Case Study: Global Tier 1 Supplier Automates?Production Orders. Collaborative Paperless Initiative Promotes Time & Cost Savings

?SOLUTION:?Paperless Work Order System delivers an efficient electronic delivery of information and reduces costs without diminishing quality.

PAIN POINTS ADDRESSED:

Many manufacturing facilities use production work order packets.?Our manufacturing client wanted to alleviate potential problems within this process of?printing and following the trail of paper through every operation.?These paper packets contained everything that was needed to build their widgets: The Part Number, Work Order Numbers and Barcodes, BOM lists, or Areas list, the Widget drawings, the Test specification, the Paint Specifications. Pounds of paper are daily wasted on printing and excessive hours spent by managers and operators collating hard copies of each order. In fact, a full time employee was dedicated to printing and compiling these work order packets to the plant floor. Even more pressing, management and manufacturing staff were not able to?simultaneously view current work order packets and update as seamlessly as needed.??

THE COLLABORATIVE SOLUTION EXPLAINED:

Collaborating with the client, the first task for Credo was to take the observable processes and provide a digital roadmap.?This mapped out the replacing of the physical packets with scannable labels and a digital folder to be viewed on a tablet or other electronic devices. Using that information,?Credo determined the type of automations, databases, web or app hosting and user interfaces that were needed. Out of that roadmap, we proposed?four primary areas that we would need to integrate and create?to make this project work.?

SAP & BOT & OCR:?

Our client used SAP as their ERP System. The majority of the information that was needed was contained in SAP in some fashion, which was nice.?For the paperless project, we needed the ability to download all the various documents and organize them by Order.?We worked with the SAP?team to reassign the printers for certain lines to print to pdf instead of an actual printer. That was a good first step. As soon as any order was released it would print each page to a pdf.

Credo next focused on creating the Automations that would be needed.?One BOT was created to “watch” the folder where SAP printed the?pdfs. Each new document was digitally scanned and using OCR we would determine what Order the print belonged to and what type of page it was….Area list, Test Specs, etc. Then these were moved to an Order folder and organized by type. So that was an integral step.?A second automation was created to log into SAP and pull the Drawings for all active part numbers. This would run during non peak hours until all active part number drawings were available. This system allows the operators and managers to electronically view Bill of Materials(BOMs), drawings, test specifications, paint specifications, and more.

Labels and Servers, SQL, Angular, API:?

The label that accompanied the order itself. Without the packet a label was needed to identify the order and provide a barcode to provide an order search. The client logistics team helped to make a “label ziplock” of sorts to house the project label. The logistics team provided a label prototype and Credo created a program to find and print order labels on demand. In addition, an RFID was added to the label for future tracking needs.

Connecting back office servers for the APIs, databases and web hosting, Credo worked with our client to order the necessary databases and web server space. In this case these were SQL databases, Microsoft APIs,?and Angular websites. We tested these with end users to ensure they could seamlessly find, zoom and navigate the various documents they needed.

Facing the ZOR:

The initial response was much as expected.?Logistics was enthusiastic about a digital paperless solution.?However, some managers and floor operators felt the ZOR (Zone of Resistance) to this innovative improvement. Credo was initially faced questions such as “now how am I going to lookup a component," or "how can I find the drawing?”

Although once shown how easy the site was to navigate and how easy the information was to search, most were onboard pretty quickly. Since the paperless system requires fewer steps, those opposed are now its biggest advocates as it proves to be faster and easier than before.

RESULTS:

Through the collaborative effort of Credo Software and the supplier, the initiative was tailored to the suppliers needs following their plant wide processes. The supplier has calculated on one production line:

• Significant 3000 skilled labor hours repurposed.
• The reduction of tons of paper and ink per year is a continued six figures.
• Production is completed faster. Currently 48 hours saved.
• RFID follows the completed product with complete work order process.

The LIVE walk through of the paperless production initiative was proclaimed an epic success by the logistics manager. The order was hand walked through the entire process from Kitting to Shipping.?Based on the successful outcome of the live test, personal in all departments were trained on the first value stream production line.

Working collaboratively provides a positive environment for value-added integration. Going Paperless can be a tremendously cost effective way for any manufacturing company to begin their journey of implementing new technologies gradually without the need to abandon existing systems.

For more on our smart mobility solutions visit: https://www.credosoftware.com