FandMmag.com |

Many metal fabricators rely on enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to keep their operations running smoothly, but it actually takes a bit of overhead to keep the software itself on track.

Every day and/or night, often more than once, system utilities must be launched and monitored to sync the software with the newest job orders and all the other transactions that occurred during business hours. For many shops, unfortunately, this is still a hands-on activity that ties up valuable staff in repetitive tasks akin to housekeeping.

One metal manufacturer that decided to change the rules is Magic Metals, Inc. (Union Gap, WA), the largest job shop in the Pacific Northwest. As the company prepared to install a new ERP system in 2008, software coordinator Jeff Parker resolved to take utility-related matters out of the staff’s hands – literally – by automating daily utility responsibilities.

Today, key ERP tasks, ranging from running the system’s job scheduler to updating the costing module, are configured to self-execute with no manual intervention needed. Emails are sent automatically to designated personnel as each process is completed, as well as when a given process fails, to ensure timely error handling. The automation strategy is saving well over an hour every day, relieving the shop staff of nightly utility duties and freeing personnel for more productive work.

DAILY GRIND

Magic Metals fabricates sheet metal and machine parts for industries spanning agriculture, marine, packaging, semiconductor, telecommunications and beyond. The company operates out of a 130,000 sq ft facility located 150 miles southeast of Seattle.

Until 2008, Magic Metals had separate shop floor, purchasing and accounting applications that required duplicate and, in some cases, triplicate data entry. To eliminate those inefficiencies and gain new capabilities by integrating all data into a single cross-functional software platform, the company decided to replace its existing information systems with Infor ERP VISUAL, in part because VISUAL specializes in supporting discrete manufacturers such as metal fabricators.

But Parker balked at the typically manual nature of the system utility responsibilities that go with the ERP territory. In the usual scenario, a designated employee must navigate the same computer screens, click the same buttons, and babysit the same processes day after day and night after night to be sure that any execution problems can be resolved before the next business day. Otherwise, the ERP system will lack accurate data for performing vital functions like job scheduling, material requirements planning, costing and billing.

“We have an IT staff of one, and that’s me. If I had to trigger and watch over our ERP utilities manually, I would have to log in remotely from home or physically be in the plant for at least an hour every night. Neither option was practical,” says Parker. “I knew that automation was the answer, but I wanted to do it as simply and inexpensively as possible.”

AUTOMATION SHORTCUT

Automation traditionally involves writing scripts, batch files or custom “applets.” For Parker, that would have meant four to six weeks of custom programming at a time when he was up to his elbows in the ERP deployment. Rather than delay the VISUAL implementation or hire an expensive third-party programmer, he began looking for a process automation development platform that already had a set of common processes pre-programmed.

Through the technology grapevine, Parker learned that one of Magic Metals’ own customers was using a software product that fit that exact description. The program, AutoMate Professional from Network Automation (Los Angeles, CA), provides an extensive menu of pre-automated actions such as “Send keystrokes” and “Send email” that can be dragged and dropped into a task-building window in the same sequence as if they were being performed manually. No coding is needed. The software then automatically launches and executes completed tasks according to any schedule or other trigger specified by the user, simulating manual input.