QTG Is Ready for the Future With Genius ERP

QTG is on the move.

The last couple of years saw QTG, formerly known as Quali-T-Groupe, Quali-T-Tube, and Quali-T-Fab, rebrand and focus their business on steel product processing. Known for their high-quality tubing solutions, QTG products and services contribute to many large-scale projects, predominantly within Canada’s agricultural and construction industries.

Not satisfied with rebranding and changing the focus of their business, over the last two years QTG also grew their business, forged into new markets — and built a new plant.

Founded in Montreal in 1929 by two Talarico brothers as a local tinware company, QTG has transformed over the years into a fourth-generation company with over 200 employees and two manufacturing units. With offices now located in Bromont and Granby, QC QTG is driven by a passion to help their customers grow and provide world-class products and services.‍

Needed: An ERP System That Can Connect Operations

Undergoing so many changes in a short period of time brought a few hiccups with it — and highlighted the need for an ERP system that could connect operations.

“In 2020, we abandoned the activities of the tube division to focus on the fab division, which made our processes a bit laborious,” says Maude Morissette, Controller at QTG. QTG needed an integrated solution that could help them overcome some of the issues and bottlenecks associated with restructuring their business and could continue to propel their business forward.

This is where Genius ERP came into the picture. To help them continue to build on their rapid growth and manage their structural changes, QTG chose Genius ERP.  Over a short time, Genius has helped QTG connect their internal systems and facilitated their transition to a reliable and efficient internal structure.

Improved Inventory Management with Genius ERP

One of the biggest challenges QTG was facing was with the internal management of their inventory. Before Genius ERP came onboard, QTG has no system in place and inventory had to be done manually. This meant that QTG had to shut down production weekly to count their inventory — costing them hundreds of hours in lost productivity.

Genius ERP now provides real-time access to QTG’s entire current inventory, eliminating the need to halt production. With Genius ERP in place, QTG has saved 156 hours of labor as they now have access to accurate — up-to-the-second — inventory counts within Genius:  “We no longer need to do a physical inventory every week or month. We used to set aside at least three hours a week in terms of inventory taking. Now we have access to our inventory in real-time, so we just have to select the item, and we know exactly what’s going on,” says Morissette.

Real-time inventory also allows QTG to keep only the stock necessary for production on-hand, reducing the company’s warehousing costs. “Genius gives us the quantities and tells us the exact moment when stock is needed for production. We have all the information we need now to be able to reduce our inventory,” Morissette adds.

Faster and More Accurate Quotes with Genius ERP

QTG was also struggling with outdated estimating and quoting processes.

“Before Genius, we used Excel spreadsheets that everyone had access to — and could edit — meaning they sometimes included errors. Not only did this cost us time, but it also led to problems with our estimates,” admits Alexandre Ledentu, Technical Estimator at QTG. Adds Hervé Poupard, the Finance Director at QTG, “between the moment a client made a request to us, to us being able to give an answer, it could take up to a week. Often, clients would make changes along the way, so the work had to be redone, and we could only process a small number of estimates per day.”

Frequently, QTG would end up doing two complete quotes per client — depending on the project’s complexity — slowing everything down.

Genius ERP has revolutionized the quoting and estimating processes for QTG: “We can now process five times more quotes than before, and our estimation process is two- to three times faster,” remarks Ledentu.

Improving their inventory management has helped them improve their quotes: “I can know how much my inventory costs…so I can therefore give our customers better prices,” says Ledentu.

Customer changes, a common situation in QTG’s line of work, are no longer the issue they once were: “Customers often make changes along the way, and so the work had to be redone, and then you could only do a minimal number per day. So it was one or two submissions, depending on the complexity. Today, complexity is no longer a challenge,” Poupard says. He continues, “the client, between the time he made a request versus when we gave him an answer, he could wait a week. Today, in 24 hours, we are able to meet customer needs, and that makes a big difference.”‍

Better Job Costing with Genius ERP‍

Job costing was also a problem due to the complexity of their clients’ orders, often taking the QTG team an entire day to process data and create accurate job cost reports.

“When we did job costing before Genius, it was arduous because we didn’t have a system in place to do this work,” says Poupard.

What once took hours, or even a day to do, can now be completed in an hour with Genius ERP due to the precision and accuracy of the data within the system:

“When we analyzed jobs, we had to take an entire day to do this work. Today, in less than an hour, everything is done. Numbers entered once. Standards entered once, then everything is calculated correctly. There is no mistake — it’s a big change,” Poupard states.

“Genius brings us a lot of gains. We can understand our costs much more precisely, by activity and by order. What this brings us is in terms of improving our productivity is huge. Today it’s so easy — it’s even fun, it’s interesting!” says Poupard.‍

Genius ERP: Foundation for the Future‍

With Genius ERP now firmly in place and internal structures and processes now well defined, QTG is ready for the future. QTG plans to focus on continuing to grow their business and move into new markets, with Genius ERP as their partner.

“We now have a 2021 tool: We are able to react quickly when there are price changes, then all of that can be done in less than three or four hours. It’s a very user-friendly system that is excellent for SME companies in the manufacturing industry like us,” says Poupard.

“It looks like it was built for us,” he adds.

To read more about how Genius ERP helped QTG, check out the full case study here.

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Impressed by what Genius ERP did for QTG? Book a demo today to see Genius ERP in action and what we can do for you.