Achieve Momentous Success Across Entire Organization – A Client Success Story: Part 2

SyteLine Insights

Welcome back to Part 2 of our series on Linemaster Switch Corporation. Linemaster Switch is the largest supplier of floor-activated switch devices in the healthcare and industrial sectors in the United States, and has been partnering with The Lake Companies’ software solutions since 2011. We previously shared the experiences Linemaster Switch encountered with The Lake Companies’ Doc-Trak™. Here’s the rest of the story as IT Manager, Keith Worthington shifts his attention to other offerings from The Lake Companies.

B.S. (Before Shop-Trak)

Worthington said that before Shop-Trak was implemented, all production data had to be manually entered. Time studies were recorded using stopwatches, which wasn’t always accurate since people tend to work faster when timed. The studies were infrequent and the data was stored in spreadsheets, not the ERP system. Furthermore, standards were inaccurate, which resulted in inaccurate scheduling, and efficiency information was manually calculated. There was also no planning for sub-departments, such as paint, drill, cord, etc.

After Implementing Shop-Trak

  • Every single job is a time study, allowing them to evaluate their standards
  • Supervisors perform WIP moves instead of passing job orders to a separate person for data entry
  • Quantities are updated immediately, relieving WIP and improving inventory accuracy
  • Mobile Supervisor greatly increased visibility into what’s happening on the shop floor
  • Assembly, inspection, and packaging departments use Shop-Trak daily
  • Routings are improved as they prepare to push Shop-Trak to the next level

Shop-Trak in Action

Linemaster Switch has deployed five Shop-Trak kiosks, which they’ve named Alice, Vera, Flo, Mel, and Tommy. Each kiosk is equipped with a barcode scanner and an Uninterrupted Power Supply. They each use Wi-Fi and are on casters, allowing them to be put anywhere on the shop floor.

If the workload is over in main assembly, we roll Flo over to main assembly. If the workload is heavier in our Herc area, we take Vera and scoot her over to the Herc area.

Keith Worthington, IT Manager at Linemaster Switch Corporation

©2016 Linemaster Switch Corporation | Employees have even been known to personalize the shop floor kiosks

Punching in at the start of a shift is now faster and easier than ever before. After punching in, workers simply get to work and job information is gathered later. This prevents the “herd effect,” where a line of employees stand at the kiosk waiting to punch into a job.

Linemaster also utilizes Shop-Trak “teams,” which allows them to clock a group of employees into a single job. This has improved efficiency since moving an entire team from job to job can be done in a single transaction.

Worthington discussed how more often than not, companies are resistant to change. However, Shop-Trak was embraced by the employees at Linemaster because it is easy to use and intuitive. Employees have even been known to “personalize” the shop floor kiosks!

The Future of Shop-Trak

Linemaster Switch anticipates rolling out Shop-Trak to additional work centers and replacing time clocks with Shop-Trak kiosks. Shop-Trak will drive them to optimize every active routing and they expect to incorporate new functionality, such as QCS integration with Shop-Trak Enterprise Edition.

Shop-Trak is the number one priority coming out of our strategic planning effort. It has generated the most interest and represents a project that has the capability of making a real impact across all departments.

Joseph Carlone Jr., President at Linemaster Switch Corporation

Linemaster Switch and Fact-Trak

Linemaster Switch Corporation also utilizes The Lake Companies’ Fact-Trak™ application to provide them with actionable information. Worthington said, Actionable information is a big deal to me. If I give you a piece of information, and it doesn’t cause you to get up out of your chair and go do something, it’s probably a useless piece of information.

Fact-Trak is giving us the ability to better understand our labor requirements by tracking our efficiency in a timely manner. This is the first step in helping us improve our routings, find waste, improve scheduling, and capacity planning to name a few.

Joh Palazzo, Production Manager at Linemaster Switch Corporation

Fact-Trak provides employees at Linemaster Switch with:

  • A single source of actual times
  • More accurate lead times for customers
  • More precise planning
  • Improved costing
  • Capacity planning

Worthington said, Doc-Trak, Shop-Trak, and Fact-Trak will be instrumental to our success in the future.

Contact us at The Lake Companies to see how we can put you on the path to success too!

Previously…

Did you miss part 1 of this story? Linemaster Switch Corporation shared their success storing over 350,000 documents digitally with The Lake Companies’ Doc-Trak.