Technology Ensuring Essential Availability
When water and natural gas stop flowing, almost everything else becomes meaningless. That is why companies producing water supply equipment, plumbing systems, pumps, and natural gas products — such as A.Y. McDonald — were designated as essential businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. To ensure these critical elements are always available, Steve Savary, Vice President of IT at A.Y. McDonald Industries, is leading the company’s digital transformation efforts.
He explains: “As a member of the strategic planning team, we focus on driving revenue and efficiency through the application of smart technology.”
One of the key strategic initiatives is implementing Epicor Kinetic across all A.Y. McDonald subsidiaries, while enhancing the use of Epicor Advanced MES — a solution supporting the company’s manufacturing and plastic injection operations since 2018.
Real-Time Information Drives Productivity
As a leading manufacturer of water supply products, plumbing systems, pumps, natural gas products, and plastic injection products, A.Y. McDonald operates 13 facilities in the U.S. and Canada, including two foundries, four plastic injection plants, and seven manufacturing plants with over 100 CNC machining centers. Known as one of the oldest family-owned businesses in the U.S., this 167-year-old company continues to embrace a pioneering, forward-looking spirit.
Savary states: “Transitioning to Epicor Advanced MES initiated our digital transformation. We replaced manual processes based on Excel spreadsheets and whiteboards with a single system, enabling data sharing across facilities, accurate cost calculations, and faster operational efficiency.”
“Now, everything operators need to perform their work is at their fingertips. Supervisors and maintenance staff are equipped with tablets running Epicor Advanced MES, allowing them to access schedules and work status anywhere. Epicor enables the right information to reach the right people for effective task management,” Savary emphasizes.
Additionally, machine maintenance response times have significantly improved. He explains: “Moving around is costly. Epicor Advanced MES keeps staff in their work areas instead of searching the shop floor for people, parts, or documents. If a machine fails, alerts are automatically sent to the maintenance team for quick resolution.”
Optimizing for the Business Model
A.Y. McDonald’s plastic injection operations run on a Build-to-Order (BTO) model, providing Just-in-Time (JIT) components to major national customers.
“We only generate profit when the manufacturing process works efficiently,” Savary shares. “Epicor Advanced MES helps us combine variables such as different machines and molds to determine which jobs can run on which machines. These recommendations allow us to optimize the production process.”
Machine-level monitoring provides supervisors with a full view of the production line. Savary describes: “Just by looking, we can see if an employee is falling behind schedule or if scrap rates are high. This allows us to act early and improve employee productivity.”
He adds:
“The system also ensures on-time delivery. Even during COVID, when many industries faced severe supply chain disruptions, we could accurately predict completion and delivery times. This significantly reinforces our credibility.”
Integrated Solutions Create Synergy
Savary is deploying Epicor Kinetic across the enterprise, allowing production scheduling across multiple facilities based on orders from a central source. He emphasizes:
“Epicor Kinetic is the core platform of our business. It provides synergy and visibility we previously lacked. Now, we have a unified financial view of orders, procurement, as well as inventory, production, and shipping control.”
Data from Epicor Kinetic is also used for the Performance-Based Pay (PFP) program. If productivity exceeds targets, the company shares additional profits with employees.
“Data is extracted from Epicor Kinetic after each shift. The next morning, results are displayed on a 70-inch screen on the shop floor, showing yesterday’s performance and any changes in hourly pay,” Savary explains. “We also use this data for training. For example, if an employee has an unproductive day, we review and discuss the reasons.”
Savary affirms trust in Epicor:
“Every time we implement Epicor at a new company, we can receive orders, produce, and generate revenue without disrupting operations.”
Integrating Epicor Kinetic with Epicor Advanced MES has created a “single source of truth,” providing leadership with the necessary information to make accurate decisions across the enterprise.
Driving Long-Term Strategy
A.Y. McDonald has experienced strong growth in recent years. To meet this demand, the company has implemented centralized, standardized, and repeatable processes:
“Whether it’s personnel, components, or capital investments, we have a best-practice set applied across all international operations,” Savary says. The next step for the strategic planning team is to optimize office infrastructure, including deploying Epicor Maintenance Management and Epicor Cash Collect for subsidiaries.
Another key goal is becoming a paperless enterprise, an initiative from the Emerging Leaders program — a 9-month training program for high-potential employees.
“We used to spend $18,000 per month on paper and ink,” Savary reveals. “All safety, quality, CAD drawings, detailed drawings, instructions, and schedules have been migrated into Epicor Kinetic. This keeps information always updated. If an engineer modifies a drawing or changes specifications, the data immediately propagates everywhere. Our foundry is now fully paperless, and 40% of production operations have been digitized.”
Strong Reliability
Savary and A.Y. McDonald’s companies understand the importance of reliability. During the severe Texas freeze in 2021, which cracked hundreds of pump heads, customers trusted A.Y. McDonald to deliver parts overnight and restore water supply.
“Epicor solutions have excellent availability, which is crucial for our operations,” Savary says. “We have 1,800 employees and countless customers relying on this system.”
Because Epicor Kinetic is connected to the e-commerce portal, the company can share inventory, pricing, order history, and invoices. Savary concludes:
“This helps us meet customer expectations for 24/7/365 data access.”
3S Software Co., Ltd.
To successfully upgrade a business, businesses need an experienced and trusted partner. 3S will be a partner accompanying businesses on their path of development, helping businesses become more comprehensive and increase productivity at lower costs. Along with compliance with the Epicor Signature Project Implementation Methodology, it will help businesses increase production efficiency and improve profits at a very reasonable cost. 3S believes that it will always bring the most satisfaction to customers.
The 5 main solutions of 3S include:
Epicor ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning
Epicor MES – Manufacturing Execution System
BPM XSOL Solution – Business Modeling Solution
ECM DOCSTAR Solution – Digital Content Management Software
Epicor CADLINK solution – The solution allows transferring information from CAD drawings such as AutoCAD, Solidworks to Epicor ERP
More references: WEARWELL: BOOSTING FINANCE AND STRATEGY WITH FP&A
WEARWELL: BOOSTING FINANCE AND STRATEGY WITH FP&A
