Datacraft Solutions Profiled in Fabricating and Metalworking
February Issue
According to North America's leading manufacturing journalist,
Thomas R. Cutler (www.trcutlerinc.com), "Recent estimates
suggest that more than a third of all metalworking and
fabricating manufacturers engage in some type of
lean-manufacturing initiative. There are many variables that
drive the goal of waste elimination, none as keen as the need to
be competitive in a global economy. As manufacturers implement
these lean programs, they are bringing a key element of
lean--kanban--into the fray in a seamless way: online."
The February issue of Fabricating and Metalworking Magazine
(www.fandmmag.com) in the "online exclusives" section includes a
feature article regarding digital kanban featuring Datacraft
Solutions. Cutler provided a detailed understanding of how
digital kanban solutions are critical to an effective lean
manufacturing initiative and provided a case study that featured
Datacraft Solutions (www.datacraftsolutions.com). According to
Matthew Marotta, Founder of Datacraft Solutions, "We do not
charge for upgrades to the system as we learn about new best
practices that clients ask us to incorporate. Before Datacraft
incorporates the request, it is reviewed buy a lean advisory
board to validate the value of the best practices and the value
added impact upon our partner community. Once it is passed, they
develop, test, and implement."
With digital kanban, all production is now initiated based on
the immediate needs of customers. Inventory turns for digital
kanban parts are now at 62 turns per year. Time spent by
customer service communicating on expedited parts issues has
practically been eliminated. They estimated that
customer-service staff was spending 40 percent of their time on
just expediting part orders, as well as the chaos that this
created on the shop floor. Sales have increased because the
company no longer uses capacity to build parts without an order
to buy now. One-hundred percent of production capacity is used
to build parts that are already sold as soon as they hit the
shipping dock.
The hosted solution provides the customer with their own set of
servers which are maintained offsite by and outsourced set of
administrators. All of the administration fees, equipment,
support teams and software updates are all included in the
monthly service fee which is less then the cost of hiring an
internal system administrator. The value of an ASP is that
manufacturers can buy "by the drink", low risk, and a see a
rapid ROI. Only internet access is required.
Datacraft Solutions www.datacraftsolutions.com Kelly Pryor
800-819-5326