\\\ Manufacturing \\\ Success story
Consistent quality delivered
on time with EFACS
artin Aerospace is a global work. Following extensive quality checks, the without physically going onto the floor and
M
supplier of precision product is then dispatched to the customer. finding it. The company also had zero
manufactured products to visibility of the true costing of each process
Aerospace and other quality and ultimately it was only at the end of a
critical industries. The
Exotic
production run that costs could be accurately
company, based in Lanark, Scotland, has identified and therefore any profit determined.
grown steadily from its genesis in 1993 and “Quality control and traceability is central to Another problem lay in the specialisation
now boasts a 60-strong workforce, which our business, not just at a batch or individual of knowledge within the company, which
helped generate a turnover in 2007 of £4.5 product level, but right down to every process resulted in a lack of visibility that extended
million. Martin Aerospace has steadily on every raw material item,” explained Martin to managing stock levels and availability,
developed its Aerospace business to the Aerospace IT manager, Andrew Wallace. especially if deliveries arrived mid-production
extent that this now comprises 80 per cent “We deal with exotic and very expensive run or late. Finally, the confusion surrounding
of the company’s entire workload. Orders are materials, which is why we aim to maximise data added to a general tendency for people
received complete with a set of drawings, our yield for every batch produced. to trust their gut instinct over anything the
which are quickly reviewed and validated Significant fluctuations in terms of price and IT system said.
for manufacturing capabilities and, once availability can affect not just the time taken
approved, passed to materials purchasing/ to deliver the finished product, but also the Wallace began to draw information from all
stores. A simple MRP run is made to determine costs involved in producing the order.” areas within the company and found that the
the materials required and whether these company had a very definite idea of what
are available from stock or whether unique Prior to investing in EFACS from Exel type of system was needed. “From accounts
materials need to be purchased for the order. Computer Systems, the company had relied through stock control, from traceability
on a mixture of complex Excel spreadsheets, through to real-time production control, it
At this stage, all other information relating to five disparate IT systems and pen and paper. was immediately apparent that EFACS was
the job is added to a job card. This includes This meant that it was impossible for anyone the system that stood out as meeting all of
a full Bill of Materials (BoM) breakdown, to accurately identify where any particular our needs,” he said. Further discussions
work-to lists, routing information and other job was at any time on the production floor took place with RAD Software, the Scottish >>
subcontracting processes. A simple job can
involve one process and be completed in
under two hours, whereas a complex job
may have ten distinct process operations
including a range of subcontracting operations
and take up to six weeks to finish. Once this
information is assembled, raw materials are
uniquely stamped for traceability purposes
and issued from the stores along with the
job card. From here the order progresses
and is monitored by shop floor data
collection across the production floor from
turning, milling and through to grinding
before being dispatched for any subcontracting
Andrew Wallace: “Now, with EFACS
we were able to confidently buy only
what we needed when we needed it.”
18
MANUFACTURING
&LOGISTICSIT July 2009
www.logisticsit.com
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