Lot Control System

The assembly department for an automobile manufacturing company sought a way to insure that the right parts where going on the right car in a way that did not negatively impact production time.

Understand
The business issues surrounding this request included the desire to improve “direct pass” rates, as well as overall warranty, safety, and product quality issues.

Innovate
ProActive developed a flexible wireless hardware and software solution that not only keeps track of each individual part, but also communicates that information with the Company’s quality systems and SAP. Critical information regarding individual parts, such as verification of correct part, part rework, etc., is available to the associate within a sub second.

Execute
This solution provides the assembly department with the ability to:

• Insure the accuracy of traceability data
• Eliminate manual interface with quality systems

The Results

• 100% traceability of all parts in every car produced
• Reduced average production time
• Improved “direct pass” rates
• Reduced requirements for spare hand-held scanner parts

Manufacturing Supplier Rating System

The procurement department of a major automobile manufacturing company sought a way to efficiently and consistently report and disseminate supplier rating data.

Understand
The primary business issue was the need to efficiently report and disseminate critical supplier rating information. The existing method of managing data input (involving multiple departments and over 120 vendors), report generation, and dissemination of information was highly manual – including use of Excel spreadsheets, manually checking information, and the priority shipment of the reports to vendors.

Innovate
ProActive developed a multi-faceted Oracle and web-based solution that not only resolved the report generation problems, but also allows them more efficient administration of the entire process.

Execute
Today, the Company is able to:

• Make changes to the questionnaire without the need to make custom changes to the report
• Ability to customize report output
• Open, flexible reporting
• Web-based access (internal and external users) to questionnaires, to do lists, and reports
• Automatically publish reports on the website
• Send automatic notification when questionnaires have not been completed

The Results

• Improved coordination of the process
• Reduced manpower requirements for management of program
• Reduced cost of publication and delivery
  

Technologies employed: VB6, ASP (Web), Oracle

Parts Tracking

A manufacturer of interior systems for automobiles sought to know exactly how many parts were being produced and real-time WIP status.

Understand
The business issues at the foundation of this request were the ability to better understand production and scrap rates.

Innovate
ProActive developed a generic check point system comprised custom software and hand-held wireless scanners that provide both process enforcement and process verification capabilities.

Execute
With this solution, the Company is able to:

• Define the check points
• Automatically serialize each part
• Capture complete data on scraps and reworks
• Communicate this data to other departments, including Quality

The Results

• Accurate production counts
• 100% accounting on disposition of all parts
• Ability to know about common problems

Technologies employed: ASP (Web), Wireless Intermec “pocket pc” Devices

System Security

An automobile manufacturing company sought a way to limit administrative access to computers.

Understand
The primary business issues regarding this project were to insure security and to reduce the amount of time system administrators spent managing temporary administrative rights.

Innovate
ProActive developed a generic web-based tool that provides the system administrator with the ability to manage the temporary assignment of administrative rights with the highest level of efficiency and security.

Execute
Today, the Company is able to:

• Automatically receive requests for temporary administrative rights
• Automatically assign temporary rights
• Maintain an audit of all temporary administrative sessions
• Automatically send emails confirming receipt of request and outcome

The Results

• Reduced security risks
• Reduced manpower requirements to manage the process
• Complete audit trail – who, what, where, when

System Verification Management

A manufacturing company sought a way to verify the availability of SAP after routine maintenance and to notify other departments once the application was available.

Understand
The business issue at the root of this problem was business interruption. At this company, SAP is required to be available during all business hours. Unfortunately, the IT department was unaware of post-maintenance access problems until users were unable to access the application.

Innovate
ProActive developed a generic software solution that provides automated system verification and notification capabilities for SAP as well as any other software application.

Execute
Written in VB.NET and powered by Vigilix technology, this solution allows the Company to:

• Specify the steps required to bring the system back online
• Assign responsibility for each step
• Calculate the length of time for each step and full system restore
• Verification of each step
• Audit trail
• Ability to escalate if a step is taking to long, or on demand
• Automatic notification to all users advising of status

The Results

• Improved planning
• Consistent process
• Automated coordination of departments and resources

Technologies employed: ASP.Net, VB.Net Web Services, Oracle, Wireless (Intermec) Scanners

Custom Lot Control System (Traceability and Verification

The solution is a parts traceability and verification system for an automobile assembly operation.

Requirements
The customer required a “lot control” system to verify that the correct parts are installed on each car, a nd that the manufacturing lot information for each installed part, including serial number, is stored for future tracing purposes.

Understand
The assembly workers verify that a component is the correct part to install by scanning bar-coded labels on both the vehicle and the part. After verification and installation, this data is stored electronically for future reference; for example, in the case of a component recall, the exact vehicles containing the defective parts can be identified. The existing system required a separate scanner application for each of the seven processes. Since each scanning device launched only one application at a time, significant investments in back-up scanners and maintenance time for installing applications was required. Application updates required that all scanners for that application be collected and individually updated, which involved considerable labor hours.

Innovate

• Deployment of updates is now much easier and faster. The software is updated once on the server, rather than on each scanner. A complete system update can be performed in a matter of minutes instead of hours, or even days.
• By using a telnet client on each scanner, and running the application on the server, the new system eliminates the need to use the “right scanner” for each process. Additionally, because a scanner has access to all applications, the number of scanners required is dramatically reduced, as each one can serve as a backup for any other.

Execute

• The RFGen menu system, and the flexibility allowed by programming in Visual Basic, enabled ProActive to consolidate the seven previous applications into just one application containing four processing paths. Using RFGen, developers were able to include interface module connectors to SAP and JD Edwards ERP systems.
• The new system is compatible with all scanner models, allowing complete flexibility when purchasing new equipment.
• The customer can choose between using graphical or character-based clients. Choosing graphical clients enables workers to operate the system using a Windows GUI on a Pocket PC device.

Technologies employed: DataMAX’s RFGen wireless data collection framework, Microsoft® Visual Basic® on a PC platform, ASP, Oracle database

Engineering Change Request System

The engineering department for a lighting products manufacturing company needed to take the widely differing paper-based engineering change systems used in the various divisions of the company and integrate them into one cohesive web-based system.

Understand
The business issues regarding this project included the need to consolidate varying change request forms, efficiently track the change requests through the workflow process to ensure that high priority requests are moved through the necessary steps in a timely manner, and provide flexible searching capabilities.

Innovate
ProActive developed a completely customized web-based software solution that enables the engineers to enter all required information, follow the change requests through the customizable workflow process, and view and print change requests at any point. Also included is a complete audit trail of the change request’s path through the workflow, to ensure accountability.

Execute
This solution gives engineers the ability to:

• Enter all necessary data for a change request, including relevant documentation.
• Participate in the workflow as needed, with automatic email reminders when a change request lingers too long in any step of the process.
• Search for any change request for viewing and printing.
• View an at-a-glance status listing of the appropriate change requests, including where each request is in the workflow and who is currently working on it.
• Rearrange the priority of change requests, according to business needs.
• View a listing of all people, along with their role in the workflow process.

The Results

• Geographically diverse divisions now use one consolidated system for change requests.
• Information exchange between divisions and engineers is more efficient.
• Audit trail – what changes were made, when, and by whom.

Technologies employed: ASP.Net, VB.Net, and SQL Server database