R&D Case Study – Services Industry

One of our clients in the services industry were looking to replace an outdated job tracking system. The tyre retreading company has been trading for two decades. They were unaware the research and development (R&D) work they were carrying out would qualify for R&D Tax Credits until ammu stepped in.

Project

Our client operated a 50-year-old paper job-card system. This system required a physical copy to be used and stored for 10 years to allow traceability. This method was labour and storage intensive. The client had longed for a paperless, fully digital and simple to use system which would allow improved stock tracking, raw material costing, labour time recording and greater traceability.

Several avenues were considered by the company, including:

  • barcode scanning systems;
  • stock-taking systems; and
  • Sage stock control bar code systems.

However, they all proved either not viable or unable to meet all of our client’s objectives. When our client thought all hope was lost, they began to integrate a new training programme and in doing so came across javascripting.

It soon became apparent that through javascripting they could create a brand new user interface that would allow operators to see and use the information they required. Furthermore, they could hide the back end database for upper management to monitor and query loggings as and when required. This enabled the creation of a system that ticks all the boxes for our client, such as:

  • Stock tracking;
  • Raw material costing;
  • Labour actual time;
  • Entirely paperless and cloud-based;
  • Increased traceability; and
  • Improved production and usage efficiency.

Improvements

The new system has enabled the client to:

  • Better analyse their finances as a result of real-time data on job costs per tyre manufactured;
  • Have greater insight and control over production performance, raw material costs and asset management on a per tyre basis; and
  • Produce real-time data, productivity tracking and monitoring and, as it is cloud-based, maintain a bespoke record keeping database – ensuring an entirely paperless system.

Our client has experienced the benefits of both this fantastic digital system as well as from receiving R&D Tax Credits because of the innovation they showed to improve their processes. After a consultation with ammu, the qualification for R&D Tax Credits was identified. Following our processes, the client’s claim was submitted and successful. 

Why not get started by answering a few simple questions on an eligibility checker or get in touch with our expert Iain Robertson via Iain@ammu.uk