Challenge
When your business is not standard, your software can’t be either.
Kenco Engineering operates in a highly specialized segment of the engineering and construction industry - manufacturing wear-resistant components for drilling and heavy equipment.
Their production workflows, costing models, and material flows are deeply customized. Like many industrial businesses that evolved over decades, Kenco relied on a patchwork of internally built systems to run operations.
At first, it worked.
Until it didn’t.
The Breaking Point: When Software Becomes a Business Risk
Kenco’s operations were powered by a legacy FoxPro-based system - extended over time with multiple interconnected tools handling ordering, inventory, and manufacturing processes.
As complexity increased, the system became fragile:
- Data inconsistencies began to surface
- Stability issues affected day-to-day operations
- Critical processes relied on manual intervention
- Financial reporting became unreliable
- Operational decisions were compromised
- Time and cost were spent correcting system errors
- Tight integration between ordering, inventory, and production
- Custom costing models tied directly to material flow
- Automation tailored to highly specific workflows
- Too rigid
- Too expensive
- And still misaligned with the business
At one point, a system issue resulted in millions of dollars in inventory discrepancies - inventory that didn’t actually exist.
Ultimately, it wasn’t just a technical problem, it was a business-critical failure:
Why Off-the-Shelf Was Never an Option
Kenco evaluated enterprise software solutions - but none could support the realities of their operations.
Their manufacturing process required:
Traditional ERP systems were:
- Too rigid
- Too expensive
- And still misaligned with the business
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