NEUMO – A Name to Be Reckoned With

Neumo UK Ltd, formally known as Damstahl Stainless Ltd, is a name to be reckoned with as the UK’s leading supplier of hygienic & industrial tubes, fittings,

flanges & box sections.

The change of name not only reflects the company’s position within the NEUMO – Ehrenberg Group & AWH (Armaturenwerk Hötensleben GmbH) but also it’s desire to secure its foothold in reaching new UK markets, particularly in the Hygienic

and pharmaceutical industries.

As part of the AWH group, customers now have access to a wide range of valves, tank cleaning equipment, DIN tubes & fittings and the Neumo MaxPure range of pharmaceutical tubes & fittings. It is with this range that Neumo now hope to

fulfil the requirements of fluid handling systems, Bio-gas, food, dairy, brewery processing and also pharmaceutical & biotech industries.

The conversion has been a swift one in the UK; however this is a company of some standing, founded in 1859 as a fitting factory and metal-casting house in

the former East German town of Hötensleben. The company was renamed Armaturenwerk Hötensleben in 1948 and up until 1989 was responsible for the

manufacture of valves and fittings for the food industry and employed around 800 people. Butterfly valves were in fact produced for the whole of the food industry in the former GDR and other socialist countries, namely Russia and

Poland.

The first factory in Hötensleben

After the fall of the wall over 14,000 state-owned enterprises were sold, broken up or liquidated by the Treuhandanstalt (Trust Agency). AWH was taken over by

NEUMO-Ehrenberg-Group in 1992 with 80 employers. Expansion over the following twenty years included the building of new pipe storage facility at Hötensleben, a shipping and storage department for fittings, a new production

hall for the manufacture of CNC, and the opening of warehouses in Essenbach (Bavaria). Offices in Lyon, France followed with a further facility in Vienna,

Austria.

The AWH Group now employ over 360 employees including 30 trainees on their

own internal training programme. They handle stainless steel in many different grades and also manufacture custom made articles to customer’s specifications,

from complex filter housing and welding constructions, small tanks and swing bend panels to double wall panels and pipe systems. They have a vast product range including Butterfly valves from DN10 up to DN 200, Pigging systems and

cleaning equipment for tanks, machinery, containers and road tankers.

Butterfly Valves & Tank Cleaning Equipment

With the backing of such an established group it is the intention of Neumo UK

Ltd to supply all of the components, tubing, equipment and subassemblies made of stainless steel or special alloys which can be installed in all fluid handling

systems. Furthermore, as a manufacturer NEUMO are also able to offer in-depth expertise and a wealth of experience with uncompromising dedication to quality

providing a consistent degree of benefit for clients and partners.

To facilitate this transition and to ensure they were fully equipped to operate

a seamless supply chain, NEUMO were tasked with replacing the existing computer system operated under Damstahl, this would require a fully

integrated communication system, involving commercial and processing functionality. After researching several widely implemented ERP packages,

NEUMO appointed Metalogic – the UK’s leading supplier of integrated software systems solely dedicated to the management functionality required

by Metal distributors and processors.

With an extremely challenging lead time of only three months for

implementation it was essential that the right company and the right product was selected to meet NEUMO’s exacting standards, whilst offering the

flexibility for growth.

As a supplier to the Hygienic fluid system industry it was essential that NEUMO

can offer a ‘rapid response’ in particularly in the supply of emergency

replacement products. iMetal provides this functionality through its real time

information and it’s industry specific ‘just in time’ approach and its proactive work flow reporting, allowing NEUMO to hit the targets in this challenging

sector.

With their experience of over 100 implementations Metalogic was able to

offer the complete turn-key solution that was required. The functionality offered by iMetal is ideally suited to businesses requiring streamlined

business processes within their market place, this is delivered through real-time pro-active reporting and exception information, provided to the user’s to

allow them to react to market situations.

Some of the modules that have been implemented by Neumo are:

• Integrated Costing and Price Books

• Sales Order Processing • Full ISO Traceable Stock Control

• Production Planning and Management • Purchase Order Processing

• Stock Forecasting and Planning • Picking, Loading and Despatch

• Integrated Electronic and document storage and retrieval • Integrated Certificate of conformity and mill test certification

• Automated, electronic delivery of certification and documents • Invoicing and Automated Credit Control

• Comprehensive Management Reporting • Integrated Sales, Purchase and Nominal Ledger

• Fully Integrated CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

iMetal also provided key functionality in the area of managing outwork

processes. This is vital in allowing control and visibility in this difficult area and through hitting on time customer service targets. With its graphical

representation of sales and profitability statistics and the simple tools it contains for categorising and searching customers and prospects, iMetal was

considered the perfect match to meet NEUMO’s informational requirements.

Following an initial review of the business processes involved, a series of

workshops were held, this allowed not only the main workflows to be identified but by involving the business expertise of the Metalogic consultants

a number of process improvements were identified.

With no time to offer the usual “simulated go-live” operation and a very small administrative team on site at NEUMO’s office in Telford, the team at

Metalogic were tasked with responding to the huge challenges of implementation. The training of staff, transfer of product codes and the

management of data transfer from the existing system was supported and facilitated by the Metalogic technical team ensuring a smooth transition to the

new system.

AWH has an extensive quality management system, with state-of-art measurements and test procedures the quality is checked and documented

during the whole manufacturing process. This is supported by the material specification module in iMetal that allows full traceability and supports the

cast analysis requirements of the sector.

The move to break into these new markets is a timely one. The UK food and drink manufacturing industry produces some of the world's best loved brands and plays a vital role in underpinning the economy through its ongoing efforts

to promote growth. It is also the largest manufacturing sector in the UK with a turnover of £76bn with the industry contributing £20.6bn in Gross Value

Added to the economy and represents 16% of total manufacturing output in the UK.

Equally the pharmaceutical industry remains a jewel in the UK’s scientific and

industrial crown. The UK has always traditionally been a base for high quality pharmaceutical manufacturing, particularly of innovative medicinal products

and delivery systems, and is a highly successful centre in the area of large molecules and biological innovation. The pharmaceutical sector has, over the past decade, generated an ever-widening trade surplus (i.e. more exports

and therefore money into the country than imports which means money out of the country), reaching almost £7 billion in 2009.

It is in these area’s that NEUMO UK, aim to break new ground and continue

the growth of this historic international company. Working with Metalogic with its customer base of over 100 stockists and processors throughout the

World, NEUMO UK will be able to take advantage of the continuing development of functionality and technology that comes from the leading

industry solution.

Today’s facility in Hötensleben