manufacturing erp Archives - JobPRO

Advantages of Upgrading to the latest Microsoft OS

UniSource — Mon, 05 Aug 2024 14:11:53 +0000

Why Upgrading to Windows 11, the Latest Windows Server, and SQL Server is Essential

Introduction

As technology evolves, so do the platforms we rely on for both personal and professional use. Microsoft has made significant strides with the release of Windows 11, the latest Windows Server, and the newest SQL Server, each offering a suite of enhancements that can drive productivity, security, and performance. Here’s why making the switch to these latest offerings is a smart move.

Advantages of Upgrading to Windows 11

1. Enhanced User Interface and Experience

Modern Design: Windows 11 features a refreshed, modern interface with a centered Start menu, rounded corners, and new icons. This design aims to provide a more intuitive and aesthetically pleasing user experience.

Improved Multitasking: With Snap Layouts, Snap Groups, and Virtual Desktops, managing multiple tasks and windows becomes more efficient, boosting productivity.

2. Performance Improvements

Faster Performance: Windows 11 is optimized to take advantage of the latest hardware, resulting in faster boot times and better overall performance.

Gaming Enhancements: With features like DirectStorage and Auto HDR, gamers can enjoy faster load times and improved graphics.

3. Security Upgrades

Built-in Security Features: Windows 11 includes advanced security measures such as hardware-based isolation, encryption, and malware protection.

TPM 2.0 Requirement: The requirement for TPM 2.0 (Trusted Platform Module) ensures a higher standard of security at the hardware level, protecting against firmware and hardware attacks.

4. Support for Latest Technology

Compatibility with Latest Hardware: Windows 11 is designed to support the latest CPUs, GPUs, and other hardware, ensuring compatibility and optimal performance.

New Microsoft Store: The redesigned Microsoft Store offers a broader selection of apps and improved app performance.

Reasons to Move to the Latest Windows Server

1. Enhanced Security Features

Advanced Threat Protection: The latest Windows Server includes advanced threat protection capabilities, such as Windows Defender ATP, to help detect and respond to security threats.

Improved Identity Management: Enhanced identity and access management features, including Azure AD integration, help secure user credentials and manage permissions more effectively.

2. Improved Performance and Scalability

Enhanced Hyper-V: The latest version of Hyper-V includes performance improvements and new features such as nested virtualization, which allows you to run virtual machines within virtual machines.

Scalability Improvements: Improved support for large-scale deployments and higher limits for memory and processing power.

3. Better Integration with Azure

Hybrid Cloud Capabilities: Seamless integration with Azure services allows for hybrid cloud deployments, offering flexibility and scalability for modern workloads.

Azure Arc: Manage your Windows Server instances alongside other resources using Azure Arc, providing a unified management experience.

4. New Management Tools

Windows Admin Center: A modern management interface that simplifies server management tasks, including configuration, monitoring, and troubleshooting.

Advantages of Upgrading to MS SQL Server

1. Performance Enhancements

In-Memory Database Capabilities: The latest SQL Server includes in-memory OLTP and real-time operational analytics, providing significant performance boosts for transaction processing and analytics workloads.

Query Performance Insights: Improved query performance insights help optimize and tune database performance.

2. Advanced Security Features

Always Encrypted: Enhanced security features like Always Encrypted protect sensitive data both at rest and in transit.

Advanced Data Protection: Features such as data classification and dynamic data masking help protect and manage sensitive data.

3. Enhanced Data Integration

Integration with Big Data: Native integration with Hadoop and other big data platforms allows for seamless analysis and integration of large datasets.

Support for New Data Types: Improved support for JSON, XML, and other modern data types enhances flexibility in data storage and management.

4. Comprehensive Business Intelligence

Advanced Analytics: Built-in support for advanced analytics, including machine learning and AI, helps derive deeper insights from your data.

Power BI Integration: Seamless integration with Power BI allows for powerful data visualization and reporting.

Advantages of Upgrading to Windows 11, the latest Windows Server, and the newest SQL Server offers a plethora of benefits, from enhanced performance and security to improved user experiences and integration capabilities. Making the switch ensures that you are leveraging the most advanced tools available, positioning yourself or your organization for success in the ever-evolving tech landscape.

Did You KNOW!

The end of life for your current version of Microsoft Application

1. Windows 11

Microsoft has announced that support for Windows 10 will end on October 14, 2025. After this date, Microsoft will no longer provide security updates, patches, or technical support for Windows 10. Users are encouraged to upgrade to a newer version, such as Windows 11, to continue receiving support and updates.

2. Windows Server 2016

Microsoft has set the end-of-support date for Windows Server 2016 to be January 12, 2027. After this date, Microsoft will no longer provide security updates, patches, or technical support for Windows Server 2016. It’s advisable for users to plan their upgrade to a newer version, such as Windows Server 2022 or later, to ensure ongoing support and security.

3. Microsoft SQL 2016

Microsoft will end support for SQL Server 2016 on July 14, 2026. After this date, SQL Server 2016 will no longer receive security updates, hotfixes, or technical support. Users should consider upgrading to a more recent version, such as SQL Server 2019 or SQL Server 2022, to ensure they receive the latest features, security updates, and support.

Need Assistance with Evaluating your System Spec and knowing the Advantages of Upgrading! Give us a call TODAY!

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Signs Your Manufacturing Process Is Not Healthy

UniSource — Thu, 07 Oct 2021 11:24:15 +0000

Top Identifiable Signs of a Poor Manufacturing Process

6 Top Signs Your Job Shop Manufacturing Process Needs Attention!

With manual and disparate systems your manufacturing job shop can be chaotic. Should your operation not have an automated Manufacturing Process then you could suffer from some of our highlighted symptoms below?

Inconsistent Costing

From manual input of timesheets to manual job cards. Managing time estimates will be a challenge when your system is automated.

Poor Inventory Control

Without a robust ERP and front end solution, it gets very difficult to maintain good stock levels drive correct procurement processes, allocate correct items to a job and not to be over stocked

Disparate Systems

Poor data control between your manufacturing work shop and back office accounting, leads to incorrect pricing, delayed orders and poor control of internal processes

Inconsistent Quotes \ Assessments

With manual systems that do not integrate, generally many manufacturing job shops using excel to assess and quote jobs cannot quote consistently.

Lost Jobs

Jobs loaded onto a system can cause them to go missing, indeed not even starting the process of been assessed and quoted. Many engineering firms struggle with tracking of job statuses, this inherently reduces customer experience

Poor Quality Control

Job shops do not have real-time insights into their operations from manual documentation and processes. This creates scenarios where poor checks and non compliance of internal procedures become prevalent and problematic.

Automating Your Manufacturing Process

Many Manufacturing Job Shops experience one or more of the above symptoms in the daily manufacturing process, due to manual processes such as manual job cards, manual time keeping on work centre activities and the good old fashioned spreadsheets.

This leads to a chaotic work shop environment, where quality control is poor, jobs go missing and inconsistent costings on your jobs.

Improve Your Operations

Bringing your disparate systems into one holistic solution, not only improves your operational efficiencies it also reduces time spent on manual data and admin capturing, giving you more time to spend on what’s import to drive profits and reduce costs.

We can help you achieve consistent job costing and many more area’s which need attention.

Download our E-book now or sign up for a free consultation.

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Single Screen Simplicity

UniSource — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 13:53:49 +0000

Start Making Use Of A Single Screen Interface

Many of our Job Shop Manufacturing industries battle with disparate systems from an accounting system, to a quoting system and excel spreadsheets, all separate from each other create a chaotic workflow. Mistakes usually happen from typos to incorrect pricing and double capturing. What could a Single Screen Simplicity do for you?

With Single Screen Simplicity you can have a front-end solution to manage your Job Shop Manufacturing environment. This platform would include accounting, quoting and job costing.

Many Job Shop Manufacturing businesses struggle with tracking of jobs, complex quotes and consistent job costing.

What Causes Chaos In Your Job Shop Manufacturing Workshop?

Inconsistent Costing!

Job shop and engineering enterprises experience poor or inconsistent job costing. Many of these weaknesses comprise of manual job cards, excel spreadsheets and double capturing. The anomalies contribute to inconsistent quotes, bad job quality or jobs done incorrectly and typos when capturing information onto the accounting system.

Inconsistent Quoting!

With the use of excel spreadsheets in the job shop, many business owners experience inconsistent quotes from incorrect pricing to lines been left out and the advent of double capturing back into the accounting system, often typos happen which compound the problems of using excel spreadsheets to compile quotes and estimates.

Job Getting Lost on the Shop Floor

With manual job cards and not having a central viewpoint of all outstanding jobs, many jobs get lost on the shop floor and the owner or foreman often go and hunt for jobs physically on the shop floor, which takes time and inherently creates bad customer service experience.

What are the benefits of a Single Screen Simplicity Environment?

With a single solution managing all your requirements you will bring order to your chaotic environment.

Job Visibility

Having a platform to track and manage each and every job, from the job status to all attached documentation linked to the job. You can give real-time feedback to your customers and or suppliers on orders linked to the job.

Consistent Quoting

Having a front-end solution that is able to lookup customers, suppliers, pricing and costs allows you to be confident in creating complex yet consistent quotes every time.

Single Point Repository

Upload all relevant and required documentation, many Job Shop Manufacturing owners struggle with keeping an information pack on each job. Or when a query is raised you have to hunt from office to office for the box that has the job details in it. With a Single Screen Simplicity workspace, you can upload all different types of documentation and have them readily available.

Signed Quotes
SHEQ Reports
Test Certificates
QA Reports
Signed Invoices and Delivery Notes
Damage Reports and Phots

The above documents will be linked to the specific job card and will be available anytime by looking up the job number or customer name.

Even when a job is in history\Archive you will be able to view or add additional documentation and the data will be available forever.

How Can You Make The Change To A Single Screen Simplicity Workspace?

With JobPRO Manufacturing you will get the Single Screen Simplicity workspace, that will cater for job tracking, quoting, job attachments, checklists and more.

Our integration to an approved accounting software means that there will be no need to double capturing work saving you time and money and getting quotes and invoices quicker to your customers.

JobPRO allows for multiple workflows setup the way your business operations work, giving you the confidence to transact with customers knowing quotes and the quality of the job will be top notch.

Download our E-book now or sign up for a free consultation.

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How Just In Time Is Driven By The Job

UniSource — Sat, 01 May 2021 09:16:05 +0000

What is JIT? And how can it help you?

What is Just in Time (JIT)?

Just in time is a manufacturing concept workflow methodology aimed at reducing costs and delivery times within a manufacturing ecosystem for the procurement and distribution of materials.

One of the most successful implementation of this methodology was Toyota of Japan. They pioneered the concept from the early 1970s, which lead to customer demands been meet with minimal delays. The JIT concept did not only apply to materials but also personal and plant resources.

The main goal of the JIT concept is to minimize or have zero stock\inventories across the organisation and its supply chain. This method allows for the maximaisation of Return on Investment.

Because the JIT methodology was so successful with Japanese manufacturing entities, it is now used around the world.

Many of us do use procurement orders driven by the job

In a make-to-order, fabrication, service and repairs entities, you find many of your jobs have once off buy-outs linked to the job. This is due to you not keeping stock or this could be a non-stock item.

What are the advantages of Just In Time (JIT)?

JIT can achieve better product quality through elimination of waste in production.
The JIT approach can reduce the cost of inventories and inventory requirements.

What are the disadvantages of Just In Time (JIT)?

The JIT system does not cope well with sudden changes to demand and supply.
Implementing the system can be challenging and time-consuming and can be expensive to deploy.

Is Just in Time (JIT) right for my business?

If Just in time is applied correctly to your manufacturing operations, this will be a powerful concept to help you improve quality, turnaround times and cash-flow. But is it right for your business? Well most manufacturing entities do employ some kind of JIT with buy-outs driven by the actual job.

Most small to medium manufacturing operations use manual processes to drive jobs and this is where the chaotic workflow arises as there is no automation to employ better processes such as Just in time

How can Just-In-Time (JIT) JIT be applied successfully?

Create a stabilized work schedule environment.
Establish long-term supplier-customer relationships.
Create a purchasing philosophy on supporting frequent small purchases.
Encourage and ensure employee discipline.
Identify value-added and non-value added items in shop floor activities.
Ensure top management commitment for effectiveness and successful implementation.

A solution to help you deploy Just in time

With JobPRO you can create virtual job cards on a live up-to-date environment, with Purchase order integration to your ERP system we can create purchase orders driven by the job, employing the just in time philosophy.

Download our E-book now or sign up for a free consultation.

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Need more information? Contact us now!

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A Great Job Scheduling Solution

UniSource — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 14:32:51 +0000

Take Control of Chaotic Shop-Floor Scheduling processes

Many job shops struggle to meet and maintain deadlines, this is owing to manually driven jobs. Either by excel or manually printed job cards or documents. With a manual process service work flows are generally not maintained and time spent on a job is not accurately recorded. Can you improve your business operations with a Job Scheduling?

Many make-to-order, small fabrication engineering businesses, struggle to meet promised deadlines and even quality control can suffer, due to manual systems and a lack of proper overall supervision.

Why tracking time spent correctly is important?

With a manual job card system, Owners and foreman’s find it hard to get artisans or shop-floor employees to fill their job cards correctly. Many problems experienced are owing to the fact that artisans do not fill in the job cards timeously. Sometimes job cards are only completed in a weeks time or at the end of the shift, this inherently comes with its own problems as staff don’t remember the time they spent on a certain job which then creates a situation where time is not accurately costed on. Many Manufacturing work-shops find that they are under quoting and losing money.

Under quoting is not good for business and your cash-flow, subsequently over charging can also hurt your business. You may start losing business to your competitors due to the fact they are generally cheaper than you. So it is imperative that estimates are done correctly and should be very low variance in pricing. One way of achieving better costings to your customers is moving onto an automated system that assists you with complex quotes and able to schedule the correct time on the different work centre’s.

A lot of business owners also struggle with capacity planning, with many job cards and no overview of the operation, it is hard to understand how much work you have and this strategy can work against you. When you promise delivery dates and you do not meet them, this can negatively impact future business for your manufacturing operations.

Better costings with a Job Scheduling

With an automated software solution you can better cost your quotes from actual costs pertaining to different rates on artisans, but you will also account for the different rates used on machines such as a lathe.

Many business owner struggle or do not know the actual cost per hour on a job because artisan and machine rates are not calculated correctly and sometimes is a thumb suck for costings which could land you under or over quoting on a job. Many Job Shop manufacturing owners require consistent activity based costing.

Under promise and over deliver!

With proper tools, you will be able to estimate better on quotes and delivery times. With an automated system you will have full visibility of all jobs from enquiry to dispatch. You will be able to give snap feedback to your customers on the status of their jobs.

Is there a solution for you?

With JobPRO and JobTrak we can assist you with visible job tracking, consistent quoting, better costing and capacity planning Job Scheduling solution. With our solution you can set service workflows from pre shop-floor processes to shop-floor processes, so a user can drive the job from receiving the enquiry to routing the job through the different work centre’s( from lathing to drilling to machining)

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What is a Manufacturing Job Shop?

UniSource — Mon, 29 Mar 2021 12:34:46 +0000

Understanding the characteristics of a Job Shop

A Manufacturing Job Shop is characterised by its processes which comprises of work-shop tools, machines and work centres. With those functions you will generally have different workflows or job types that assist in different area’s of manufacturing.

With Manufacturing operations the business generally works with small batches or make-to-order or once off products. These special requirements can be fabrication or repair workflows. Basically a Manufacturing Job Shop concentrates on small volume unlike other manufacturing industries that concentrate on lean manufacturing or large volumes of products.

With a Job Shop you can offer niche services to customers which may require different work flows. Products manufactured by the operation may not go in the same direction. An example of this would be a new manufacture or fabrication would start with an enquiry, then move to quote and then production. Whereas a repair item would include stripping and assessing stages as well.

A manufacturing job shop traditionally manufacture parts for other businesses or engineering companies.

The Advantages of a Manufacturing Job Shop

With a manufacturing operation you will have flexibility which means you can prioritse certain operations.

You will be able to adapt to change, make-to-order or once off jobs may need additional work which requires a new route or action.

You have better visibility of your job making their way through your shop-floor processes.

Manufacturing Job Shops require lower investment allocations towards machinery, space and technology

You can have different customisable products that you will be able to take on.

Disadvantages of a Manufacturing Job Shop

Manufacturing job shops are not able to organise their operations efficiently – CHAOS

Not able to schedule work correctly – Capacity planning.

High production lead times, due to the different types of once off jobs or fabrications

In-accurate and complex quoting which leads to inconsistent costing.

How can we turn some of these manufacturing job shop disadvantages into advantages?

A Manufacturing Solution by JobPRO

With a great manufacturing software you can move your work shop operations out of the dark ages and straight into the fourth industrial revolution.

With JobPRO manufacturing you will be able to keep an eye on all active jobs from start to finish with live updates you can view straight from you computer and be able to update your customers timeously.

You can compile complex quotes with ease and up to date pricing from your ERP. Pull in templates\BOMs previous quotes and jobs.

With JobPRO you will be able to manage different workflows from New manufacture to repairs and service maintenance.

With our solution you will be able to make informed snap decisions, give Realtime feedback to your customer.

Download our E-book now or sign up for a free consultation.

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Why Manufacturing Operations Need a Great ERP Solution

UniSource — Thu, 18 Mar 2021 12:24:58 +0000

Bolster Your Manufacturing Operation With a ERP Solution

What is an ERP? ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning, but what does this mean? This refers to the automation and integration of your manufacturing operations, and the solution is used to optimise your daily operations. So why manufacturing operations need a great ERP solution? The ERP streamlines the flow of your business from core accounting to physical work done on the shop-floor

Many business owners are not getting the most out of their shop floor, from inconsistent quotes via excel to not having real-time information on the status of jobs, generally Business owners or foreman’s are having to hunt for jobs on the shop-floor to acquire what the status is of a particular job.

The benefits of a ERP solution

From back end accounting to your front end quoting and job visibility tracking, a great ERP solution is meant to improve the way you do things. This entails getting consistent quoting, been able to have live updates of jobs and to have a robust accounting system, so you as the thought leadership are able to make informed decisions on your business’s daily operations.

With a great ERP solution your decision makers can view, control and maintain operations and processes in real-time, they will be able to make informed and snap decisions regarding stock control and supply chain optimisation.

A Powerful Tool

An ERP is very diversifiable with integration into other modules and ISV software such as JobPRO, you can create a powerful tool to grow your business, cut down on expenses and increase cash flow.

With additional modules such as Fixed assets and Job costing you are able to tailor your package which benefits all area’s of your business and more.

A Solution that Saves time and money

A good ERP solution will also save you money as you can reduce your admin and operational costs and ultimately improve customer satisfaction. A ERP gives you a wealth of valuable information and analytics at your finger tips, giving you insight into daily sales and expenditure.

How can we help?

JobPRO is a front end solution, coupled with Sage 200 Evolution you get a solution that will take your manufacturing business into the fourth industrial revolution.

With the JobPRO manufacturing solution, you can rely on consistent quoting, track all jobs and their respective statuses, Consistent costing, buyouts driven by the job and control workflows.

Take the assessment and we will get back to you with a free evaluation on how to improve your Job Shop Manufacturing processes.

Download our E-book now or sign up for a free consultation.

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Job Shop Manufacturing Process

UniSource — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 06:37:01 +0000

What Is A Job Shop?

A Job Shop – Small Manufacturing Systems That Handle Custom Or Bespoke Processes

A job shop is a type of manufacturing process in which it caters for small amounts of make-to-order items. This usually comprises of small fabrication orders, custom designed products and repairs and maintenance jobs. Job Shop Manufacturing Process are characterized by work centre’s, certain workflows, prioritization of jobs and information attached to the job.

Job Shop Manufacturing operations are usually businesses that produce a certain item or product for other businesses to complete their jobs. An example of this can be a cylinder reseller requires a specific type of shaft that needs to be manufactured, they will call and engineering company that specialises in producing that cylinder shaft. Once the that cylinder shaft has been made it can then be added to a cylinder or be sold as is.

Make-To-Order

Make-to-order items usually require a unique set-up, parts and process flows. Items attached to the job usually consist of stock items, buy outs and labour. Manufacturing Job Shop Characteristics

These make-to-order items generally have many processes it needs to travel through before the job is completed. The two main area’s are pre shop-floor and shop-floor processes. The Shop floor process generally has stripping , machining and inspection work centre’s, while pre shop-floor process comprises of receiving the job and quoting or estimating.

Workflows

Job Shop Manufacturing generally has more than one job type or service workflow. An example of this would be a hydraulics company that does counter sales, fabrication of a part, producing kits from different parts, repair and maintenance as well as servicing of hydraulic cylinders.

Prioritization of jobs

In the manufacturing world jobs have to be prioritized, delivery dates must be determined and tracking of the job as to main an up to date status of the job.

Attached Information

With Job Shop Manufacturing jobs, it is also extremely important to track information attached to that job. This can consist of damage reports, non-conformance certificates, test certificates and SHEQ documents. Other information may also need to be tracked against the job, such RFQ and PO numbers.

Do you struggle to maintain any of the above topics? We can help YOU!

Take the assessment and we will get back to you with a free evaluation on how to improve your Job Shop Manufacturing processes.

Download our E-book now or sign up for a free consultation.

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Want to know how? Contact us today or click the link to do the assessment and we will contact you back!

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Manufacturing Work Centre Activities

UniSource — Tue, 03 Nov 2020 08:22:38 +0000

What Is A Work-Centre In Manufacturing?

Manufacturing Work center is an organization unit where manufacturing activities are performed. In other words, Work Centers are the master data which represent real machines, Production Lines, Assembly Work Center, etc. Manufacturing activity or Operations are carried out at Work Center.

How can we categorize Manufacturing Work Centre ?

Well we can categorize Manufacturing Work Centre activities as follows, In a job shop you can have CNC lathes as a work centre. This work centre will comprise of many CNC lathes, this label would then also be used for drilling, welding and testing, where those work centres are made up of multiple machines doing the same activity.

Another way of categorizing a work centre can be to the operation rather than the activity. An example of this would be instead of using the activity Drilling the operation would be Repairs.

Repairs as an operation can then be broken up into different work flows. This could be Pump Repairs, Motor Repairs or Cylinder Repairs.

Another operation or service work flow for an example could be testing, where a pump or electric motor comes in for testing only and this work centre operation could have many activities. This can comprise of receiving the job , quoting the customer for labour, doing the actual testing and feedback to the customer.

Manufacturing Work Centre Operations

Currently Job Shop Manufacturing companies currently manage their operations manually. This usually consists of manual job cards and excel spreadsheets.

A typical operation would be the receptionist or receiving work centre, would receive the query/job and open a job card manually, get the customer details and a description of the part. Then they would get a basic idea of what the customer says regarding what the issue could be or what they have discovered what is wrong with the part.

Once the job card has been filled in it the gets moved from receiving to stripping, where usually another person takes over the job and will assess what is wrong with the part and either will move the job to the next work centre which usually is quoting or that person will do the quote himself.

The quote is compiled on the job card and then moved to accounts to formalize a quote and deliver it to the customer. Once the customer come back with the go-ahead. As you can see a job may pass many work centre’s to achieve the goal of satisfying the customer

Chaos in the work-shop!

With multiple stages and work centre’s the job of tracking jobs becomes ever increasingly difficult to maintain or manage, this is especially true when manual processes are employed.

From jobs going missing on the shop-floor to high turn around times. Not been able to give live updates to your customers and in this 4IR world, your operations become less competitive because within your Manufacturing Work Center Activities there is no automation.

Overcome the difficulties

First you need to look at automating your systems from the pre shop-floor process to the shop-floor process. There are many different types of Job Shop Manufacturing software’s out there and it can be difficult working out which one is the best for you.

With our assessment and subsequent discovery meeting we can give you a free evaluation of how we can automate your business. With JobPRO we can get your business to where it should be. Our software is highly configurable and is built to meet your business rules and processes.

Download our E-book now or sign up for a free consultation.

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Want to know how? Contact us today or click the link to do the assessment and we will contact you back!

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Manufacturing lead Time From PO-to-ReadyForDelivery Impacts On Your Service Levels

UniSource — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 04:31:31 +0000

How To Improve Order To Delivery Times

In our competitive world customers do not like waiting. This is especially true in the Job Shop Manufacturing industry as many clients have deadlines or obligations they have to meet. When there is a breakdown in the process to deliver on time as required, clients start to get frustrated, this causes a strained relationship between customer and supplier. Manufacturing lead Time has become very important to maintain customer relations.

For Job Shop Manufacturers, the consequences of not meeting deadlines promised can go far beyond frustration. Your customers may start looking for other suppliers as your competitors might introduce products quicker and better to their customers, the consequence of this is they will slowly start taking your share of the business.

Longer lead times are also linked to quality control issues that get picked up by the client. Then there has to be rework done, which ultimately adds to the lead time. Many Job Shop Manufacturers don’t always take this into account. The promised lead time is 5 days, but unfortunately the job is only delivered in 7 days(2 Days late), then there are quality issues and rework has to be done which takes another 2 days and we still have to factor in delivery time as well. So in fact a job that should have taken 5 days has now effectively 9 days or more.

Manufacturing lead time is connected with customer service and in todays world, customer retention is more important than ever. With an ever growing competitor base, companies are finding it more and more difficult, to retain customers and to maintain margins.

Margins

Nowadays margins are getting smaller as more companies enter the market, more competition is raised and company margins start to fall. But as margins get smaller expenses increase. This becomes a very difficult balancing act for manufacturing businesses as this balancing act can be the reason if a company fails or succeeds.

Reducing and accurately forecasting lead times is a critical element of any Job Shop Manufacturing operation. Businesses should strive to maintain promised delivery times with top notch quality. This in turn improves customer satisfaction and retention.

What are the main contributors to extending Manufacturing Lead Times?

Visibility

Many Job Shop Manufacturers employ manual processes to drive the shop-floor. This usually comprises of printed job cards and excel spreadsheets. Often there are cases where jobs go missing an example of this is a repair was received and put into a corner of the workshop, out of sight out of mind.

There is no live updates of jobs, so essentially there is no tracking of a job and how long the job sits at each work station.

There is no immediate communication when customer asks what is the status of their job. An example of this, is when you literally have to go and hunt for the job on the floor find out what the status of the job is and then report back to the customer. This is time intensive and sometimes because you do not have information on hand, we forget to give information back to the customer.

Complex Quoting

Many Job Shop Manufacturing operations have poor quoting systems, generally using excel spreadsheets. Quotes go out to customers incomplete missing items, or prices have not been updated. This either leads to requoting which takes time or the customer has excepted the quote and the business loses money on the deal.

Many quotes that go out to customers are missing items such as services items, this can be attributed to operations not having BOMs or KITs. In an automated process templates can be created, to avoid this mishaps from occurring.

Maintaining Inventory

In many cases inventory is not managed properly, shop-floor employees don’t have access to the accounting system and cannot confirm if stock is available or not. In certain situations stock has been booked to multiple jobs, creating huge problems in the workshop. Minimum stock levels are also not maintained and all these small problems, delay delivery times.

Integration

With manual processes comes duplication of work. A manual job card is completed and then has to be captured onto an accounting platform, this is especially true for quotes which are compiled on an Excel spreadsheet and then captured in the accounting system once the quote has been approved.

With manual capturing and duplications, typo’s are often the demons that cause poor quoting and incorrect pricing. This can have an effect on margins and delivery times.

How can a business improve Manufacturing lead Time ?

Fourth Industrial Revolution

We have moved into a digital world, and automating your operations will give you a competitive edge over competition. Digitizing your operation from pre shop-floor to your shop-floor process enables you to get insight into your daily operations.

From checking a status of your job to get costing per job at a click of a button, you will have better control and ultimately improve your manufacturing lead times.

Download our E-book now or sign up for a free consultation.

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Or call us today for a obligation free demo.

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