Mach Technology designs and manufactures what are known as printed circuit board assemblies—a combination of components on printed circuit boards, cables, and enclosures used to control electronic devices, machines, and systems. To digitize and automate its entire invoice processing workflow in conjunction with its procurement activities, the embedded electronics manufacturer—with locations in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Katwijk, Maastricht, and Neede—was looking for a suitable software solution.
“The deciding factor in our choice of 4CEE Invoice was that this tool enables the matching of partial deliveries, which is crucial for the business in which we operate,” says Mark Bisschop, group controller at Mach Technology.
Anyone who has ever opened an electronic device is undoubtedly familiar with them: the printed circuit boards with microchips, resistors, and capacitors that are intricately interconnected within a small area. They function as the central nervous system of consumer electronics—smartphones, laptops, and televisions—as well as for more industrial applications such as radar systems, climate control systems, and public transit check-in gates. Depending on the application, these circuit boards can range from relatively straightforward to quite complex. “We manufacture for innovative Dutch manufacturing companies that supply customers worldwide in sectors such as energy, security, agri-tech, healthcare, logistics, and mechanical engineering. These are generally large corporate clients, but they can also be fast-growing scale-ups,” says Bisschop.
Avoiding ad hoc orders
The less complex PCBs consist of twenty to eighty components; according to Bisschop, more complex ones can easily have around five hundred. “Our machines populate the PCBs with the vast majority of the components, sometimes at a rate of as many as forty thousand components per hour.” Those components are primarily manufactured in Southeast Asia, after which they are usually delivered to Mach Technology via major European or American distributors, he says.
“We draw up contracts with all our suppliers in advance and share forecasts to avoid ad hoc orders. This prevents the possibility that we might not have certain components in stock and be unable to fulfill our customers’ orders.”
Sharing forecasts with customers and suppliers
Mach Technology also prepares forecasts with its customers, which are then cross-referenced with the suppliers’ forecasts so that customers know exactly when a delivery will take place. “By working this way, we always deliver within the timeframe agreed upon with the customer while keeping our inventory as low as possible. This ensures that we tie up as little working capital as possible in our inventory, which in turn benefits our cash flow,” explains Bisschop.
We used to do everything manually: from printing invoices and having them signed by the director to entering them into the system.
Manual bookkeeping is unnecessarily complex and time-consuming
Although inventory management is handled administratively in the ERP systems used by the printed circuit board manufacturer at its various locations, there was still no properly functioning automated system for incoming invoices, Bisschop explains. “We were still doing everything manually—from printing out the invoices and having the director sign them to entering them into the system. And then we stored all the documents in binders, which meant we sometimes lost invoices. That’s, of course, unnecessarily complex and time-consuming.”
Matching partial deliveries
Once the decision was made to automate this part of the accounting process as well, 4CEE Invoice quickly caught their attention. Unlike other providers, which only allow order-invoice matching based on total quantities and total amounts, 4CEE Invoice offers the option to match partial deliveries, he explains. “Because we need so many different components in the production of printed circuit boards, an order with a supplier can easily consist of twenty to thirty lines, with a separate component for each line. But we don’t receive all those components at the same time. It’s even possible that we’ll receive a single order line in multiple parts. So it’s extremely important to keep accurate records of this.”
Matching quantities and prices
In daily practice, this works as follows: 4CEE Invoice retrieves the receipts that have been recorded in a branch’s warehouse—the Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and Katwijk branches use 4CEE Invoice, while the recently acquired locations in Maastricht and Neede use a different tool—and the quantities purchased from the purchase order, then compares this with the quantities listed on the purchase invoice. Based on these three pieces of data, the quantity match is established. “Next, 4CEE Invoice compares the price on the invoice with that on the purchase order. If those prices also match, payment of the invoice is approved,” explains Bisschop.
Fast, capable, and proactive
In this way, Mach Technology processes approximately 15,000 invoices per year across the three locations mentioned, 80 to 90 percent of which relate to the components of printed circuit boards that are delivered in parts. The question, of course, is how satisfied Bisschop and his team are with the automation of these processes via 4CEE Invoice.
“Initially, we had some teething problems due to a few personnel changes at both 4CEE and our company,” he says. “That took extra time. Afterward, the implementation in Katwijk required additional development time because that location uses a different ERP system than ISAH, which we use in Rotterdam and Amsterdam. As a result, 4CEE had to make some programming adjustments. That was resolved quickly, though, because 4CEE’s technical staff are fast, capable, and proactive. Thanks to that, everything now works perfectly, and we’ve gotten the hang of the system. Moreover, because I’ve been involved in the entire process from the very beginning, I know immediately what’s going on if something goes wrong, and we can easily resolve it on our own.”
Archiving packing slips with the correct invoice
The time savings achieved by working with 4CEE Invoice have translated into less manual work. Consequently, the two part-time employees who previously handled this task have not been replaced. Mach Technology has also made efficiency gains at these three locations in collaboration with 4CEE in another area: a packing slip module that was added to 4CEE Invoice.
“This module has nothing to do with the financial transactions that 4CEE Invoice automates, but everything to do with filing the packing slips with the correct invoice,” Bisschop explains. “In the past, we sometimes spent hours searching for the right packing slip—for example, when an accountant requested it during the annual audit or when we had a dispute with a supplier over a specific delivery.”
Organizing packing slips under invoices saves time
Here’s how it works: as soon as a delivery arrives at the warehouse, an employee not only records it in the ERP system—and 4CEE retrieves that information from there, as described above—but also simultaneously scans the packing slip, which is sent directly to a specific email address with the push of a button. From there, the additional software retrieves the packing slip, reads the purchase order number, and records it in 4CEE Invoice under the invoice with the same purchase order number.
“By grouping our packing slips for all the different deliveries together under the correct invoice, we can now find the packing slips we need in a flash during an audit or in the event of a dispute with a customer over a delivery or an invoice. That, too, saves us a tremendous amount of time,” Bisschop concludes.