These days, IT-based automation has become a staple in businesses that are looking to move forward and grow.

In one of our previous posts, we discussed how Commit100 helped Nuform Building Technologies Inc., a leader in wall forming systems, digitalize data collection for a particular production process. Our work with Nuform did not stop there – impressed with the result, Nuform decided to explore other opportunities of making IT-based improvements to business processes.

KEEPING A TIGHT SCHEDULE

The Business Need

The use of any resource in a production process must be managed. As production specialists know, that applies first and foremost to the bottleneck – the “weakest link” in a production system, which requires the longest time in operations of the supply chain.

The Nuform production process starts with extrusion of PVC panels through devices called “extrusion lines”. Each extrusion line requires significant time for power-up, shutdown, and setup operations between different types of extrusion jobs. Each extrusion job requires significant time (~24 hours) to produce and is scheduled for production up to 3 weeks or more in the future.

The old process of scheduling jobs on extrusion lines was:

• entirely manual – entered by hand in a spreadsheet;
• not easily accessible – the spreadsheet was stored in a remote file share;
• required complex knowledge of over 100 (!) different extrusion dies that are used for production to calculate production time;
• took the time of a single full time employee to enter, update and manage the schedule.

Nuform identified the following business need for improving the scheduling process:

• Automation: the new scheduling system should automate data entry as much as possible by integrating with existing databases and simplifying the entry and calculation process.
• Transparency: the system should provide cross-platform visibility of extrusion operations and schedule with minimal lag.
• Flexibility: the system should allow to easily manage situations where changes in the schedule are required to satisfy customer need.

Commit100 delivered a solution through the following steps:

1. A Commit100 IT business analyst spent time learning the current scheduling process, from A to Z, including shadow sessions with the Nuform associates who are involved in the process. This allowed to get a clear picture of what happens “in the field” – a clear understanding of the actual, existing business process.
2. Based on analysis, Commit100 defined an optimised business process and approved it with Nuform production managers.
3. The new business process was used by Commit100 to design the user interface and prepare specifications of the new application.
4. The application was developed by a software development team managed by Commit100.
5. After rigorous user acceptance testing, Commit100 integrated the scheduling application into the existing IT infrastructure and business processes at Nuform.

THE RESULT

The result was a web-based application called Extrusion Production Scheduling. The customer needed app accessibility from a wide range of platforms and locations, so a web-based solution was the clear choice. The application was deployed on a Windows server and integrated with the existing database.

User login screen for the Scheduling app:

The Scheduler Dashboard – the main interface used by the operator to monitor the current status of the schedule. Current Schedule and main menu.

The app is integrated with the Nuform ERP system. Every time a job is released for production, the scheduling operator receives an alert with buttons to quickly schedule the job or dismiss the alert.

When the operator goes to create a new job, they would see the Job Queue, which lists all jobs that have been released for production.

The app significantly simplified the data entry process and automated time and production buffer calculation, which the operator had to manually do before. The application formalised several different order types to quickly schedule orders based on priority.

The system allows to keep notes for every job:

Profile and admin consoles for application maintenance and adjusting view settings.

The web-based solution allows Nuform production staff to quickly and easily access the Scheduling system and monitor current events from any device and any location that has an internet connection.

In the previous blog post, we discussed the value of IT business analysis, as well as one of  the examples of work done by Commit100 for its clients. In this post, we will discuss another such example in detail.

helping our customer KEEP TRACK OF PRODUCTION, REAL TIME

Nuform Building Technologies Inc. is a leading company in developing and producing wall forming systems, extruded from PVC. As is any manufacturing process, there is a certain scrap percentage in production, which shows the head of manufacturing the overall process efficiency.

When Commit100 came into the picture, the existing process to collect scrap rate data was entirely manual: employees would pencil down production data, manually calculate the scrap rate, and – once again, by hand – enter the data into a spreadsheet viewed by head of production. Moreover, data entry was happening with a 2-week delay, that is, information was reaching the production manager much later than it would be useful.

Commit100 identified this area for improvement, and delivered a solution through the following steps:

1. A Commit100 IT business analyst spent time learning the current production tracking process, from A to Z, including shadow sessions with the Nuform associates that were doing extrusion data collection. This allowed to get a clear picture of what happens “in the field”, i.e. a clear understanding of the actual existing business process.
2. Commit100 created the specifications, including process definition, suggested process improvements, and demo-screens of the new EPT app, and approved them with Nuform Inc.
3. The software was developed by a software development team managed by Commit100.
4. A Commit100 implemented the app, and a Commit100 associate performed and coordinated extensive user acceptance testing to make sure the software works as expected, according to specifications.

THE RESULT

The result was a browser-based application called Extrusion Production Tracking (EPT). The Business Analysis process allowed to conclude that the app need be accessible from a wide range of platforms, from the Android tablet used by production staff to enter data, to personal computers used by production staff to monitor the scrap rates. The application was placed on the Nuform Intranet, an online internal website platform used by Nuform (also developed by Commit100).

User login screen for the Nuform Intranet:

The Nuform Intranet has several applications, one of which is the EPT:

The main menu in EPT shows the data entries for all operating extrusion lines for all dates, including a search function that allows to find a certain entry.

The EPT allows Nuform employees enter data using a Wifi-connected Android Tablet. Data is fed directly into an existing Nuform MS SQL database (the application was designed to integrate with this database, removing the need to create and maintain another database).  

The “Last” button links the current record to the previous one, allowing to calculate the amount of production that took place in between the previous and current entry. The “Now” button is a quick way for employees to enter the current time (the current time is pulled automatically from the server and populated in the field). Other fields are filled as needed, with error trapping to ensure that data is not misentered or entered incompletely. Commit100 also introduced an automatic production calculator, which removed the need to calculate the actual production volume by hand.

The interface used to enter data:

A list of production records for a particular extrusion line, with buttons to delete or edit records.

Nuform Inc. was pleased with the application, as the data is immediately available and accessible for the production manager after it is collected. That is, production feedback occurs much faster, so proper adjustments can be made operatively, if needed, and the business can run smoother and more efficiently.