In today’s hyper-competitive environment, we all would like little bit of an edge to help us stand out from the crowd. In the world of aerospace manufacturing, standing out can be a challenge for small manufacturers, as bigger operations garner the headlines and notoriety.
Being small in the manufacturing industry does not have to be a disadvantage, however. If you use your ERP well, you can develop your data into a strategic asset that provides you with advantages that don’t need headlines to help you stand out.
Timely Data Leads to Always Being on Time
The logistics giant, UPS, had a famous campaign a few years back with mothers of their delivery drivers bragging about how punctual their children were, with one saying, “he was even born on time.” That dependability has been a big strategic advantage of UPS for decades.
For Triple Helix client Nortek Inc., punctuality was becoming difficult as order volume increased. The company had an ERP it used to manage many aspects of its operation, but lack of real-time feedback was not allowing the company to manage the manufacturing process proactively to develop efficiencies and dependable outcomes.
Triple Helix used its ERP expertise to identify the key data that was needed to manage each job process fully and developed a scheduling application that allows managers and line workers alike to see the status and priority of jobs in real time. With the new scheduling solution, managers have access to real-time data to see all the jobs in the queue and arrange them by status, due date, or priority to keep every job on track toward on-time completion.
Real-Time Data Analysis Uncovers More Opportunities
Another Triple Helix client, Koster Keunen, went one step further with its ERP data. Besides providing real-time data to production to manage on-time delivery of all orders like Nortek, the Koster Keunen sales team was provided the ability to view real-time analysis of customer orders to identify potential problems and opportunities.
By employing Triple Helix’s business intelligence expertise, Koster Kuenen eliminated thousands of hours of manual work and deployed real-time analytics to its sales team. The automated analytics alerts the team when a customer’s recent order history does not match the forecast amount and immediate access to a full customer order profile including a rolling 12-month history and forecast, pricing and profitability information provides additional detail before contacting the customer.
This immediate access to key customer data though a user-friendly portal has allowed the sales team to respond quickly to potential problems and has made sales calls much more productive and rewarding.
Since 2004, Triple Helix has provided data and information systems for the aerospace and manufacturing industries. We can show you how your data can help you to reduce risk, increase profitability, and strengthen customer relationships. Contact us if you would like to schedule a risk-free consultation.
