Situation
The Senior Business Analyst and the Manager of Corporate Continuous Quality Improvement for a major North American food processor with dozens of plants in several states.
Critical issue
Product weight control was implemented across this corporation with a variety of technologies, and with various levels of discipline. The result was a patchwork quilt of compliance and raw material consumption, and a “rear view mirror” method of driving corporate performance.
Reason
The corporation enjoyed almost no economies of scale because growth came through acquisitions. Each facility had its own way of doing things, and accessing or sharing data was almost non-existent. Many facilities used paper-based data systems because of the high costs of computerizing a clean room environment.
Vision
The Senior Business Analyst wanted to deploy real-time weight control data collection on inexpensive wireless PDA devices. The new system would eliminate all paper, remove delays and reduce errors. The new system would be easy-to-use for operators, flexible enough to support all of the company’s needs, deployed from a single server, and integrated with the company’s ERP system.
Hertzler Systems provided
We deployed GainSeeker Suite for weight control using the Citrix (terminal services) environment. Users interact with the system using portable, hand held devices (PDAs) that “walk out” for daily cleaning, or full-powered PCs. Business leaders receive automated email alarms, can review charts, and drill into data to take immediate corrective action. The system is easy-to-use, and fully integrated with the company’s business system. Deployment at new plants is very rapid thanks to the use of the corporate server infrastructure.
Results
In a corporation with 25 years of experience implementing weight control, one plant realized a savings of $225,000 in material costs in only nine months. In one half year the corporation saved approximately $3.4 Million across all implemented plants.
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