Our work · Case study

Omega Coaters

Omega Prestige Coaters powder coats metal in Adelaide. The business grew faster than the spreadsheets it ran on, so we built it a system: customers place orders through a portal at the prices agreed for them, the pricing rules do the arithmetic, the floor gets a runsheet it can read, and clients get a text or an email when their job is ready.

Cloud applicationClient portalManufacturingPricing engineSMS and email
Omega Coaters dashboard on a monitor in the factory office
  • ClientOmega Prestige Coaters, Adelaide.
  • IndustryPowder coating and metal finishing.
  • The workScoping, design, the web app, a client portal, and order and runsheet management.
  • StackVue front end, Laravel API, AWS, SMS and email.
The brief

Orders, prices and runsheets, out of the spreadsheets

Every order used to need someone in the office to work out the price by hand. Cubic metre rates from the dimensions, the minimum charge, Degas and Sandblast extras, and the deal that particular client was on. Runsheets were lists that had to be tidied up before the floor could use them. And the phone rang all day with people asking if their job was ready. We built one system for the office, the floor and the customer. Clients get their own catalogue and prices. The system prices every line. The runsheet is laid out for production. And when a job is marked ready, the customer hears about it without anyone picking up a phone.

01

Client portal

Customers log in, order from their own catalogue at their own prices, follow the status, and download purchase orders and confirmations with or without pricing.

02

Master products

One set of master products. Each client is assigned the categories they can order from, and a single price override per product where they have a deal. The standard prices stay visible for reference.

03

Pricing rules

Cubic metre lines price from width, length and height. Minimum quantity and under and over price thresholds apply across each, metre, square metre and cubic metre. Degas and Sandblast can be priced per order.

04

Runsheets

One item per page with dimensions, on the printed PDF and in the list drawers on screen. On-hold items go orange and drop out of the active runsheet.

05

Order history

Clients can change an order right up until it is marked ready for pickup. Every pass or fail is logged against the order with who did it and when.

06

Pickup alerts

SMS or email, whichever the client picked, sent automatically when goods are received and when the order is ready to collect.

Omega Coaters client portal order form on a monitor in a fabrication workshop office
Client portal

Customers enter their own orders, at their own prices

Orders came in by phone and email and someone typed them in again. Now a client logs in and sees only the product categories they have been given, at the prices agreed for them. They add items with a quantity, material and dimensions, tick extras like Degas or Sandblast, and watch the total update. The purchase order and confirmation come out with pricing or without it, whichever they want.

  • Catalogue and prices set per client
  • Orders can be changed until they are marked ready for pickup
  • PO and confirmation PDFs with or without pricing
Pricing

Cubic metres, minimums and client deals, worked out every time

The slow part of every order was the maths, so we moved the rules into the system. A cubic metre line prices itself from width, length and height. Minimum quantity and under and over price thresholds apply to every unit of measure. A client override sits on top of the master price. Line rates are recalculated on PDF exports and invoices, so the client and the accounts team are looking at the same numbers.

  • Master products, with categories and price overrides per client
  • Minimum charge rules for each, metre, square metre and cubic metre
  • Rates recalculated on exports and invoices
Omega Coaters client product pricing list on an administrator's monitor
Omega Coaters runsheet grouped by colour on a supervisor's monitor on the factory floor
Runsheets

A runsheet the floor can work from

Production wanted each job on its own, grouped by colour, with the dimensions right there. So runsheets print one item per page with width, length and height, and the list drawers on screen show the same thing. Put an item on hold and it turns orange, gets a banner, and leaves the active runsheet. A toggle in the order list brings it back when you need it.

  • One item per page, dimensions included, on paper and on screen
  • On-hold items flagged and kept off the active runsheet
  • Pass and fail logged to the order history with the user and time
Pickup alerts

Nobody has to ring and ask if it's ready

Status calls were eating hours every week. Each client now picks SMS or email and which events they care about, and the system sends the message itself when goods are received and when the order is marked ready for pickup. The customer knows straight away, and the office is not fielding the calls.

  • SMS or email, chosen by the client
  • Sent on goods received and ready for pickup
  • Per user, for their own orders or all of the client's orders
Omega Coaters notification preferences screen on a client's reception desk monitor
Technology stack

How it's built

It is a Vue single-page app on a Laravel API, hosted on AWS. The API holds the pricing rules, unit of measure conversions, minimum charges and client overrides, the order lifecycle and history, client category permissions, and the notification engine that sends SMS or email based on each client's settings. The Omega admin and the client portal both sit on the same API.

Single page application

Built in Vue.js as a single page application, for a fast experience without page reloads and the flexibility to evolve as the system grows.

API-focused backend

The backend is built in Laravel and MySQL with an API-first interface, so the web and mobile apps share the same endpoints.

Continuous integration

Automated testing and deployment let us test new builds and update production quickly, so we can release as often as required.

Managed hosting

Amazon's Elastic Container Service runs each service in its own container within a cluster that scales up and down as needed.

Managed hosting

Still pricing jobs by hand and answering "is it ready?" calls?

A portal where customers order at their own prices, pricing rules that do the maths, and a message that goes out on its own. Tell us how your orders come in now.

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