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| CLIENT AND DESCRIPTION OF BUSINESS Andrew Winch Designs Andrew Winch Designs has been a specialist in the Yacht designing arena for the last 20 years. They have won many of the most prestigious design awards for their yacht, airplane and house designs. Their design team have produced some of the largest and most luxurious privately owned yachts in the world today. CLIENT OBJECTIVES (the challenge) AWD needed to be able to - Cost a complex design project in 5 stages of work. - They needed to be able to record all the time spent on each project as well as the inevitable non fee-earning work for each staff member. - A comparison was required between the quoted number of days to be spent on each aspect of the project, the number of days actually spent on the project to date and the number of days still required to complete the project. This would provide the manager with an anticipated total cost over (or under) spend. - Each project needed a Payment Schedule and a method of recording what payments had been received and which were pending. The system needed to manage out of pocket expenses and extensions to the contract. - A specification system to record the name, manufacturer and cost of each item to be installed as part of the fit-out of the yacht. - A method of ordering and tracking the shipment and delivery of each item. - A system to monitor the performance of each staff member to help determine the value of the annual bonus. - A system to manage the issue of design drawings to the client, yard and engineers. SOLUTION AIMS Ltd have worked with Andrew Winch Designs (AWD) over the last 10 years. As AWD's requirements have evolved the systems have been adapted to meet the demands of the business model. Initially AIMS was asked to produce a job costing, time recording and job reconciliation system that allowed a project to be quoted for, have the time carried out on the project recorded and then have a reconciliation presented to Andrew Winch so that he was able, at a glance, to see how each project was progressing. The unique system allowed the managers to understand not only what had been accomplished to date but also what would be required to complete the job. This meant that any potential cost overruns could be picked up as they started to occur. The system was then expanded to handle payment scheduling and staff performance. When the Interior Design Department was opened a new system was introduced to help the interior Designers manage the selection and presentation to the client of thousands of items that were due to be installed on the yacht as part of the fit out. Again the managers were able to track the cost of the items and the profitability of the interiors contract at any stage. The system was then extended to manage the purchase of the items and their delivery to the shipyard for installation. Finally a system was created to manage the current drawing list and the issue of amended drawings. The system provides reports that show when a drawing was issue and to whom it was sent, or for an individual - which drawings they were sent and when. FILEMAKER VERSION USED Currently being converted to FileMaker Pro 8 and FileMaker Server 8 THE RESULTS (how did the new solution work? any time-saving and/or cost saving benefits? streamlining of processes? Increased business? etc) The conversion from an excel timesheet system to the FileMaker version saved hours of laborious transfer of data. The simple solution allows the designer to complete a timesheet in a diary format, and then converts this into job specific reports. Where this was simply too complex and time consuming before it now happens instantly. Meaning that as soon as the timesheets have been completed all the reports are available to the managers. With the system in place projects can be managed at a far finer level giving instant feedback and allowing for more informed negotiations with the client where contraJDesign |
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