Challenges
- Manufacturing Space Growth Up 450%: The company’s manufacturing space has grown from just under 200,000 sq. ft. to over 900,000 sq. ft. spanning seven buildings.
- Increase in Equipment: Exotic now owns and operates more CNC lasers than anyone else in North America.
- 300% Workforce Growth: During this same period, its workforce has grown from 450 full-time employees to over 1,400, and they are planning to hire another 200 full-time employees.
Solution
Exotic selected ShopVue as its full-suite MES provider. It stood out as the best solution for Exotic for two reasons. “ShopVue’s experience in manufacturing is exceptional; they know what works, what does not and could deliver a solution that met our demands and very high standards.” And secondly, “ShopVue’s support is the best of any software company we work with. No other company is even close.”
Results
Today, all Exotic shop floor employees, supervisors and management have real-time access into all attendance, labor and performance metrics via ShopVue. The system automatically manages Exotic’s policies, and the company has eliminated multiple systems and databases and allowed for the re-allocation of numerous employees. Furthermore, supervisors can control production by dispatching worklists on the fly to machines and operators.
The Impact
Due to ShopVue, everyone spends less time reporting but has real-time access to more accurate labor data. Every employee uses ShopVue for attendance, and all paper-based processes or custom applications have been eliminated. Daily tasks of managing absences, reviewing, editing and approving time and labor transactions are more straight-forward, timelier, and user-friendly for supervisors. Additionally, ShopVue offers pragmatic solutions to everyday situations. For example, if an employee forgets their badge, they have real-time access to a list of covering supervisors and their phone numbers, eliminating the production time lost due to an employee wandering from building to building to find a supervisor to assign a temporary badge.
Paperless Dispatch eliminates the ‘cherry-picking’ of work. Operators are presented with a prioritized worklist for the shift, and the Graphical Sequencer enables supervisors to expedite ‘hot’ orders and quickly adjust the production schedule by machine or work center. Supervisors get instant feedback on parts per hour or per shift, efficiency metrics, and they even get an alert if the machine is ‘down’ for more than a fixed amount of time. ShopVue also independently collects machine time and labor time. For example, Exotic has some engineering processes requiring 40 hours of machine time, and only two hours of labor. With ShopVue, Exotic now quickly reports on both metrics.
“We have a world-class, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, but we had old green screens for the production workers. The shop floor data collection and time and attendance systems were on three different databases and heavily reliant on paper processes. It was archaic and hurting us in recruiting and retention. And, we needed better visibility into our shop floor performance and the real-time ability to manage production.”
Key Features Used
- Real-time visibility
- Inventory management
- Order automation
- Reporting
