Production Scheduling Software Success Story ‘Knowledge driven’ Operations

During the first half of 2013, a specialist subcontract machinist company Abundant Manufacturing increased its sales turnover by some 30 percent. The key to their success was pointed to two major improvements in their warehouse operations 1) they invested in the installation of new high specification machine tools and 2) they set up a new manufacturing and production scheduling software system by JobPack, Inc. This investment in software is proving to be critical in controlling day-to-day events on the shop floor to maximize production and deliveries. This specialty shop floor had the tedious task of managing up to 320 different components within each product. Most of these unique parts are expensive and require up to 38 operations on the ‘Work to Do’ list. In this complex environment, accurate and detailed control and monitoring of production is paramount.

It was quickly apparent that the new manufacturing and production scheduling software helped build the confidence throughout the company that it can indeed maintain growth and still have the ability to control production. It was also quickly apparent that there was an increase in machine utilization. The reduction in the work-in-progress times set the business up to successfully grow while confidently sticking on target with giving customers a one week turnaround from the sale to the time of delivery.

The director Kevin Smith reinforces this by stating, “We hear so much about the importance of the ‘knowledge-driven’ economy, well we have a ‘knowledge-driven’ production operation where management and customers know exactly what is happening and should be occurring.” Kevin Smith also points out that even with the new capacity, it has been the installation of the totally integrated JobPack system that has enabled the company to control work flow and respond to customer demand, reduce work in progress by 22% and make the best use of the production resource of 70 CNC machines. The JobPack Systems software, installed in the first quarter of 2013, had an immediate impact in creating extra capacity by increasing machine utilization and throughout.

“All information regarding work in progress is held within the company and not by individuals. We work to factual information and no longer rely on someone’s instinct,” Kevin Smith adds. In fact, even prior to the installation Kevin Smith maintains Abundant Manufacturing was quite switched-on for production control but it took a fully employed person, a highly paid college graduate, all day to monitor and check the workflow. “In comparison it now takes only 30 minutes to perform this housekeeping. He shares that “The JobPack installation achieves this, giving absolute ‘in-your-face’ feed-back of what is happening in real time’ with live dynamic graphical predictions of workloads on each machine. This is backed up with projected completion dates and performance reporting in a totally paperless environment.

The JobPack system provides us with planning, a real-time scheduling display of all stages of the relevant manufacturing process, data including subcontract processes right from material order to final delivery. However, we also have the bonus of immediate automated management reporting. We no longer have to wait to see how we performed, it is on the screen in front of us!” 

Find out how JobPack can help your manufacturing business take big strides forward in productivity and efficiency. Contact us or call 847-741-1861 to set up an online demo now!  Visit our website: www.jobpack.com.