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“...The
ability to eliminate the sheets of paper and track our inventory
with a single IntelliLabel number has reduced errors and man-hours,
and increased timeliness. The IntelliLabel license plating
now allows our employees time to focus on other necessary job
duties.”
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out more] |
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An International Specialty Chemical Company
Benefits From the Automation of QAD MFG/PRO® Transactions
An international specialty chemicals provider of high-quality
carbon black additives specifically designed to meet the needs
of rubber, plastics, inks, and coating manufacturers was experiencing
problems associated to the cost of employee overtime and customer
complaints due to labeling.
Manual data collection caused the company to lose time,
product and data.
The chemical company tracked transactions manually on a sheet
of paper. This sheet of paper changed hands numerous times before
being passed to the office for data entry. The manual paper method
caused significant delays in data entry, inventory inefficiencies,
lost product and data errors. In addition, their shop floor is
a very harsh environment. Fine black dust in the air combined
with high temperatures made the use of this paper system quite
difficult.
Their Quality Department determined that incorrect product
labeling was a primary cause of customer complaints. At the time,
label information was manually transcribed from QAD MFG/PRO Sales
Order resulting in undetected data entry errors.
Their Operations Department determined that undocumented placement
of finished product in its warehouses contributed to significant
workforce inefficiencies. The time warehouse personnel spent
searching for materials that were not in the location indicated
in QAD MFG/PRO resulted in significant overtime costs.
Customer requests for bar codes also presented challenges of
consistency, timeliness, and accuracy when managed outside a
standardized system.
In addition to the paper process, Production Reporting and
Inventory Transfers required one employee several hours per day
to input the data into the system. They also required traceability
of certain unique data elements such as Temperature, QC Classifications,
QC Comments, and Reject Reason. These unique data elements do
not have a place to be stored in QAD MFG/PRO solution, so employees
would record these data elements in a separate Excel spreadsheet
causing a lack of synchronization.
These were the key reasons they undertook the initiative of
improving product labeling and traceability in the warehouses
through the use of a bar code system.
Automated
data collection and label
license plating.
The chemicals company chose Radley’s data collection
solution, to automate their shop floor and increase productivity.
Labeling complaints and costs due to overtime reduced significantly.
Since implementing the Radley data collection solution, the
chemical company now tracks each pallet with a single IntelliLabel
bar code. The paper process is eliminated and instead each unique
IntelliLabel number now identifies each pallet. This single IntelliLabel
number tracks each unique data element that was previously recorded
in Excel, in addition to all the inventory transactions. The
IntelliLabel has also given them the ability to track production
related issues such as which employees have worked on what products,
and when they were worked on. The automated Production Reporting
process allows them to monitor their employee productivity more
closely and make adjustments as needed.
Since developing a system to automatically transfer Sales Order
information onto the Shipping Labels, instead of manually re-
typing labels their complaints have been reduced by more than
90% over the past nine months.
Their Cycle Counting efficiency has significantly increased
by automating Inventory Transfer transactions. When scans of
inventory are completed the location is instantly updated in
QAD MFG/PRO, allowing for a more accurate inventory reporting.
Radley’s
data collection solution has also allowed them to automate the
Quality Assurance department. QA now has the ability to classify
each product and update the system automatically thereby moving
graded products quickly into finished goods for shipment to the
customer.
In addition, the time associated in locating lost product was
reduced considerably. They have projected the annual costs savings
to be $287,000.
The chemical company gathers all this data and updates QAD
MFG/PRO in real-time using Cisco’s radio frequency backbone
and Intermec’s CK31 touch-screen
mobile computers. These
computers are accessorized with special plastic covers to protect
them from the harsh environment. The touch-screen implementation
greatly simplifies use and shortens the time for operators to
become proficient.
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