Shop Management Software Allows For More Effective Operations September 1998 -- In 1997,Alger Manufacturing (Ontario, CA) gave itself a new shop management software package for its 40th Anniversary. The company's management team knew it would have to make some changes to accommodate the new system, but they also had some hard and fast parameters about ways in which their new software would have to fit into the plant's existing operations.Upgrades for the hardware and support software, both in the offices and on the shop floor, were prime examples of changes management knew it would have make to accommodate its new software, according to Steve Ellis, MIS (management information systems) manager of Alger Manufacturing. Before the new system was up and running, Alger purchased and installed new 32MB, Pentium based PCs, bumped its server up to the latest version of Windows NT, and switched from Windows 95 to Windows NT at the workcenters on the shop floor. While the management team was flexible about its hardware and software, its demands for the new system were not. Instead of changing its operations to accommodate a new shop management program, the company sought software to fit its operations. Ellis was looking for a software development team with enough flexibility to meet Alger's needs. In addition, the developers would have to provide a program to truly integrate the shop's departments and each phase of the company's operations, including estimating, scheduling, inventory control, and shipping. The new program would also have to be compatible with MAS 90, Alger's accounting system. These points were not negotiable. In fact, they were integral in the company's decision to look for a new system. Alger once purchased and installed a shop management package, and it was an eye-opening experience for the company. Alger installed the program and put it to work, only to discover that it could not provide all the information the company wanted. When Ellis went back to that vendor, he didn't get the response he was looking for. The software vendor offered him little assistance. Instead of working with Ellis, the vendor recommended operational changes that would make the 40-year-old job shop a better fit for the program. Rather than bang his head against a brick wall, Ellis took matters into his own hands, writing programs himself on Alger's old Pretec system to fill in the gaps in the shop management package. The inadequacies of the resulting semi-custom system, and the lack of support from the software vendor helped Alger develop its criteria for a new system. There were the factors that pushed the once-bitten manufacturer back into the software market in the first place. Contacted by Ellis, Jim Snook of Matrix Systems, a software dealer based in southern California suggested that Alger take a look at Visual EstiTrack, from Henning Industrial Software. Ellis arranged for a demonstration of the shop management program. The baseline functionality revealed in the system during the demo intrigued Alger. But Ellis still had questions about the program's capability which Henning had to address. "The scheduling was not exactly what we wanted. The system had priority based scheduling, and we wanted more of a drag and drop scheduling with our foreman in control of doing the departmental scheduling," recalls Ellis. "We wanted the foreman to be able to pick the operation and the type of machine the job was going to go on." As a result, Henning developed a drop and drag scheduling module to accommodate Alger. Ellis was so impressed with the software developer's flexibility that he closed the deal. Henning not only gained a customer, but also found the new scheduling system so practical that it offered the optional module to all of its customers. THE PROCESS Alger and Henning devised a plan for the software vendor to provide a basic version of its system. Once the system was in place, Henning staffers went to Alger's California plant to interview employees and determine how the program should be modified to meet their needs. Fortunately, the company was also undergoing a functional analysis for ISO 9000 certification at the same time, and its certification consultant developed a detailed flow chart of the life cycle of a job in the shop, from RFP through shipping The document showed, department by department, a functional definition of the process. That document, and the employee interviews conducted by Henning, revealed that most of the functionality Alger wanted was already in the system. There was still work to be done, however. Henning's programmers developed a sales monitor screen at Alger's request. The screen allows Alger's customer service representatives to check the status of sales orders, shop orders, and inventory without having to jump to other screens. When they receive an inquiry, the customer service reps can search for the information by purchase order number or part number. The screen also gives the reps access to the shop order screen, where they check production of a job against its schedule. Deliveries, shipping dates, the number of parts in a shipment, and the packing slip and tracking numbers assigned to a shipment are also readily available. The interview process began in Spring of 1997. Customization of the program and the actual installation were slated for the summer months, with a parallel test of the new system scheduled to take place in September, 1997. The test was to have been followed by about three months of parallel operation, giving Alger's personnel time to learn the new system before switching over to it entirely at the end of the year. The total amount of time allotted for the installation would be about a year. Everything was proceeding according to the plan in late August when the Pretec system which Ellis's stopgap programs were written on crashed. "It was old, and it had been around for years. Nobody services that particular computer anymore, so when it went down, it went down big-time. Because that system is no longer supported, our parallel test turned into a live installation," Ellis said. "The pressure was extreme, we had to get the new software in place and everybody up and running on it very rapidly. Henning staffers flew west again, spending several days on training and implementation to get the system up and running. "We had to accelerate getting everything into the computer," Ellis recalled, adding that after the system crash, Henning got Visual EstiTrack operational quickly enough to avoid any downtime at the plant. "We got up and running in three weeks." Henning Industrial Software's staff accelerated the implementation not only by flying to California for training, but also by writing some special code which allowed Alger to convert customer information from their existing records, streamlining the data entry effort required to implement the new system. In the end, the system was up and running about four months ahead of schedule, according to Ellis. "We would have operated both computer systems for about three months and we would have gradually gotten all of the information in from the Pertec system into EstiTrack over the three month period," he said, "but, because the Pertec went down, we had to accelerate it a lot. We threw everything we had at it." THE RESULTS "We're getting a lot more data from Visual EstiTrack than we ever got from either the previous software package or the software that I wrote. Past-due reports and forecasts of sales, backlog reports, there are numerous things we're getting out of it," Ellis said. "We're putting more into Visual EstiTrack then before, but that's because there's more information that we want out of it, such as work in process reports that show the parts moving from one station to another inside the shop. That means we have to do more data input because we want to be able to see those things." With Visual EstiTrack, Ellis was able to graphically layout and model his entire shop. Icons represent workcenters and inventory locations. From this graphical depiction of the shop Alger employees can simply double-click on icons to monitor workcenter loading, job schedules and inventory levels. Ellis even represented his outside vendors (e.g., heat treaters), as inventory locations. By doing this Alger employees can quickly determine the location and disposition of WIP inventory as it moves both within and outside their shop. Among the other types of information Alger now gets that it couldn't get before are the company's departmental efficiency reports. Ellis said the foremen in each department print the reports every week. When jobs with low efficiency levels show up on the reports, the foremen go to the machine operators who were involved to follow up on the causes for the low production. "We figure so many parts in an hour is 100%, so if the operator runs at 60%, that's good. If he drops down below 50%, then we need to determine the reason or reasons," Ellis said. Two of the new reports Alger has put to use are backlog reports and past-due reports. "We're printing backlog reports by customer and customer order, showing everything that's on order and when it's due. The backlog gives me a grand total, my total dollars backlog, and my total hours backlog. It will also tell me how many hours of labor each department will need to finish those jobs. Then it figures out what that breaks down to, how many weeks of backlog I have," Ellis said. The report can also head off potential problems -- printing a list of orders approaching their due dates. "We can print that out and chase down the problem, either resolving it, or informing the customer of the situation. It's a fantastic report, it's really nice." Ellis can also print shipping reports by either due date, or what Alger calls a promise date. Due dates are assigned to each order the shop takes, and Visual EstiTrack can track the progress of those orders through the shop from material selection through shipping, tracking time spent on each step along the way. Promise dates are assigned to orders that Alger customers need as soon as possible. If a customer places an order that is on a tight time-line, Alger will enter the date by which they promise the customer completion of the order. The system will let management know as promise dates for shipping approach, if any of the jobs on promise dates begin production early, or if any of the parts are available for shipment before the promise date. Also, because of the system's telecommunications capabilities and its interface with Alger's accounting software, Alger is able to do all of the invoicing for its plant in Glendale, AZ out of its California location. After a about a year of working with the new system, Ellis says that he is still tweaking it, adding information specific to Alger's operations. He adds that using the program has become second nature. "I'm using it all the time, and it's getting to be like I don't even have to think about operating the system anymore," Ellis said. With all of the reports and other information that Alger now has available, Ellis says it is difficult to compare the program to the company's old system. "It's hard to compare the two, because what we were doing before, we weren't getting nearly as much information as we wanted out of it. Now, we are getting the information, and seeing it presented in the Alger way" Ellis said. That information is the reward for all of the hard questions the company asked and the specific goals it set for its new system when it started looking for a shop management package. As a result of setting strict guidelines for the performance and flexibility it expected, Alger found a software developer who could work around their specific operational demands and a program that could meet their specific needs. Now the company is looking forward to the system providing them with even more information than they had first in mind. "We were very clear within Alger as to what we were looking for before we started the install," Ellis recalls. "We like what Visual EstiTrack has and what Henning Industrial Software has done to adapt the system to the Alger way. I guess that's all you can say. We now have access to all the information we need to effectively manage our operations." |
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