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Anthony Etzel

Hoffmaster Clintonville Plant Goes Live with Crossroads MES & LX

On March 1, 2016, Hoffmaster’s Clintonville plant went live with Crossroads MES and LX. The goal of the project was to convert from another ERP to LX and replace a green screen MES system that required the manual recording of production and labor activity keyed from shop floor terminals.

Hoffmaster achieved their goal by completing a successful data conversion and detailed prototyping of LX and Crossroads. The project team remarked that the Crossroads MES implementation was by far the easiest part of the project. One of the critical requirements of the chosen MES solution was to verify UPC and UCC label formats that called for in-line labeling of product packages and cases. Crossroads MES satisfied that requirement, and also provided an interface to finished goods inventory via the scanning of LPN numbers when reporting production.

The Clintonville plant is a leading manufacturer of disposable tabletop products.

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Anthony Etzel

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Tips:  LX | BPCS | M3

  • Are you tracking downtime? Is it done manually, or with some type of automation or application that gathers information in real-time, or is it based upon history?
  • If you are measuring team effectiveness by shift, you know there are significant differences between them. Have you figured out why?

One of our automotive customers was experiencing significant inefficiencies and difficulties with their receiving operations. After analyzing their operation, we discovered a disconnect between how they were tracking their incoming goods and what their ERP system thought was on hand.

This disconnect created time-consuming steps to process incoming material and determine where the material was needed. The manual process slowed production, caused additional staffing needs and hindered their ability to effectively get needed material to the assembly line. They chose to implement our data collection solution to automate the process.

Since implementing the solution, receiving and moving material was quicker, more accurate and efficient. This enabled the addition of another assembly line, increasing production volume – without adding staff.

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

I’m not talking “Modus Operandi,” which is a fancy way to say: “what’s your plan to get stuff done”.  I’m talking about Manufacturing Optimization. 

It is all about efficiency, and by that I mean doing more with less. Less labor, less time, less materials, while still delivering a high quality product on time.

The Three Secrets to Improving your MO

1. Identify the key metrics
You need benchmark data so you know what realistic goals are, then track them and publish your performance along with a brief comment from time to time on how things are trending and how you compare with others, particularly your primary competitors. The best thing about this is that it is a system that develops a life of its own.

2. Measure it
Automatically, people start to think about improving things. Then the fun part, stuff begins to improve by itself. Once in place, the system just hums along and the benefits appear, because it has motivated people to think about it, and figure out what they can do to make it better.

3. Communicate it
So if you publish gross profit numbers, explain to people how what they do affects the numbers. Employees tend to start to modify their behavior as a result, and look more critically at whether a given purchase is even necessary.

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Tips: LN | Baan

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