“I could see right away that MetalEZ was a time saver….” – Lucas Metal Works

“I could see right away that MetalEZ was a time saver….” – Lucas Metal Works

In 1968 my grandfather started Lucas Metal Works and it was not much more than a retail shop for the locals to get a piece of steel or have something repaired with what they couldn’t weld at their house. At that time, there were only 2 employees. In 1996 we built our arena tool, The Ground Hog and started selling them throughout the United States at a rate of about 150 units per year. In 1997 we built our first steel structure from a web truss system of square tube and started to distribute them around northeast Oklahoma and southeast Kansas. The building business also evolved into a retail source for sheeting and trim. As he and I grew the business he wanted to run the shop and left me with the office. This is when I started looking for better ways to track sales and inventory.

The struggle

We started with a simple invoicing program in 1997 that tracked only deposits and checks which proved to work well with the business, but it had no potential to benefit the company for future growth. In 2009 we purchased a program to help keep track of a bill of material for The Ground Hog, along with our line of farm equipment but turned out to be a disaster! We had gone through a bad implementation with the only good thing coming from it was a list of item codes that we adopted to get everything into inventory. This software did not track things as it was promised.

The shift

When we decided it was not going to work, I started doing research on other options. I had attended a trade show and knew of the Adjutant (MetalEZ) software, and they happened to call me one day when I was trying to decide what software company I was going to call first. I talked to Michelle and told her I was interested in seeing a demo of the software, so she arranged it. Over the next weeks we went through several other demos that showed me the value and where my ROI would be versus other software solutions. I then made the decision to go with Adjutant (MetalEZ).

After implementation and training, we went live (June 2013) 6 months later. I could see right away that MetalEZ was a big time saver in the areas that we were getting behind in with previous programs. The tracking was good, but the fact that the program is so user friendly was one of the biggest advantages to us. We are now able to have an integrated BOM for our buildings straight from our design program. We also have the ability to make and track coil numbers back to a building. I knew the importance of tracking a coil throughout its product life cycle, but it is time-consuming and a paper-ridden process.  I now have all the information at a simple click of a button with Adjutant (MetalEZ).

The results

There are many modules that we have not started using, but I have it in the plans to start in 2015 with the bar coding portion being first. I know this step will drastically improve the time we spend with the work order and production sheets. The system has the capabilities to help me grow the business by showing me the things I need to know in real time allowing me to catch things before it goes south. Any business owner knows that in order to run a successful business, you have to lead the business instead of the business leading you.

-JR Prather
President Lucas Metal Works Inc.
396281 West 3000 Rd
Ochelata, OK 74051
(918) 535-2726