Technology Case Studies - Design & Production

Hydraulics Components

A designer and manufacturer of hydraulics components, selling to the European aircraft industry, found that customers were demanding shorter lead times and 'just in time' deliveries. The company allows customers and suppliers on-line access to its computerised manufacturing information. This allows everyone in the supply chain to see what the customers are planning and to adjust production to suit. Customers can work the other way, seeing when there is spare capacity, which they might use at special prices. This solution also reduced stock levels for all parties.

Plastics Manufacturer

A plastics manufacturer wanted to improve the scheduling of manufacturing operations on the shop floor. Its existing procedures were a mixture of different paper-based systems, and were hard to maintain and manage. The solution was a computerised integrated resource planning system. By scheduling operations on the shop floor, depending on the level of orders and the ability of sub-contractors to deliver raw materials, the company increased productivity by 28% and halved materials stocks. By saving on IT development and support, they have halved their computing costs.

Manuals

A manufacturing company found that it took longer to write, design and print its manuals than to make the products they described. To make sure manuals were available, they were printed in large numbers by product specification. The company solved the problem by moving to a 'demand printing' system where a manual is printed and bound only when it is needed. In demand printing every copy is the same price whether you are printing two units or 2,000. It makes it far easier to plan production budgeting, cash is not tied up in inventory, and storage space is not required. The time-to-market for the product plus manual has also been reduced.

Crane Manufacturer

A crane manufacturing firm facing a shrinking home market had to export to survive. The firm needs to compete against foreign competitors so it uses computer-aided design to standardise its products, reduce stock holding and speed quotation, design and delivery. By harnessing the power of new technology, the firm can now quote for a crane in minutes, when its competitors can take weeks. This has attracted new overseas clients and turnover has trebled in the past decade with its existing factory.