Kerfab Streamline Manufacturing and Reduce Delivery Times

Kerfab is a family-owned Australian manufacturer of custom machinery attachments for the agriculture, construction and waste sectors.

As the business grew, its internal systems could no longer keep pace with made-to-order production and tight delivery windows. With Klugo’s support, Kerfab replaced a stretched in-house system with a single cloud-based platform tailored to its manufacturing model, improving visibility across teams, reducing freight costs and shortening delivery times.

Challenges Faced

Operating in a made-to-order manufacturing environment, Kerfab faced growing operational complexity:

1. Limited visibility between teams: As the business scaled, visibility declined across sales, engineering, procurement, fabrication and dispatch, making it harder to keep production flowing smoothly.
2. Paper-based scheduling slowed production: Scheduling relied heavily on paper-based processes, which were labour-intensive, slow and prone to causing production hiccups and delivery delays.
3. An in-house system was no longer keeping up: Kerfab had built its own ERP, Fabnet, to manage operations, but continued growth pushed the system to its limits and increased internal overhead.
4. Freight costs and delivery pressure: Rising logistics costs and the need to meet reliable delivery dates created pressure to better coordinate shipments, production timing and dispatch.

Solution Implementation

To support the next stage of growth, Kerfab moved to a cloud-based ERP and scheduling platform that could run operations end to end, from sales through to production and dispatch. Klugo worked closely with the Kerfab team to configure NetSuite and tailor NextService to suit their cell-based manufacturing model. What was originally designed for field service was adapted into a bespoke task-driven application for manufacturing, giving each team clear workflow triggers, better hand-offs and real-time visibility across the production process. “Klugo took the basic NextService application and tailored it to the needs of an industrial machinery manufacturer. Thanks to Klugo, it’s now a task-driven application that suits our purposes brilliantly.” Jay Chirnside, General Manager

Business Outcomes

With a single integrated platform in place, Kerfab improved coordination across the business and created a stronger operational base for growth:

1. Clearer workflow visibility: Teams gained better job visibility and clearer workflow triggers across sales, engineering, fabrication and dispatch.
2. Seamless hand-offs between departments: Orders now move through the business in a more synchronised way, reducing delays and helping teams stay aligned at every stage.
3. Lower freight costs: Better scheduling and shipment consolidation helped Kerfab reduce freight costs by 50%.
4. Faster delivery times: Delivery lead times were reduced from months to weeks, helping Kerfab better meet customer expectations.

Looking ahead

With a stronger system foundation in place, Kerfab has been able to support further growth, including a new automated facility and the reinstatement of a discontinued product line. The business is also preparing for the next step in automation, with plans to ensure its platform can integrate effectively with robotic manufacturing processes.