The Commonwealth Mint. 

With an annual turnover of over £30m, The Commonwealth Mint is the largest privately owned mint in the UK. It is a niche manufacturer of high-end numismatic collectables, its core products ranging from base metal collectible medallions all the way up to the finest PR70 graded 1kg 0.9999 gold coins. The company is split across two sites - the Mint in Birmingham and the Head Office in Bristol. They have a workforce of around 50 staff with an active Odoo user base of 34 users. 

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The Background 

After a period of rapid growth between 2018 and 2023; The Commonwealth Mint was in dire need of a fully integrated ERP/MRP solution. Disparate and eclectic legacy systems like Google Docs, Excel, Trello, handwritten diaries, WhatsApp, Skype Messenger, and Sage 50 had begun causing frequent problems including: 

  • Duplication of work 

  • Increased human error 

  • Inaccurate traceability of stock; including high-value goods 

  • No formal MRP; relying on manual updates 

  • Limited meaningful reporting 

 To respond to new demands and set The Commonwealth Mint up for success in the future, the management team decided to go with Odoo ERP: 


"We immediately saw the need for a fully integrated ERP / MRP solution. The Smart IT team was fantastic at taking our requirements and developing the solution as a result." 
Operations Manager, The Commonwealth Mint 

The Solution:

​Initially, The Commonwealth Mint had a different partner to take them through the first batch of configurations, but after Phase 1 implementation a change was required to continue to move forward.  Smart IT held its first kick-off meeting in May 2021 and set the stage for what would be an effective collaboration.  

 The apps/features implemented were across: 

Accounting 

Sales 

Purchase 

Inventory 

Barcode 

Manufacturing 

Maintenance 

Quality 

Projects 

Attendance 

Documents 

Sign 

Studio 

All these applications were fully customised to the needs of The Commonwealth Mint. This included making the system simpler for staff members who are not particularly IT literate. For example, a custom MO was built with a barcode system for the factory staff. This allowed each work order to be scanned during a job and this displayed all the necessary information for the employees simply and clearly on a tablet or desktop. 

“We made over 100 customisations to the base system throughout the project which took many hours of work, but the result was a system that fit our business perfectly. One of the fantastic things we discovered about Odoo is its versatility, meaning that there was virtually no part of the business that was forced to work a specific way, instead, we could shape the system around our teams and our specific requirements.” 

Operations Manager, The Commonwealth Mint 

Smart IT’s approach was highly focused on The Commonwealth Mint’s requirements. Through a detailed GAP analysis and needs investigation, the UK’s largest gold partner, created a clear map of the pain points faced by each department. Then, in collaboration with the client, determined where the big wins were.  

After identification, Smart IT’s approach followed a set process: 

  • Feature scoping with client stakeholders 

  • Design draft 

  • Client approval 

  • User acceptance testing 

  • Review & update 

  • Live deployment 

The Results:
In total, over one hundred customisations were deployed across 13 application subcategories at The Commonwealth Mint during a six-month period. 

Now, The Commonwealth Mint’s team is benefiting from a completely bespoke installation that’s fully optimised for their ways of working across manufacturing and head office disciplines with an incomprehensible increase in productivity, accuracy, and job satisfaction. 

 

Key Benefits:

  • Scoping, design, user testing & rollout of 13 ERP applications 

  • Over 100 customisations to the base Odoo systems 

  • Rapid 6-month design  

  • Exponentially increased productivity across all departments