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Pressure Vessel & Tank

Kennedy Tank

Indianapolis, IN

Features: Genius Analytics - Production Management - Purchasing

Kennedy needed a system to streamline job tracking and custom manufacturing. We provided a seamless solution to improve efficiency.

Our receiving department is moving three times faster in Genius than we ever moved in our old ERP system. This has saved us time and money.

Bill Kennedy

Purchasing Manager

About the Company

The company

About

A family company founded in 1898 by Patrick Washington Kennedy — an expert journeyman boilermaker — Kennedy Tank is now run by a 4th generation member, Patrick William Kennedy. The company is based out of Indianapolis, Indiana, and currently has over 150 employees.

Industry

Kennedy Tank & Manufacturing Co. designs and manufactures custom-fabricated pressure vessels, storage tanks, shell and tube heat exchangers, aboveground tanks, pressure vessels, custom tanks, and underground tanks in a variety of steel and alloy materials. Furthermore, Kennedy offers field services for boiler repair, tank repair, and field-erected tanks.

Genius ERP Highlight

“We have found Genius to be extremely easy to use.”

Bill Kennedy Purchasing Manager

The Challenge

The challenge

Kennedy Tank has experienced great growth in recent years, as they now have three separate manufacturing plants. As a result, their current custom-built software system is no longer able to sustain the amount of production they undertake, with jobs and projects taking anywhere between two months and several years to complete.

“For the past 30 years, we used a custom-built software system. But by mid-2014, we had far outgrown that particular system and were looking for a solution that would meet our unique needs as a custom fabricator and field service provider,” says Pat Kennedy.

Bill Kennedy, Purchasing Manager, explained that their old system was “slow and difficult to track. In particular, it was difficult to get [Request for Quotes] out and to track the historical cost of materials. Additionally, receiving was slow as purchase orders were displayed line by line, and it took two employees to get the job done.”

Top requirements

An ERP built for a custom fabricator

Kennedy needed an ERP that could handle the complexities of their custom manufacturing, as well as field services

Easy job tracking

Kennedy needed improved visibility across their entire operation to easily track the status of each of their jobs

Improved purchasing processes

Their old system was clunky and slow; Kennedy needed a new streamlined system that would make it easier to send out RFQs and receive POs

The solution

As a custom steel plate manufacturer, Kennedy Tank was looking for an ERP solution that would meet the unique needs of a custom fabricator. Pat Kennedy had decided it was time to find a system that could allow the company to grow in the modern, competitive landscape of the custom manufacturing industry.

“One of the main reasons that we chose Genius ERP was that the Genius software was designed and supported by engineers — we felt that they had a very good handle on our business and our industry,” explained Bill Kennedy.

“One of the things that impressed me most with Genius ERP was the executive dashboard report; it provides me real-time cost on each job in the shop,” he said. “We are able to know the exact score of a job at a particular time and adjust our game plan accordingly.

“Overall, Genius Manufacturing ERP has allowed our business to be more proactive, rather than reactive, in providing top-quality products and services to our valued customers,” added Pat Kennedy.

tube worker working with sparks and worklamp

Key Features

Key features

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Key features

Production Management

Having the BOM flow seamlessly into Genius ERP gives Kennedy Tank a running start on production

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Genius Analytics

Handles complex prepayments with ease, and connects accounting data with the manufacturing side of operations

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Purchasing

Accurate costing, from material to labor overhead—paired with inventory tracking—makes forecasting easy

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fil-trek management entering job information to genius

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