Friday, June 30, 2006

Controlling production and standards of quality

Problems of maintaining control of jobs on the shop floor, at the same time as expanding and building a skilled workforce, were solved by an integrated production control solution.
Paddock Gear and Engineering are precision manufacturers of gears for the power transmission industry. Continual re-investment in machinery means that the company has the capability to machine gears up to 1.2 metres in diameter. The company has experienced 40% growth in turnover in just two years.

Problem 1: Maintaining control of jobs on the shop floor, at the same time as expanding and building a skilled workforce, was becoming increasingly difficult for the founder and Managing Director, Mr Marklew.

Problem 2: An engineer himself, Marklew found that whilst the increased work-load was excellent news for the business, it meant that he was working 12+ hour days on a regular basis.

If he was not managing production, winning business with clients and monitoring quality procedures, he was out on the shop floor helping with production.

Problem 3: Quality is of paramount importance to the company.

As a supplier to blue chip companies, the standard demanded of Paddock's components and procedures is extremely high.

Marklew was adamant that traceability not be compromised by the quantity of work.

Problem 4: The company was not able to determine which jobs were making a profit or loss, nor by how much.

Solution: FactoryMaster is an integrated Production Control Solution which returns the control of Sales Orders, Works Orders, Manufacturing Instructions and Route Cards, full Batch Traceability and Job Costing to the key personnel within a business in a manner which reduces pressure and increases confidence in decision making.

Marklew was happy to comment, 'This is an excellent system.

It has become second nature to personnel and is now key to our infrastructure on traceability and quality.

It gives me the information I need at the touch of a button.

For example, the whereabouts of a job, or how much it cost to make.

If I need to change a route card or review the issue number on a set of manufacturing instructions, it is user friendly, quick and simple.

I was under enormous pressure, working long hours, before we had FactoryMaster.

I would estimate that it has taken probably 40-50% of that pressure off me.

Furthermore, I would estimate that the system has saved me employing two more people (in planning and production control) at GBP 25,000 per annum each.' Our BS EN ISO 9000 assessor and our customers, old and new, are all greatly impressed with the FactoryMaster system.' Just some of the benefits brought to Paddock Gear and Engineering by FM2000: a.

Harnessed production.

b.

Quality control.

c.

Knowledge at managerial fingertips.

d.

Part of infrastructure for continued expansion.

e.

Significant Cost savings (approx GBP 50,000 per annum).