Plant Management for the New Millennium

By Judith Harkham Semas

In today’s “I want it faster, cheaper, better” environment, the pressure is on to deliver world-class quality at globally competitive prices and ISO/QS-level responsiveness, consistency and control. To compete effectively, finishers need to maximize their use of equipment and people. What’s more, they need to anticipate potential problems and correct them in advance. Customers expect them to do the job right the first time or there may not be a second chance.

When the only guarantee of customers’ loyalty is their satisfaction with the previous work you did for them, there’s only one way to achieve the efficiency you need: Computerize your system. You can do this not only if you’re a huge, high-volume commercial plater, but even if you’re a local, piece-part job shop, and you can computerize both your finishing processes and your management systems.

Why? Because keeping track of your work requires huge volumes of information: customer lists, part orders, bath formulations, blueprints, shipping and receiving orders, quality control results, research and development documentation, inventory data, and more.

“Although ‘information’ is not a balance sheet category, it is perhaps the most valuable asset of any company,” said Ira Handelsman, sales manager of Cornerstone Systems, Inc., a software development company based in Crystal Lake, IL.

In most businesses, this valuable asset -- information -- is stored in various file cabinets or several unlinked databases. When information must be retrieved, an employee must sift through files in the various cabinets or databases and piece together the needed data -- an inefficient, time-consuming process.

Remember, the real value of information lies not in its existence or maintenance, but in the ability to quickly and easily retrieve, distribute, manipulate and analyze it. When customers call with a question about their order or account, they want the answer now -- not 10 minutes from now.

There’s plenty of software on the market designed to help with the organization of information. The problem is, virtually all of it is targeted to the broad manufacturing segment, not the special needs of the finishing industry. What technical support does exist for such software is usually limited to bulky manuals and generic explanations of installation or application procedures.

One exception, however, is Cornerstone Systems’ Visual Shop -- an office and plant/shop management software program specifically customized for finishing and other similar operations.

Triple Cities Metal Finishing Corporation Slashed Order Processing Time

“We went online with Visual Shop in April of 1998,” said Charles Morgan, vice president of Triple Cities Metal Finishing in Kirkwood, N.Y. “I was looking for software that would allow us to run the business the way WE want -- not the way the software manufacturer requires.”

In its two-year search for a flexible, Y2K-compliant computer system, Triple Cities took an in-depth, comprehensive approach. “We actually developed a survey form, with specified criteria based on our needs,” said Morgan. “We decided what we wanted the computer system to do for us -- handle multiple sites, high-order volume, WAN (Wide Area computer Network) configurations, plus intensive data acquisition and retrieval -- and then we set out to best match our requirements.”

Morgan visited companies that used different software packages and interviewed software development firms by telephone. “We asked about their stability, how much money they spent on R and D, and whether they were Y2K-compliant,” he said. “That screening eliminated a lot of companies right off the top.”

One of Triple Cities’ high-priority needs was a system that would dramatically speed up the order-entry process because the business had outgrown its paper-processing capabilities, creating a frustrating bottleneck.

The company’s other existing processes were computerized; however, the software had been designed -- as most business/plant management software is -- for a manufacturing operation. “The software provided for a lot of work-in-process information, extensive purchasing inputs, and excessive labor history detail,” said Morgan. “For our needs, it was way too detailed on a per-order basis, and very expensive -- not just to buy, but also to use. In fact, just to upgrade the existing system for the year 2000 would have cost us as much money as we paid for our all-new software system.”

The search was finally narrowed to two alternatives. “We decided to go with ‘best of breed,’ said Morgan. “A financial package that would do what we wanted (Mass 90), and Visual Shop for our operations management.”

The software’s appeal to the company rested on the fact that it is flexible, customizable and written specifically for the needs of platers and heat treaters -- “not a gerryrig from something else,” said Morgan.

“The plating business, as a whole is becoming real-time. Customers want to know what stage their job is at, in real-time terms,” said Morgan. “So we need to be set up that way. And this software is very accommodating to these special needs -- in the way certifications read and in the reports we can give to customers, for example.”

Now, when a Triple Cities truck is unloaded, the data is entered into the computer system, making it accessible for real-time reporting to customers. “We wanted to enter the data and know we had access to it right then -- not half a day later,” said Morgan. “Now we have it with this software.”

Many off-the-shelf systems require the user to enter a database and load information in a separate step, rather than as part of the order entry data input. Now, data entry is all part of a single-step process. “Same thing on the pricing side,” Morgan said. “When you invoice something, you always have an invoice history for that part. The software tells us automatically if it’s a priced, quoted, or new job, and you don’t have to enter a separate database for the information.”

According to Morgan, the system’s package includes a scheduling and job tracking component, as well. “The software enhancements and tech support are terrific. If they develop a new feature or capability for one client, they routinely make it available to all their other clients for free.”

According to Morgan, the productivity gains since switching systems are impressive. Before the new system, it would take about 6 minutes to process the paperwork for an incoming an order, including receiving, inspecting and identifying it, and then readying it for processing. With the new system, that process now takes only 30 seconds.

“If you were a customer and called me right now to ask about a particular part, in a matter of seconds, I could bring up all the times I’ve processed that part number, the history of each order from invoice, who entered, shipped, and inspected it ... everything you’d want to know about that part, including capacity,” said Morgan. “I can even bring up a picture so I know what the part looks like -- all without leaving my desk.”

The actual cost of the software varies, depending on the number of users and whether any special enhancements are required. For example, a five-user operation might buy the software for approximately $12,000-$13,000. In comparison, a single user’s cost might be as low as $89 a month.

According to Morgan, the software has enabled them to significantly reduce its overhead on the order-entry side -- allowing the company to continue to expand at a rate of 20 percent per year, without adding staff.

Founded in 1946 by Morgan’s uncle, George P. Zurenda, a former U.S. Air Force metallurgical inspector, Triple Cities has grown to become one of the largest plating companies in northeast America and has recently attained ISO 9002 certification. Its 150 employees process anywhere from 100 to 500 orders per day for the company’s 300-plus customers. The staff works in two facilities -- a new 125,000 square-foot corporate offices in Kirkwood, and a second plant (40,000 square feet) in Elmira, N.Y., just 60 miles away.

“We’ve grown inside our walls in the sense that our past operations were always limited by the size of our building,” said Morgan. “This new building allows us to stretch out and fully automate our operations.”

Triple Cities works with a wide range of processes: zinc, electroless nickel, anodizing, black oxide, chromating, chrome, deburring, nickel, passivating, phosphating, tin, and miscellaneous finishes, such as electro polish. The range of industries it serves is equally broad: automotive and aircraft, commercial and retail, Fortune 500 companies and 2- and 3-man machine shops.

Arrow Plating Co. Improved Tracking, Reporting and Reliability

A much smaller firm, Arrow Plating Co., Fort Worth, Texas, had been limping along with an old mini-mainframe. Its custom software had been tweaked and re-tweaked over the 15 years since its installation. “We knew from the programmer who wrote the software that neither software nor hardware was Y2K-compliant,” said Richard Barnett, the plant manager. “So, we began to search for a new system, mostly on the Internet.”

Established in 1954, family-owned Arrow has approximately 24 employees generating $1.2 million in annual sales at its one location. The company runs six all-manual lines serving customers in virtually all industries. “We do everything from fasteners to push carts,” Barnett said.

In implementing its new system, Arrow quickly bought four Gateway PCs and established a small network. The search for management software did not go as smoothly, however. “We discovered mostly manufacturing-oriented systems,” said Barnett. “They had features we couldn’t use and just weren’t appropriate for our needs.” Then he discovered CSI and its software systems and capabilities.

Over the next few months, CSI helped him set up a trial version of the system that he was able to download right off the Internet. “You could enter your own information and run the trial version for free,” Barnett said. “That sold me. CSI’s customer service is absolutely the best I’ve ever seen. They bent over backwards -- and they still do -- to make installing and using their program and database easy for us. Any time I had a question or problem, they were right there with the solution.”

After Barnett had run the new system side-by-side with his existing computer system for two months, he was sold on the program.

“Our new system had so many more features to it, our old system can’t even compare,” said Barnett. “The reports Visual Shop makes out ... the way it tracks your processes ... You can take pictures of your parts with a digital camera and actually print those out on your shop orders. That’s very useful if someone calls to check on their part ... and we get constant customer requests for that type of information.”

Arrow is not yet ISO-compliant, but plans to seek certification within the next several years. “That’s what we were going for when we sought out a Y2K-compliant system,” said Barnett. “Several features in the software will make achieving ISO compliance a lot easier. For example, it puts your process on your work orders, so you have written instructions that go out to the shop.”

Administratively, he credits the new software with helping him track things faster and more accurately. “The whole system is more reliable than what we had before, and it improves all the time,” he said. “CSI continually upgrades the product, and, unlike other software companies, CSI passes on the bulk of these upgrades to its customers for free.”

Arrow’s billing is also more reliable now, Barnett said, and it’s easy for him to make adjustments. Under the old system, adjustments required the services of an outside programmer. “We’ve been on Visual Shop less than a year, and I still discover new things about it,” he said. “For instance, I recently learned we can track our tank analysis; so, the software could help us keep our baths at optimum efficiency. I’m looking more into this aspect right now.”

According to Barnett, getting up-and-running on the new system wasn’t hard, either. “The PC literacy of most of our people is weak, but they caught on to Visual Shop real quick,” he said. “It’s a point-and-click system that operates on Windows 98/NT”

The company’s staff didn’t require any special training, although CSI offered it. “I just worked with the program during the free trial,” Barnett said. “That’s all it took for me to know enough to teach the others what they needed to do.”

Arrow put three of its four PCs on the new system. Its costs were $6,300 for the software, plus $1,200 for a site license, and approximately $1,100 for the Microsoft Sequel Server database (SQL Server) to run the network. “I expect the system will pay for itself in less than two years,” Barnett said. “In addition to our gains from increased procedural efficiency, we’ve saved quite a lot of money in the cost of custom forms we no longer need.”

Cornerstone Systems, Inc. and Visual Shop

Founded in 1993 as a privately held corporation, CSI operates at two locations: its corporate offices in Crystal Lake, IL, and its customer support center in Plano, Texas.

Founder and president Marshall Handelsman spent more than 20 years in the treating/finishing industry, which gave him the expertise to develop this software, which covers all aspects of finishing and treating operations. The company now has more than 100 business/shop floor systems installed in the United States and around in various countries around the world

Judith Harkham Semas is an internationally published business and technology freelance writer based in San Jose, CA, whose work has appeared in Finishers’ Management before. She can be reached via e-mail at judithharkham@semas.com or judithharkhamsemas@yeahoo.com.