Production Management Software

How a Small Manufacturing Company Improved Customer Satisfaction with P2𝘹𝘙𝘔

Production Management SystemCase

Meyer Gage is a small, 60-year-old, family-run business that specializes in manufacturing fixed limit gages. The 18 employees work out of a 28,000 square foot plant in South Windsor, CT.

To meet the regulatory requirements as an ISO 9001 certified company, Meyer Gage needed a way to keep track of specific metrics such as on-time delivery, number of defects, and number of customer complaints. Plus, like most small companies, they had grown used to workarounds and manual processes that were ultimately limiting their productivity. But they did not have the time, or budget, to implement and support a complex production management software.

Solution

Client could have searched for a light manufacturing system, but they wanted to keep it simple and not end up with more functionality than they needed. They selected P2xRM from P2 Automation. Since the core framework of P2xRM is already in place, it can be customized to fit the specific needs of each company. Meyer Gage received a fully custom solution, without the typical cost of building a system from scratch.

The Benefits

Automated Production Requests

“In the past, if product inventory was running low, or one piece of a set was not available to ship an order, we would write the request on a paper form and give a clipboard to the production department. There was no way to track it, so we would have to walk around and ask individuals if the order was being made. Of course, this interruption was very disruptive.

With the P2xRM system we enter the production request and it is immediately seen on large flatscreens located throughout the facility. The machinists in the shop do not need to look for the paper forms or talk to anybody, they can just look up at the screen, see the first item on the list, and go make it.”

Tracking Customer Satisfaction KPIs

“With the P2xRM system, we can track the necessary information for the ISO 9001 certification, which shows if we are meeting our key performance indicator goals. This worked so well that we started to think of ways to expand the P2xRM system to automate some of our other manual, paper-based processes to increase our efficiency.”

Real-time Dashboards

“When the machinists finish, they use a barcode scanner to mark it as complete, record their time on their tablet, and it moves along in the process. The screen changes, the shipping person can see that it is headed to quality control and on down the line. The screens show us dashboards with the updated status in real-time. We always know where each request is in the process.”

Barcoded Inventory Labels

“We add a barcoded label to each bin of products in our inventory. In the past we printed labels manually and it was not connected with our other systems. Now the P2xRM system automatically prints the barcoded labels, based on the information in the system.”

99.03% On-time Delivery

“The new system alerts us when shipments are due by highlighting that entry on the flatscreen. If a customer has paid a rush fee for expedited shipping, that is shown in a different color, so they are easy to see. We have gotten a lot of benefit out of that, to be able to just take a quick glance, and see the ones that need our focus. This has truly helped our delivery times. This month we had 99.03% on-time delivery. Before using the P2xRM system, it was more in the 80% range.”

Smooth Integration

“The P2 system integrates with our main business software, Epicor Prophet 21. The customer records, customer orders and items are pulled directly from the Prophet 21 database. We know the information is up to date, and we do not need to update it in two places.”

Painless User Adoption

“The learning curve is virtually nothing, the system is so simple to use. You can show someone how to use the different features in 10 minutes.

The graphic interface has color coding and a legend at the bottom that shows the different steps. We asked P2 Automation to use the same highlighter colors we had on our clipboards. It seems like a small request, but it made it so much easier for our team because they were already familiar with our color codes.

This type of flexibility, to change the system any way we want, to fit the way we have always worked, is a huge benefit.”

Stable System and Responsive Partner

“The system is very stable; we haven’t had any issues with downtime. P2 Automation is easy to work with and very responsive. If we have any questions they are quick to reply or schedule an on-site visit if we need a revision or enhancement. I give them an A+ and freely recommend them to others.

As our company grows, if we want to change the application or add more functionality, I know that we can do that with P2xRM. I am confident that the longer we use this system, the more increase in productivity we will be able to quantify.”

What Meyer Gage Said

“With the P2xRM system we enter the production request and it is immediately seen on large flatscreens located throughout the facility. We always know where each request is in the process.”

James Meyer, President

Meyer Gage

“The flexibility to change the system any way we want, to fit the way we have always worked, is a huge benefit.”

James Meyer, President

Meyer Gage

“This month we had 99.03% on-time delivery. Before using the P2xRM system, it was in the 80% range.”

James Meyer, President

Meyer Gage

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