Empowering Job Shops: Genius ERP Helps Jennison Manufacturing Grow

Founded in 1983 by Tom Jennison, Jennison Manufacturing Group stands as a beacon of precision, quality and commitment. 

Located just 10 minutes south of downtown Pittsburgh in Carnegie, Pennsylvania, Jennison is a versatile job shop equipped with CNC machining, Wire EDM, dies and stamping, along with engineering and prototyping capabilities. Now run by father and son duo Micheal and Hayden Jennison, the company is dedicated to creating high-quality products at a fair price while maintaining the warm and inviting small-business atmosphere Tom was known for. 

Needed: An ERP System Designed for a Job Shop

Jennison is a true one-stop job shop and needed an ERP that could keep up with the multi-faceted nature of their business. Serving diverse industries such as energy, military, pharmaceutical, oil and gas, mining, and safety, Jennison handles a wide range of production volumes, from as few as five pieces to as large as 100,000 pieces in their well-established stamping division. 

The diverse nature of their business meant that Jennison was struggling with creating accurate quotes due to not knowing their true job costs, and relied on a flat shop rate. “We used to have just 75 dollars an hour — ok, that’s our shop rate — when it really wasn’t. You know, it could have been 35, or it could have been 105. We didn’t know it.” says Karl Amendola of Jennison Manufacturing Group.

The absence of actual cost visibility led to quotes and estimates being, as Hayden Jennison, grandson of founder Tom Jennison, admitted, “a shot in the dark.” 

Additionally, their scheduling system lacked the functionality needed for a true job shop like theirs. Without a system capable of handling all of the various aspects of their shop, Jennison had difficulties creating accurate schedules that could provide customers with correct dates for when their jobs would be complete. 

“We’ve always faced a backlog issue. And we’ve always faced — you never want to turn down work — so you take on work that you might not be able to achieve in the time that you quoted a customer.  So scheduling, we worked off a couple of different systems in the past,” says Hayden.

“Before Genius, we used a scheduling system that was strictly based on job traveler packs in the shop, at machines,” continues Michael Jennison, Hayden’s father. “But it didn’t give us a lot of visibility into the total amount of work on the floor and the ability to give a customer a very accurate date when their work would be finished.”

Jennison turned to Genius ERP, a system designed for custom manufacturing shops to help them improve their job costing, quoting and scheduling.

Accurate Job Costing = Accurate Quoting

With Genius ERP, Jennison now has strong insights into their financials and can create accurate quotes that reflect their actual costs. Genius has become central to the quoting process: “We have seriously increased our rate of outgoing quotes with pricing that we’re confident in. We no longer have to stick with this antiquated hourly rate,” explains Hayden. Genius provides visibility into employees’ time entries, tooling costs, and machine times at the click of a button, ensuring confidence in creating accurate quotes. 

“With Genius, our quoting has improved dramatically,” states Michael. Adds Karl, “With this system, we know what our real costs are.” 

With improved quoting and job costing, Jennison was able to identify net-negative customers and move these customers into more gainful relationships, significantly boosting their profitability.

Improved Scheduling with Genius ERP

Genius has already helped Jennison reduce late orders by 30%, and they expect to increase their on-time delivery rate even more. “The biggest single impact implementing Genius Scheduling has had is improving our on-time delivery,” says Michael. “This is a true job shop-capable scheduling system,” adds Hayden. 

Michael highlighted how Genius allowed them to understand machine loads and improve delivery dates: “We have more visibility into what’s realistic when we commit to a date. And then also because it correctly prioritizes the work at the machines, based on the dates we’ve committed to.” 

Thanks to Genius, they now have a comprehensive overview of which of their jobs are completed and ready to ship and a better grasp of their machinery workload, enabling them to allocate personnel strategically and complete more jobs on time.

Genius ERP Propels Jennison to New Heights

Genius became instrumental not only in optimizing Jennison’s processes but also in fostering business growth. Michael notes, “I’m more confident in the stability of the numbers. I really know what kind of work we’re going out after.”

He adds, “I think that’s mostly why we are growing with Genius, more than we were previous to Genius.”

To see more about how Genius ERP helped Jennison Manufacturing, check out the full case study here: https://youtu.be/ONTSF7PfJ4U

We can help your job shop too. Book a demo today to see Genius ERP in action and what we can do for you.