--- title: "Shop Floor System for a Precision Manufacturer | Smart Data" url: https://www.smartdata.net/case-studies/shop-floor-system-precision-manufacturer description: "Smart Data replaced a precision manufacturer's paper shop floor workflow with a custom system built to raise on-time delivery and shorten lead times." source: "Smart Data (smartdata.net). Markdown copy of the page; the HTML page is canonical." --- # Paper shop floor to real-time system, on-time delivery near 85% Smart Data replaced a precision manufacturer's paper workflow with a custom shop floor system, cutting lead times nearly in half and quality complaints from 18 to 20 a month to 2 or 3. Industry Manufacturing Engagement Custom Development A precision parts manufacturer ran its shop floor on paper. Only one work center could work on a job at a time, orders were occasionally lost and no one could see the status of a given job. Sales had no view of the work in the shop, and manufacturing could not see all the orders at once, so capacity could not be managed. The company asked SDS, a Smart Data company, to build a custom shop floor system so it could raise throughput without adding labor or equipment. ## The challenge - Long lead times, because jobs moved through one work center at a time - Lost orders and no status for any given job - No capacity management: sales and manufacturing each saw only part of the picture - Operators calculating cut and mill sizes by hand, a common source of rejected parts - A paper process that had become a ceiling on the company's growth ## The solution - Brought together a cross-functional group of users to gather and agree on requirements, then set the project path - Designed screens and workflow with frequent reviews against the original requirements, so there were no surprises at release - Tested thoroughly, so the system worked as expected from day one - Live loading for every work center, so the sales desk can give customers realistic ship dates when an order is accepted - Scheduling of individual parts, not just whole orders, so multiple items run at once - Color-coded parts with full instructions on touch screens at each machine - Tolerance calculations done by the system instead of the operator - Final inspection fed automatically to the CMM and laser measurement systems and compared with the customer order - Completed parts move to shipping electronically, with support for partial shipments - Rewrote the inventory system so it integrates with the shop floor system and the legacy order management system ## The results On-time delivery up from 30 to 40% to near 85% Lead times down from 4 to 5 days to 2 to 3 days, a reduction of nearly 50% Quality complaints down from an average of 18 to 20 a month to 2 or 3 Customers get ship dates up front and real-time order status The company broke through its previous volume ceiling, growing from about $15M to about $25M in revenue, growth the client could not have handled on paper ## Where this is going We build the operational systems manufacturers run on, designed with the people who use them. If that is your situation, talk to us about scope. Client Manufacturing and industrial The result ## Growth the paper shop floor could not have carried Revenue, approximately $15M on paper $25M with the system What changed on the floor On-time delivery 30 to 40%near 85% Lead time 4 to 5 days2 to 3 days Quality complaints a month 18 to 202 or 3 - Live loading for every work center - Parts scheduled individually - Tolerance math done by the system - Inspection fed to CMM and laser measurement ## Working on something similar? Tell us what you are building and what it has to connect to. Here is what happens after you reach out. ### A short call about the work What runs today, what needs to change and the date you are working toward. ### An engineer looks at what’s running Scope comes from your systems as they are, before anything is priced. ### You get a written proposal Covering scope, team, approach and price. [info@smartdata.net](mailto:info@smartdata.net)[(937) 886-9166](tel:+19378869166)