Uniplate South Africa, one of the largest number plate companies in Africa, is recognised as an industry leader in the design, development, manufacture and servicing of hydraulic number plate presses, manual embossing equipment, embossing toolsets, hot foil stamping, and roller coating machines.

Uniplate has worked with Afrisoft Africa to implement a TransLution™ Software system at their factory in Pretoria. TransLution™ Software is used from the job receiving process at the end of manufacturing through to picking and invoicing sales orders.

At the end of the production line, TransLution™ is used to print box labels and to manage the process of scanning boxes onto pallets. At the same time, a job receipt is posted to SYSPRO for each box that is labelled and packed. The pallet management function ensures that products aren’t mixed on pallets and that the pallets aren’t overloaded. There is a fixed number of boxes allowed on a pallet based on the stock code. Once pallets have been packed they are moved to warehouse bins for storage.

When sales orders are received, the scanning system is used to assist users in finding the items required on the pick slip. Once items have been scanned and picked, the supervisor can view this data on an EazyTouch screen and then if he is happy select to post the data to SYSPRO which will generate a SYSPRO invoice. At this point TransLution™ prints both the invoice and a load sheet which shows what was packed for the order.

In addition, the system is also used to do scanner based Cycle Counts, manage transfers to other branches, process credit notes, and generate export labels for the UK. Reports used to manage the process are generated through the system.

Uniplate has seen numerous benefits to the implementation of this system, specifically around real-time accuracy and availability of data. Previously, finding the right items to pick for sales orders, for example, was a time consuming process; the system now tells the user exactly where to go. This availability of data linked to the pallet packing process also allows TransLution™ to assist Uniplate in optimising space in the factory. Pallets that are not full are tracked and if a job of the same stock code is being done, users are instructed to fetch the half full pallet and fill it before starting to pack a new pallet. Space is at a premium and this is a valuable space saving mechanism.

About

TransLution™ software was developed to assist manufacturing, warehousing and distribution companies to better manage their business processes and stock handling. The TransLution™ product is particularly focussed on robust integration to customers’ existing ERP, accounting and stock management software for a wide range of transactions. TransLution™ is distributed in Africa by Afrisoft Africa (Pty) Ltd and in Europe by K3 SYSPRO.

Afrisoft Africa (Pty) Ltd was founded in 1998 to serve the specialised needs of agribusiness, manufacturing, warehousing and distribution companies. Afrisoft provides consulting services for business improvement and distributes, implements and supports TransLution™, AGRIS™ and other business improvement software in Africa.