JMS 3D Pro enabling JCK Joinery/Unity Group to grow after 150 years in business

Serving the industry for over 150 years, JCK Joinery, now part of the Unity Group, decided to upgrade their in-house systems and JMS 3D Pro was the answer they were looking for.

Founded in 1830 by John Cornelius Kellet, JC Kellett & Sons (JCK Joinery) has been a pillarstone in Leicester throughout the years and played a significant role in the transformation of Leicester between 1845 and 1895.

Over the years the business has changed a lot, so have their products, to the point where they now, currently concentrate on more doors and screens than anything else.

In 2019 JCK started to look at solutions to replace their in-house software. The MRP software they had was outdated, and although it did a lot of what they were looking for and extensive work had been made to modify it to fit their joinery door business and processes, it still didn’t do everything they needed.

JCK could immediately see the benefit of having software like Joinerysoft’s JMS 3D Pro which is made specifically for the joinery/commercial door industry and in May 2019 decided to take the plunge and purchase, around the same time Louise Sheppard joined the company as Office Manager.

In February 2020 JCK was taken over by Unity Doors and the Unity Group was formed, and at the heart of their systems was JMS 3D Pro. “We use it for quoting our clients, order acknowledgements, client drawings and sometimes cutting lists too”, says Louise.

When purchasing the software they settled on 3 people being able to use the system at the same time. They’ve found with the introduction of JMS Pro that every member of the office team can now do every job, whereas previously just those who knew how to use the external software could do certain parts. Louise explains, “It’s made us a more multi-tasking office. Instead of one of us doing the quoting, another doing the drawings and a third doing the cutting lists, now all of us can do every job. So I can now do the quotes, order acknowledgments, cutting lists, and client drawings - which was impossible before JMS Pro”.

The new layout of their quotes and the extra detail compared to their old system has saved them time, especially when it comes to the customer being able to understand what they are getting. “I think it’s easier because the last system that we used literally just said FD60 Door, and customers would ask, ‘Oh have you included this size vision panel, or have you included this?” At least now they can see that we’ve added a longer vision panel or a shorter one or put top lights in it. They can visually see the specification of the door they are getting in the quote,” says Emma Heathcote, JMS Pro User.

Using the automatic calculations for U-Values on every quote saves them time and money that might have been spent on testing their individual products.

JMS Pro has proved beneficial over their original software or using excel spreadsheets like many door companies do. Louise says, “I’d definitely say it’s worth having Joinerysoft, it has benefited us and saved us time from previous solutions”.

Emma agrees, saying “It’s more user friendly to build a door. Previously in excel or our old system, yes you could build a door, but JMS 3D Pro is a lot more user friendly because you can see the elements you are changing.”

It is also easier in JMS 3D Pro to train new people with accurate quoting achieved quickly. Louise explains,“When you’ve got new people coming in, or you’ve got people that need to learn a new task, I think you get the quotation ending up being more correct. Whereas previously you’d have a lot of ‘do I need to use…, or can I use that…, or is that part of our certification?’, now we have set up everything in JMS Pro to be covered under our certification, and I think our quotes are more accurate, with fewer mistakes.”

Emma says, “It’s easier now with JMS 3D Pro - if you want to tweak a size, you just duplicate the lines”. Louise adds, “I think the whole process from quoting, sales, client drawings, cuttings lists etc. is quicker because once you’ve done the quote everything is there in the background already, so we don’t have to start a drawing outside of the system in CAD or something”. Emma agrees, “Making changes in CAD you’d have to do each individual door and door style separately, whereas with JMS 3D Pro you can make a change once at quote level and the changes cascade down to each individual item so the changes are already there for you!”

Implementing software solutions in your business can save you time, make you more professional, profitable on every job and reduce wastage, making purchasing purpose designed software a no-brainer that can pay for itself within months. For more information about JMS 3D Pro contact Joinerysoft Ltd.

Joinerysoft Ltd

+44 (0) 1608 643302

sales@joinerysoft.com

Unity Doors Limited

+44 (0) 116 2912288

enquiries@jckjoinery.com

www.unitydoors.com