis Peterson, in collaboration with Twin City Plating's President and Operations Manager.
The metal finishing ERP was implemented in just five weeks. The Power Package included automation tools for quoting, invoicing, order entry, and work instructions, alongside advanced modules like Margin Master for profit analytics and a capacity planning module.
The Results
The implementation of Steelhead Technologies' Power Package exceeded Twin City Plating's expectations. The five-week deployment timeline, which Ben had initially been cautious about, was completed flawlessly—an achievement that Ben described as "shocking," especially compared to the eight months it took to implement their previous system.
Steelhead's plating operations software significantly streamlined Twin City Plating's operations. Their prior manual process of creating a priority schedule used to take up to an hour each day. This was reduced to just 2-3 minutes using Steelhead's automated system. The capacity planning and prioritization tasks that previously required constant monitoring and manual updates now take less than three minutes in total.
The automation features in Steelhead's software have drastically improved efficiency across the board:
- John, the Operations Manager, Previously spent up to an hour daily on priority scheduling which is now reduced to less than three minutes.
- Hue is the Order Entry Specialist and saves approximately an hour a day through direct automation with accounting software, eliminating manual data entry and freeing him up to help with other tasks.
- Pong oversees shipping and receiving, benefiting from a streamlined process that allows for easy access to review, manage, and sign off on deliveries.
As a result, Twin City Plating has not only maintained but strengthened its reputation for prioritization and expedite services. The shop now operates with greater accuracy and efficiency, ensuring that they continue to meet and exceed customer expectations in their fast-paced industry.
DWOS to Steelhead in 5-Weeks
Twin City Plating shares that they now operate with greater accuracy and efficiency, ensuring that they continue to meet and exceed customer expectations in their fast-paced industry.