The Titan Precast Management System enables Nance Precast to manage a growing operation
For Nance Precast Concrete Products, there’s the “before” and the “after.” Based in Piedmont, Oklahoma, Nance Precast has grown steadily since its founding in 1991. But there comes a point when keeping track of all aspects of the business using manual processes and several software applications gets a little unwieldy. That’s the “before.”
“We had an independent quoting software and a different accounting program for invoicing and payables,” said Chad Nance. “We used Excel for production scheduling, along with a CAD program for drawings.”
It took a lot of effort and a lot of staff time to coordinate the wide-ranging pieces of a project from start to finish. So Nance, the third generation precaster who is now a partner in the company with his father Randy and his uncle Stanley, started to look for a solution.
“I started doing some research, thinking that if there were a way to tie it all together, increase efficiency and reduce errors, that would be awesome,” he said. “I came across Titan and started talking to them.”
That’s where we begin the “after.”
Transforming the Business
Nance learned about the Titan II Precast Management System, committed his company to deploying the system, and watched it transform the way Nance Precast manages all aspects of its business.
“What’s great about it from our side is that it ties everything together,” Nance said. “Other than a few of the smaller packages, we use every module. We use it for quoting, costing, drawing, scheduling, quality control, loading, dispatch, invoicing, payable, et cetera.”
Nance, the vice president of operations, watched the business grow at the side of his father, grandfather and uncle.
“Making parking curbs is where it all started,” he said. “It went from that to the first manhole form. And they started selling a box here and there. It just started to grow. And then I grew up in it as well. Ever since I was old enough to work, I’ve been out here learning it.”
Seeing the Bottlenecks
Nance graduated from the University of Central Oklahoma with a degree in business administration and eventually took over all aspects of production, including personnel, product design, inventory control, product distribution, and research and development. So he was well positioned to see the bottlenecks. In the spring of 2014, he made the move to Titan, which meant scrapping the paper processes and all the unrelated systems and trying something new. The Titan system was exactly what the company needed.
“For the most part, we’re paperless. The only paper we use is the production drawings that go to the guys out back. Everything else is tracked and available in Titan,” he said.
“So, for example, our sales department quotes the project,” Nance said. “Once sold, a project manager converts it to an active order and finalizes the drawings. It is then turned over to production for scheduling. Next, the parts are produced and run through the quality control program. Finally, the job is scheduled to ship, loaded, and shipped.
“All of these processes are converted to the different modules easily and handled by the Titan program,” Nance continued. “From the time the project is quoted to delivery, the information is only entered once at the beginning. There are no risk of errors manually converting from one module to the next. This is significant for us.”
Not only is the entire project tied together, the components are easily visible to anybody who needs to see them.
Everything is Tracked
“Accessibility is a great benefit with Titan,” Nance said. “With all of the information being available to everyone at any time, it eliminates the need for employees to have to go back and forth looking for answers to questions. More importantly, you know that the answers you seek are in the program and correct. Again, from the time the project is quoted to the time the invoice is paid, everything is correctly tracked.”
Located just northwest of Oklahoma City, Nance Precast distributes its products throughout the state and occasionally into Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas and Texas. The company produces a variety of underground infrastructure products along with median barriers and highway dividers with its team of about 50 employees.
As the company has grown, the Titan Precast Management System has enabled it to keep pace without adding additional support staff, which is another key benefit.
Since implementing the Titan system, “it’s been record year after record year,” Nance said. “We’re a growing company and because of Titan we’ve been able to keep the same core in the office and still support that growing volume. We’ve probably got fewer people in the office now than we did when we had half the sales 10 years ago.”
