West Point, NE

Practice Area:
Information Technology - Systems Implementation Company Profile:
This company provides custom plating of large items. The turn around time for the process and production orders is eight to seventy-two hours. They are a remote plant linked to a headquarter system designed for manufactured products. The products they plate are owned by the customer. The value-add is providing a high quality finish quickly. They billing by weigh of plating material added using weigh scales for truck load and for pallets.

Situation:
As a remote facility, the West Point plant was experiencing thoughput restrictions with the constraint coming from the identifiaction, tracking and completion of work and creation of bills of lading and invoices. All items plated are weighed as they are processed. The documentation of the date was collected from manual recording sheets. Time delays in being able to ship due to missing data was creating service issues and constraining sales volume. Shipments were restricted to days in a 24 x 5 production enviromment due to the record keeping and interface needed. Truck delays due to waiting for paperwork generated unhappy customers. Lables for the product were often lost as the material used could not stand up to the harse enviroment and outside storage in Nebraska weather.

Solution:
A thorough process flow analysis and current situtation review determined a linkage system to allow receipt and identification of good, tracking status and completion of goods and direct capture of weight from the two electronic scales reduced data collection time, errors and missing data. A direct link to data in the main customer files, etc in the ERP files, improved financial reporting information in a more timely manner. The link method simplified data recording, improved legibility with printed information and allowed for the use of bar - coding status transactions and capturing of weight. Itty-Bitty Airplane Label Company was able to provide a durable tyvek label that could run through a zebra printer and stand up to the harsh conditions. Many of the customers have come to rely on the quality label for tracking in their own operations, enhancing the supply chain linkage.

Results:
The adminstration piece is no longer a contraint and signficantly higher volumes (25-30% ) have been process through the plant. The accuracy of the information used for the BOL and for the invoicing and improved the overall revenue picture. Trucking complaints due to in accurate BOL weight is virtually zero.

Testimonial:
We are so happy with the results we are going to roll out this system to McCook, Utah and California as well as the international plants. This system has made it possible to ship 24x5 if we need to and still provide for accurate billings.