Content tagged with "erp"
Results: 13
Article
April 1, 2010
ERP and the cloud
Figure 1
Businesses may need to climb over some hurdles when looking to invest in enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, manufacturing execution system (MES, or shop floor control) software, or related packages. They may need to hire IT personnel or add servers. For some, this... Read more...
Article
March 23, 2010
How to get from ABC to ERP
If all of the letters and acronyms associated with software systems have you confused, don't worry, you are not alone. More readers than would like to admit are wondering what the heck (WTH) all these letters mean and which combination of them will help them run their manufacturing... Read more...
Article
August 1, 2009
Saying 'yes' when others can't
These days a shop manager may look at material handling towers, offloading stations, and other automated setups and think the technology might be good for healthier times, but not today. What good is automation when even manual machines aren't running full-out even for one shift, let alone... Read more...
Article
November 25, 2008
Getting it there yesterday
Figure 1
A combination laser-punch machine speeds products through Greenheck Fan’s shop floor.
In the building business, timing is everything. All may not go exactly as planned, and measurements for this duct hole or that wall may be slightly off the blueprint callouts. The... Read more...
Article
August 26, 2008
Cycling through a business transition
Maybe it's the fact Lori calls her sister "Trace," short for Traci. Maybe it's because they complete each other's sentences. Or that they live a block apart. Or that they had their first children (both girls) within two weeks of each other. Or that they both first went into finance: Lori was... Read more...
Article
July 29, 2008
Intelligent business investments in uncertain economic times
When the economy falters or even shows the first signs of slowing, businesses have a tendency to retrench. In an effort to lower costs and reduce overhead, they slash budgets across various departments. But what they don't realize is that the budgets that typically are cut first are areas... Read more...
Article
May 13, 2008
Streamlined scheduling suits fabricator
Estes has invested in a bank of automated laser cutting , folding, and bending centers, including this panel bending workcell from Salvagnini. Ryan Estes sees the value of a paperless shop: no job packets, no drawings, clear revision control with the latest and greatest for each job in one... Read more...
Article
April 15, 2008
Automotive and industrial: A tale of two businesses
Every morning as John Atanasoski gets out of his car and walks over a parking lot to his office, he looks at an adjacent swath of land. There Atanasoski's employer, Microflex Inc., this year will start building a 45,000-square-foot facility to house Microflex Automotive, its 2-year-old OEM... Read more...
Article
March 11, 2008
Work flow goes virtual
Mid-West Metal Products Engineer Archie Adamisin views a customer's CAD file, which will follow the job through production. One look at Mid-West Metal Products' shop presents a gleaming example of metal fabrication automation. In the company's Sheet Metal Fabrication Division, material... Read more...
Article
December 12, 2006
Can your manufacturing software do this?
Software has changed the nature of fabricating. Most fabricating shops hammer out the manufacturing details of a job on their own computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) software packages immediately upon receipt of the customer's engineering drawings. Some of the more aggressive fabricating shops... Read more...
Article
December 12, 2006
Taking software integration to new heights
Historically, the majority of a manufacturer's costs have been labor. In fact, when Henry Ford introduced the moving assembly line in 1913, labor accounted for an estimated 80 percent of total costs. One of Ford's key beliefs was that labor costs could be greatly reduced by eliminating... Read more...
Article
July 11, 2006
Sheetmetal software: Nothing soft about it
Faced with a number of economic snafus, U.S. fabricators are examining every possibility for increasing production and lowering costs. One such area of contemplation is software. According to Shawn E. Thompson, CAD/CAM Business Manager for Strippit/LVD, fabricators have had to reduce and... Read more...
Article
November 8, 2005
Growing gains with lasers
Growing pains with lasers
Significant investment in laser processing equipment helps Laser Precision process both shim-thick stainless steel to 1-inch-thick plate and remain competitive by keeping labor needs low.
It took one phrase to change Jeff Adams' direction in... Read more...
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