The company’s success is built on strong customer engagement – flexibility, and focusing on solving customers’ problems, has always been the highest priority.

“We work a lot with capacity subcontracting, which runs right across our business. This is based on stepping in when customers have problems handling production rates which change quickly. These days we have a higher proportion of serial production, although we still manufacture a lot at short notice, which really puts us to the test,” explains Vice CEO Mikael Vetterskog.

The company’s goal is to increase turnover from the current level of SEK 80 million to approaching SEK 400 million.

“We rely on having a good planning process, and this is where MONITOR comes in. We have a history of printing orders on paper and letting them pile up, so the ability to plan and manage customers and suppliers with a modern ERP system and digital connections is an essential part of our onward journey.”

Vice CEO at Fårbo Mekaniska AB, Mikael Vetterskog.

Quality craftsmanship is at the heart of Fårbo’s history and day-to-day activities – that is, making sure everything produced is of a high quality. The aim is to have “no complaints”, and according to Mikael Vetterskog, it’s about having the right culture in the company. Staff must have a genuine commitment to quality. And having a range of different quality checks means problems can be identified before they leave the building, so the customer never has to notice anything was wrong.

“Quality is a key factor, and will be even more important in future. For example, it’s about making sure prices and time forecasts are correct, and that we maintain high quality in our processes. We’ll be working a lot on follow-up in this area in future, for example, comparing post-calculations with pre-calculations. This is really important when it comes to quality on the factory floor. We try to discuss these issues every day with the help of the data from the ERP system,” Vetterskog adds.

Fårbo Mekaniska completed the upgrade to MONITOR G5 in January 2021. Having run G4 for nearly 10 years, the company wanted to create better conditions to achieve its ambitious targets for the future.

“For some time, we’ve been trying to move things forward and utilize the system more and more. We’ve had a Monitor consultant on site once a quarter, and it was his recommendation that led to us taking this step now – so we could continue to develop together with the system."

Marie Lindström is the MONITOR expert at Fårbo, and she’s pleased with the company’s new ERP system.

“There are times when you have to look around to find the right list, but our day-to-day work is running smoothly now. And Monitor’s online manual is a big help. It’s easy to find information about the area of the system you’re having problems with. I watched every Monitor Academy video that was relevant to my work ahead of the upgrade. This was really useful, and there’s a really clear structure. Seeing the process flows in the videos in the way they were designed to be used helped to improve my understanding of the system and its intended use,” she says.

Marie Lindström, MONITOR expert at Fårbo Mekaniska AB.

How did the upgrade go?

“I think it went really well. There were some small issues we had to resolve, but the consultant and support team were quick to help out,” Lindström explains.

Mikael Vetterskog has a background working at large companies running other ERP systems, and noticed the difference between this upgrade and his previous experiences.

“I have previous experience of upgrades with SAP, so I was prepared for the possibility that things would stand still for a few days during such a big upgrade. In my experience, at least, there are always complications with big upgrades. But we were back up and running on Monday morning, and I was amazed the process went so smoothly. There were some forks in the road for the first few days of course, and lots of questions about what was new, but it all worked out, which I think is really great,” he says.

Marie Lindström underlines the importance of testing everything in advance, recommending, for example, to test the system on recording computers on the production floor as well.

What are the biggest differences compared with G4?

“For example, it’s much easier to create your own lists and generate statistics. The menu system is easier to navigate. Traceable material and certificates – and being able to work with them in G5 – are also really important. We’re currently in the process of starting up this functionality, which is something we’re really looking forward to,” she says.

Fårbo Mekaniska has a vision to become more digital, enabling shorter information pathways between the office and production floor.

“We have a vision of the future in which we want to work far more closely to our operators in the workshop – where they’re online – so we can communicate more actively. We want them to move away from paper-based processes – which we’re looking to avoid,” adds Vetterskog.

Another goal moving forward is to start using Daily management in G5, and hold meetings with staff around digital whiteboards using current data in real-time.

“But we’ll take one step at a time!” she says.