Advantage Engineering has earned itself a reputation for keeping their commitments and delivering parts to customers on time. It’s a unique differentiator in the market and sets the company apart from the competition.
Delivering on time, however, isn’t easy. Through Advantage Engineering’s nearly-three decades of experience in the manufacturing space, serving leading customers in automotive, aviation, and other industries, the company has fine-tuned a set of processes to ensure they always meet their targets.
The company has leveraged its experience to design a proprietary scheduling tool that supports every single job that comes in, right from the get-go.
“When a job comes in, we use the tool to chalk out exactly how many steps it will take to build a part (using a time and motion study), map out which workers will work on it in which department, and to come up with a reasonable estimate of when we can deliver the part to the customer,” explained company president Steve Hengsperger.
According to Steve, the tool is accessible to workers via a number of screens on the shop floor, on printed sheets at various stations throughout the facilities, on their individual and shared devices, and so on. “We rely on this tool to keep us running smoothly and seamlessly. It keeps us on track and ensures we don’t fall behind our targets.”
The tool also gives the sales team and account managers visibility into capacity, and ensures that when new orders are taken, accurate forecasts about production and delivery schedules can be chalked up.
While a lot of companies in the manufacturing space use such tools, what makes it unique at Advantage Engineering is the ability to compound the figures from its time and motion study with the experience and knowledge that it has accumulated, to produce intelligent forecasts. “Translating our experience and knowledge into numbers for our clients helps us significantly when combined with internal test results.”
Although a lot of credit is given to the scheduling tool, the reality is that the organization has, over the course of producing thousands of batches of parts, has put systems in place at its facilities. These systems ensure that mistakes are avoided at all costs.
“Mistakes are the biggest obstacle when it comes to delivering on target. You can have the best tool and make the most optimal forecast, but if you fail to direct the workers correctly and make mistakes, it’ll cost you dearly.”
On a busy shop floor, it’s easy to make a mistake. Incorrectly loading a block of steel into a CNC machine, not paying attention to the color of the pellets when setting up an injection molding job, or making a part using PA11 instead of PA12 on an HP MJF printer can all lead to mistakes. These aren’t typically caught until a quality check is carried out on the batch – and when identified, not only require a complete re-work but also force other jobs to be delayed.
“This is the kind of mistake that we must avoid at all costs. The best way to do it is to build foolproof systems.”
At Advantage Engineering, managers on the shop floor work with the company’s VP of Operations Mark Rauth and leverage Steve’s experience and expertise to create meticulous worksheets, lists, and so on, all to ensure that any mistake that can be avoided – is avoided.
In the manufacturing space, processes and systems make a world of difference. Clients may not know who has made an effort to set themselves up for this at the start of the relationship; In the long run, however, it’s easy to tell. Advantage Engineering’s clients value this.
If you’re juggling deadlines and want your parts to be delivered quickly and efficiently, get in touch with our team now.
