LMI also scrutinized data entry in quality assurance. Until recently a typical QA procedure at LMI went as follows: A worker delivered the part to quality for inspection. The QA person created the inspection file, performed the inspection, and then manually entered the data on the Excel sheet. When the QA tech typed in those numbers manually, the company’s portable CMM sat idle, not adding value.

So today LMI is working to eliminate all that data entry. Before a job is sent to the floor, an engineer in the front office exports the original CAD file to Faro’s CAM2 Measure software, which creates an inspection file that identifies all the part geometries that require inspection, “auto-ballooning” the drawing to identify all the inspection points. All this happens before the order hits the floor. Now when a part arrives in QA, the technician simply calls up the file and takes the measurements (see Figure 7).

“We’re taking the mundane data-entry portion of the quality role and building intelligence into the process upfront,” O’Leary said. “It does take a little more time upfront, but it cuts down the time in QA significantly, when we’re trying to get the part through production.”

Scheduling and Going Paperless

The company recently adopted OmegaCube Technologies’ enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and, at this writing, is moving toward a near-paperless environment, opting for 4- by 6-in. “move tickets” that accompany each work order. When a worker scans the ticket, the ERP platform brings up all the information about a job on the screen in front of him. This can include visual work instructions, videos, and the 3-D model (see Figure 8). A worker can print blueprints on a shared printer, if necessary. But for the most part, LMI is saying goodbye to the paper traveler.

“You can attach any file format to the job,” O’Leary said, “and you can view it, as long as the computer you’re working on has the application.”

The ERP works in concert with Plant Manager. The shop uses the ERP to schedule jobs based on the due date; then Plant Manager takes that schedule; looks out a specified number of days; and automatically nests parts based on available capacity, machine capability, grain direction requirements, and desired material utilization. Moreover, operators no longer need to manually log jobs into the ERP once they reach the laser. Once a program is executed, an XML file is sent back to the ERP to process all of the labor and material transactions.

Part revisions make up another issue that prolongs non-value-added time. Say a customer changes a material thickness requirement after a portion of the job has already been cut on the laser. If the customer says the parts are still usable, what then? The shop still could process the material, but it would need to make sure everything downstream can account for both the old and new material thickness. This includes available tooling at the press brake, fixtures at the welding cells, and inspection programs and data in QA. All this opens the door for more variation and a lot of confusion. Is it worth keeping the WIP, or to simplify things, should it just be scrapped?

Here, software has helped organize the situation. If a customer changes an order midstream, the ERP notes it and updates the work order to reflect the latest information. But if the customer says the already produced WIP is usable, then the software creates a separate work order that maintains all the previous job information at that particular revision level. This has helped reduce scrap rate and ensure LMI reprocesses only what is necessary for the job.

About two years ago O’Leary took a job at Ludlow Manufacturing Inc. (LMI) in Waukegan, Ill., a suburb north of Chicago. On his first day, he looked around and saw equipment everywhere—but where were the people?

He soon learned that this reflected the philosophy of the company founders, Todd and Jenny Ludlow, who launched LMI in 2005 (see Figures 1 and 2). Before launching the business, Todd Ludlow worked as an independent sales rep in stamping and metal fabrication. So why did he launch a fab shop of his own? “Like every person thinks, I thought I knew more than I did, and I could do a better job,” Ludlow said. “I have to admit, I don’t feel that way anymore.”

LMI started in 2,000 square feet with a used 1,000-W laser, one press brake, a compressor, and that’s about it. But the company grew quickly and today operates in 80,000 sq. ft. It wouldn’t be unusual to see a facility of that size employ 100 people or more. LMI, though, employs only about 45.

This goes back to Ludlow’s take on automation: He believes in it in a big way.

LMI’s Automation Philosophy

Instead of hiring people to grow, LMI acquired new equipment that helped simplify the act of cutting and bending sheet metal. Although Ludlow believes in automation, he looks at it holistically and pays attention to how technology can shorten not just a particular cutting, bending, or welding operation, but the entire order-to-ship cycle.

Lasers do have automated load/unload systems that hold enough material for unattended cutting at night (see Figure 3), but LMI doesn’t have any tower systems. About a year and a half ago, Ludlow had dreams of moving to an even larger facility and investing in a comprehensive material storage and retrieval system. “But I realized I was totally wrong about that,” he said.

Ludlow appreciated how such systems fit perfectly in other operations, but when he looked at his company’s job mix and resources, he found the investment wouldn’t make sense. The company doesn’t deal with a lot of remnants, so it couldn’t take advantage of a tower’s ability to automatically store and retrieve these remnants after cutting. With large towers, LMI’s lasers theoretically could cut unattended for days, but material handlers would still need to spend time shaking all those parts out of the cut nests. Ludlow added that investing in automated part-removal and stacker equipment didn’t make business sense either.

He emphasized that his thinking may change. But for now, material handling automation around the cutting centers isn’t a good fit. Looking at the big picture, he said that parts still need to be formed, welded, and inspected, so the order-to-ship time really wouldn’t change.

A new ERP system can mean long-term structural transformation, a permanent and significant impact on virtually every business function, process and department across the enterprise. Previously manual processes may be automated; steps within a department’s long-established processes could be eliminated, and a department’s or employee’s day-to-day role within the organization could be altered.

Though organizational needs drive ERP deployments, individual employees largely determine its success or failure. And the reality is that where there is change there is often resistance to change.

Typically, a company’s senior leadership team participates in mapping and analyzing processes and roles in pre-implementation working sessions with the ERP provider. Through their participation they’re tacitly agreeing to any changes that might result; however, there is no guarantee of such “buy-in” for those working on the front lines of the operation – those who will need to adapt their daily activity to align with the changes.

As preparations for deployment get underway, department heads and affected staff may begin to recognize areas of potential resistance and take steps to mitigate or eliminate individual resistance through more training, by making any justifiable compromises and by emphasizing the strategic value of the change to the overall organization. One has to be alert, however, for an employee who might display a willingness to buy-in during training sessions with the ERP provider, but who may, in reality, resist implementing the change at every opportunity, or even engage in outright sabotage after implementation.

This can happen in any department at any level, from a member of the accounting team to an employee on the loading dock. As management grapples with the big picture, it is the front-line personnel who actually experience the difficulties of implementing the change and working with its consequences on a daily basis. And, again, it is the front-line personnel who ultimately have the greatest impact on success or failure.

There is no proven process for managing change; we are dealing with human nature, after all. But there are a few basic guidelines that may help an organization create an environment more conducive to the changes that typically result from a new enterprise-level system deployment.

• Change starts at the top, and the leadership team, speaking with a single voice, must embrace and effectively advocate the transformation – and clearly articulate its strategic importance.
• Key leaders in each department should be identified and adequately trained and motivated, so that change cascades through the company rather than flows down from a single source.
• Ownership trumps a passive agreement. Employees must accept responsibility in their areas of influence and accept a high level of ownership. That sense of ownership is best created by involving affected employees in identifying problems and crafting solutions, and by reinforcing that ownership through incentives and rewards.
• Remember that change is both an institutional and personal journey. Individuals (or teams of individuals) need to know how their work will change, what is expected of them during and after the change, how they will be measured, and what success or failure will mean for them and those around them.

It should be noted that rarely will a new ERP system fail outright due to resistance. In the long run it will be successful, either through a slow erosion of the initial opposition to the changes or through personnel moves. That said, resistance leads to compromises, often in the form of a reduced project scope, of modifications to how particular workflows will be implemented or of changes in the expected level of automation. These compromises, however, may ultimately reduce the ROI achieved or yield sub-par results in certain parts of the business.

Effective change management remains a key, sometimes overlooked ingredient to preempting resistance and reducing the time it takes to realize the full value of an ERP investment. An ERP provider should be able to provide guidance throughout the process, but ultimately the responsibility for instituting effective change management policies falls to the organization itself.

Business process management sophistication varies from organization to organization, however. A lean, small or midsize company lacking the resources to systematically monitor and analyze its processes on an ongoing basis may be relying on manual, spreadsheet-driven processes that have remained in place for years despite changes in the business and technology landscape. That said, some of these processes may very well give the company a competitive edge, no matter how inefficient they may be.

Facing an imminent ERP implementation, what steps should an organization take to determine which business process it should reengineer, and to what extent?

STEP 1: Map your processes. Your ERP provider should be able to deliver process management expertise during the process discovery phase – the 1^st step to implementation. The provider’s business consultants can lead workshops with representatives of each functional area – from accounting and purchase order management to manufacturing and shipping – to define and map your discrete processes and workflows.

STEP 2: Analyze your processes. Again, partnering with your ERP provider, gauge the maturity of each process, its current effectiveness at the operational level and its degree of alignment with your company’s business objectives. There is no sense in simply automating existing broken processes in your ERP system.

STEP 3: Identify opportunities for integration. Your ERP provider’s application experts should work with you to compare the ERP application’s out-of-the-box capabilities and workflows with your existing processes, across functional areas. The intent is to identify the processes that can be integrated with the native ERP application relatively easily, as well as those process integrations that would be more complex, perhaps requiring customization to the ERP solution. If, at this stage, you decide you decide not to adapt a particular process to the ERP solution it is important to understand the “Why Not”, objectively weighing the rationale of that decision.

STEP 4: Scrutinize your new ERP system’s flexibility. The ongoing value of your ERP system is a function of its native agility, given that some business processes are bound to change post-implementation. Ask your ERP provider about the adaptability of the solution’s underlying architecture: how process changes can be handled, either with various configurable options or through customization.

Beyond the fundamental operational value it delivers, a deeper understanding of your business processes has direct, bottom-line pay-offs when it comes to ERP: It accelerates your implementation time, lowers your implementation costs, reduces unnecessary customization and builds the foundation for maximizing the value of your ERP investment over the long-term.

No doubt, the processes embedded across an organization – in finance, purchasing, sales, shipping, manufacturing and more – were developed for reasons that were valid at the time. Perhaps a process emerged as a means of working around the shortcomings of a previous enterprise software solution or in response to a new business challenge or requirement. In some cases, a particular process may be decades old, and no one can remember why it exists; it’s just familiar, it’s always been done that way.

Rarely can a lean manufacturer devote resources to re-examining its process framework in the light of emerging technologies or evolving best-practices within their industry, but an ERP implementation is an opportunity to do just that. In fact, it’s a must. A new implementation demands that you question why a process exists and make a business value-based decision on the merits of customizing your new ERP solution in order to keep it as-is.

After all, customizing enterprise software comes at a cost in implementation time, dollars and complexity.

So, when evaluating a process to see if it warrants ERP customization ask these five questions:

• Is it a process that gives my company a competitive advantage?
• Is it a process vital to increasing revenue or reducing costs?
• Is it a process that helps me service my customers more effectively?
• Is it a process that helps my manufacturing floor respond quickly to changes in demand?
• Is it a process that improves manufacturing workflow, on-time delivery or resource utilization?

Your default position should always be to change your process to fit the system, unless there’s a proven, measurable payback. That’s why the majority of ERP customizations occur in the Sales and Manufacturing modules, and why companies are much more likely to change their processes to fit the solution in the Financials or Purchasing modules.

Ideally, your ERP provider will serve as your guide throughout this entire process mapping and analysis exercise. Alongside solution expertise, the provider should also have demonstrable experience and expertise in:

• formulating business processes
• change management
• project management
• your industry

Armed with this expertise your ERP provider’s business analysts should compare your process map against best-practice processes within your industry. They’ll help you identify opportunities for process improvement and suggest changes that would align particular processes with their solution’s standard functionality.

Always keep in mind that every customization you do takes your ERP solution farther away from the solution – and the provider – you painstakingly evaluated, selected and invested in. Maintaining the status quo for the sake familiarity is not a good reason for keeping a process. Any customization should be carefully considered and judged solely on its ability to deliver real business value.

The advent of mobile technology has revolutionized the way our businesses operate today. The manufacturing shop floor is no exception to this. When the power of ERP is combined with the agility of mobile devices, the functioning of a manufacturing unit can be transformed significantly to render cost efficiency, enhanced performance, faster operations and better resource management. With most of the small and mid-sized businesses embracing leaner processes and smarter tools, inclusion of mobile technologies on the shop floor is the best IT strategy that one can implement.

What can mobility do for the shop floor?

Mobility has become one of the core aspects that define the success of modern-day manufacturing units. When implemented correctly, it has the potential to:

• Reduce lead time
• Improve response time
• Improve manufacturing employee effectiveness
• Improve customer service

Here are some ways in which enterprise mobility technologies help improve operations on the shop floor:

• Quick error detection and corrections

Often manufacturing units experience bottlenecks in their processes due to erroneous operations or malfunctioning of equipment. Ramification of the issue doubles when corrective steps aren’t taken in a timely manner. Mobility solves this problem by instantly informing the technicians when a machine breaks down. This initiates faster execution of corrective plans, after which the ‘fixed’ status of the equipment can be updated from the handheld device. Such a well structured system also keeps everyone well informed about every single issue and its resolution.

Some of the challenges many SMBs (Small and Mid-sized Businesses) face while providing field services are,

• No real-time data resulting in delays and poorly informed technicians
• High time consumption due to lack of coordination
• Low customer satisfaction rate
• Overheads due to redundant visits to the same customer location
• Low control over technicians and lack of productive work

Features of Mobility

Implementation of mobility driven ERP solutions makes field services faster and more resourceful. It results in high performance, quick resolutions and increased customer satisfaction.

Some of the key features of mobility that are shaping today’s on-field operations are,

• Offline capability that syncs data to technicians tablet so they have access to customer and service data even when Wi-Fi connection is not available
• Ability to capture customer signature on tablets
• Automated invoices resulting out of access to real time data
• Readily available service history on equipment and customer
• Scheduling of tasks as per priority and remote assignment of jobs to technicians
• ERP module integrated with other departments like sales, pre-sales, inventory, purchasing and accounting
• Use of mobiles and tablets to keep technicians and customers well informed
• Easy and standardized problem tracking, ticket creation, service request creation and documentation options
• Collection of technicians time logs, travel and other expenses reduces the paperwork and helps in faster invoicing to customers

Field Service Challenges and Mobility Solutions

Mobility has the potential to help equipment dealers, service providers and field technicians in multiple ways. In industries such as machine tool service, HVAC install and repair, and construction, a well designed and integrated mobility solution can make a difference between growth and business stagnation. The mobility based applications that integrate seamlessly with ERP system facilitate centralized operations and live updates, thereby reducing delays and errors.

Here are the top 3 field service challenges and their respective resolutions brought about by mobility:

Challenge 1:

No easy access of latest information for field technician leading to longer task completion time, customer dissatisfaction and multiple visits to the same customer

Solution:

Mobility based ERP solution has centralized information storage through which the technician knows about the problem history, prior service history, customer details and equipment information. Additionally, live updates and notifications make it possible to get approvals and thereby close service tickets faster. This results in faster problem resolution, better time management, decreased staff efforts, and most importantly, customer satisfaction.

Challenge 2:

Little or no visibility of available inventory make it difficult for the field service technician to get the required spare parts in time. The setup can often get into the ‘no-stock’ situation which makes it harder to fix issues and keeps the customers waiting for long.

Solution:

ERP solutions in conjunction to mobility make it easy for the staff to know the state of the inventory easily. The technicians can by themselves place an order for a particular item, know about the purchase status from the dealers and receive a notification when the spare part has arrived. In addition to this, with the updated information of the available stock, the staff can take steps to purchase the most used items before they run out them. This renders smoother information flow, better control over the inventory and coordinated action steps from all parties involved.

Challenge 3:

The technicians need to contact their back-office frequently to understand their dispatch schedule, work allocation, task status, customer details and other information required for carrying out their task successfully.

Solution:

Mobility brings the entire setup right into the handheld devices the technicians possess. By using their tablets and phones they can get to know their work allocation, customer details and task information within seconds. They also can receive live guidance, access manuals and report back to the back-office instantly. Using the real-time mobility solutions, the service organization is able to improve their throughput and ability to handle more business.

Utilizing electronic signatures, the field technicians and complete the service tickets, get customer signatures and automatically generate invoices. For some businesses, processing credit cards from the mobile device improves their collections process.

Thus a rightly implemented ERP solution can increase the productivity of your field services. It can also fetch you more customers and better managed workforce.