Talon Manufacturing
From spreadsheets and guesswork to a connected, visible manufacturing operation
Industry
Manufacturing
Location
UK
Vertical
Building materials
Talon transforms production planning, inventory control and reporting, cutting daily reporting from one hour to five minutes with Sage X3.
Sage X3 gives us far better visibility of what’s happening across the business. The reporting is quicker, production planning is better, and we’re no longer relying on spreadsheets and guesswork to run operations.
Steve Monger, Finance Director, Talon Manufacturing
Talon Manufacturing Ltd has been at the forefront of British manufacturing for more than 40 years and is the UK’s leading manufacturer of pipe clips, fixings, fastenings, pipe seals and finishing products.
From launching its first Talon Hinged Clip in 1986, the company has grown into a global supplier of high-quality plumbing solutions, serving trade professionals and homeowners across the UK, Europe, Africa, and Australia.
Manufacturing from its facility in Gillingham, Kent, UK, Talon produces seven different styles of pipe clips alongside an extensive range of associated products, including the award-winning PipeSnug and FlueSnug airtight pipe sealing systems.
The operational blind spot holding Talon back
Despite its continued growth and manufacturing success, Talon was operating with outdated systems and heavily manual processes.
The business had been using Exchequer and Excel-based processes for more than 20 years. Over time, this created increasing operational inefficiencies and limited visibility across production, inventory and reporting.
Talon identified three major priorities for transformation:
- Replace an ageing ERP system with limited future support and development
- Eliminate a major visibility “black hole” within work-in-progress inventory
- Replace spreadsheet-based production planning with a more scalable and efficient process
One of the biggest challenges existed between manufacturing and packing.
Products were manufactured into tubs before being packed into final customer pack sizes. However, because the bill of materials was only applied at the final packing stage, the system still treated many products as raw materials rather than work-in-progress inventory.
As a result, thousands of tubs containing partially completed products became effectively invisible within the system.
This created significant operational issues, including:
- Poor production planning visibility
- Overproduction and underproduction
- Inaccurate raw material availability
- Lost work-in-progress stock
- Excess inventory on the warehouse floor
- Production disruption caused by missing components and inaccurate stock assumptions
The business also relied heavily on manual reporting.
Some daily sales and operational reports took up to an hour every day to prepare manually, while month-end reporting involved extensive spreadsheet manipulation and pivot table analysis, taking up to 5 hours per month.
Finding a partner that understood manufacturing
Talon’s ERP transformation journey began long before the project officially started. When Steve Monger joined the business as Finance Director in October 2023, replacing the company’s ageing ERP and spreadsheet-driven processes was already high on his priority list.
By that stage, Talon had already identified Sage X3 as its preferred ERP platform due to its scalability, SQL database structure, strong reporting capabilities and manufacturing functionality.
Steve then began evaluating Sage X3 implementation partners, researching both UK and overseas providers before narrowing the shortlist down to Inixion and two other UK-based Sage X3 partners.
Following a series of discovery meetings, demonstrations and discussions, Talon selected Inixion as its partner, based on its manufacturing expertise, ability to understand unique complexities and practical approach to the project.
Says Steve Monger, Financial Director, Talon Manufacturing: “The proposition of Inixion’s expertise, along with very knowledgeable and likeable people, sealed the deal for us.”
The Talon team valued Inixion’s straightforward and consultative approach throughout the partner selection process. Rather than overcomplicating the project, Inixion focused on understanding Talon’s operational challenges, tailoring demonstrations around the business’s manufacturing processes, and clearly explaining the implementation methodology and timelines.
Improving visibility from production to packing with Sage X3
Inixion implemented Sage X3 across Talon’s finance, manufacturing, inventory, reporting and warehouse operations, creating a more connected and efficient business platform.
The project focused on improving visibility across production and inventory, replacing manual reporting processes, and delivering more accurate production planning capabilities.
Bringing previously hidden stock into view
One of the biggest operational improvements was the introduction of real-time work-in-progress tracking. Using barcode scanners and Sage X3 inventory controls, tubs moving through production are now scanned and recorded as sub-assemblies and intermediate stock in real time. This has given Talon far greater visibility of inventory between manufacturing and packing, allowing the business to see exactly what has already been produced, improve raw material planning, prevent duplicate production runs and reduce excess stock accumulation across the warehouse.
Previously, much of this inventory was effectively invisible within the system because products were not recognised until they reached their final packed stage.
“Now we know what we’ve got on the warehouse floor being prepared for packing. Before, stock was effectively lost in tubs everywhere”, says Steve Monger.
Better planning and fewer production disruptions
Replacing spreadsheet-driven planning processes has also improved operational efficiency across the factory. Talon can now see raw material usage, work-in-progress inventory, machine production status, live manufacturing output and inventory availability through Sage X3. This enables more accurate scheduling, improved resource management and fewer production interruptions caused by missing materials or incorrect stock assumptions.
Cutting daily reporting from an hour to five minutes
Reporting has also been transformed through Sage X3 and Sage Enterprise Intelligence (SEI). Daily sales reports that previously took an hour to prepare can now be completed in around five minutes, while management accounts and sales analysis reporting have been significantly automated through direct Excel integration and real-time system data.
The finance team now has much faster access to operational and financial information, reducing the reliance on manual spreadsheet manipulation and enabling quicker decision-making across the business.
Steve Monger: “Everything’s there. The reporting is much quicker.”
Talon also introduced live operational reporting from manufacturing machines. Previously, production volumes were counted manually during the day, but machine output is now visible almost immediately through Sage X3 reporting. This has improved operational visibility, reduced manual counting activity and provided more accurate production data across the factory floor.
A collaborative transformation, from planning to go-live
Talon described the implementation as highly collaborative and praised the level of support received from the Inixion team throughout the project. The business valued the clear project scoping, tailored demonstrations, onsite consultancy support, strong communication and responsive problem-solving provided throughout the implementation journey.
Talon also highlighted the effectiveness of the post-go-live hyper care support, with the Inixion team working closely alongside users to resolve issues quickly and help build confidence across the business.
“The hyper care was excellent. We got support from everyone involved in the team, and things got fixed really quickly.” – Steve Monger, Finance Director, Talon Manufacturing
Having consultants on-site during go-live also helped drive user engagement and encouraged wider adoption of Sage X3 across the business.
Greater control across the entire operation
Since implementing Sage X3 with Inixion, Talon has significantly reduced manual administration, improved operational visibility and created a more efficient manufacturing environment.
The business has removed a major operational blind spot by introducing real-time visibility of work-in-progress inventory. Thousands of tubs containing partially completed products can now be tracked throughout the manufacturing process, helping Talon avoid overproduction, reduce unnecessary production runs and improve raw material planning.
Production teams now have access to live operational data from manufacturing machines, reducing reliance on manual counting and improving day-to-day decision-making across the factory floor.
The implementation has also improved confidence in inventory and reporting accuracy, while reducing the dependency on individual spreadsheets and manual workarounds that had built up over more than 20 years.
What changed for Talon
- End of day sales and order intake reporting time reduced significantly
- Real-time tracking of work-in-progress inventory introduced
- Improved production planning and scheduling accuracy
- Reduced reliance on spreadsheets and manual reporting
- Better visibility of raw materials and intermediate stock
- Improved warehouse organisation and inventory control
- Faster access to management and financial reporting
- Reduced production disruption caused by inaccurate stock assumptions
- Improved operational decision-making through live manufacturing data
- Greater confidence in reporting and inventory accuracy
A stronger foundation for Talon’s future growth
For Talon, the Sage X3 project was about far more than replacing an ageing ERP system. It was about creating a more efficient, visible and controlled manufacturing operation.
By replacing disconnected spreadsheets and manual processes with a connected, real-time platform, Talon has gained greater control across production, inventory, reporting and operational decision-making.
The business now has far greater visibility of work-in-progress stock, faster access to operational and financial reporting, and improved production planning across the factory floor.
Most importantly, teams across the business now have greater confidence in the accuracy and accessibility of their data.
“Sage X3 gives us far better visibility of what’s happening across the business. The reporting is quicker, production planning is better, and we’re no longer relying on spreadsheets and guesswork to run operations.” – Steve Monger, Finance Director, Talon Manufacturing
