End-User Highlight: MAP Industries

SACRAMENTO, CA JUNE 5, 2007 - We interviewed a MAP Industries manager. He uses FactoryPMI to interact with his existing databases for inventory management.

IA: What does MAP Industries do?

Manager: MAP manufactures components for the HVAC industry. These are typically made to order from copper tubing. Our processes include: cutting, bending, forming, and welding. Each individual step is fairly automated. Welding is done manually. We have a lot to track.

IA: What do you use FactoryPMI for?

Manager: We're mainly using FPMI for inventory management. It allows us to turn existing data into useful data. It REALLY does! I use PMI like I would use Visual Basic. The Reporting Plugin allows us to create reports for the morning efficiency meeting.


Before I set this up, everything was done in spreadsheets. Our other programs track good data, but haven't been able to do everything we need. I've taken on the biggest unknowns. We use PMI to start with our existing database and give us information to be more profitable.

Our FactoryPMI project interfaces with different databases to analyze past sales data. It tells us how much raw stock to buy for future months, notifies us of critically low inventory, breaks down estimated labor cost and helps decide how many welders versus fabrication workers are needed.

As a company, we get paid by standards like time to bend, cut, and weld. FactoryPMI has given us the tools to better analyze and meet projected standards. We actually used your software to determine that there were a few quoted standards that we weren't able to meet. Our options were to re-quote or improve the process. There have been a lot of process improvements.

IA: How has FactoryPMI helped your company?

Manager: One of our biggest cost benefits was going from an 85% on-time delivery in December to 99% now. FactoryPMI had a lot to do with this. It's helped us analyze productivity in realtime and show if we're getting behind during the day. I use FactoryPMI to see sales by part and production. I look at this daily to see if I'm getting behind in production or inventory. With a catalog of 400 parts it can be hard to tell.

We created a screen that shows welder productivity by day and assigns and color code. A week after we individually went over their production, we saw an average 20% productivity increase per welder! That alone paid for FactoryPMI.

FactoryPMI reports save several hours of work a day. We use an "on board" to track inventory. This report lays out all the parts in sequence, making the manual process take about 10 minutes. We used to hand write 260 labels a day because the old system couldn't match the format as specified by the customer, even though the data was in the database. Our report lays it out however we want showing: date, quantity, tubs and numbering, tub size, and rack location.

IA: Could you tell me more about using FactoryPMI for inventory management?

Manager: One of our issues is that we have roughly 800 component pieces that make up 400 finished good parts. Daily usage ranges from 1 part per day to 2000. We guarantee a 2 1/2 day supply in plant for finished goods with a max of 5 days. Customers keep 2 1/2 themselves. At any given time there's only a week supply.

To give you an example, we have 214 different lengths of 3/8" tubing alone. Each piece is cut to a tolerance of +-.06". Any pieces outside of that tolerance is scrap. I created a FactoryPMI screen that finds the closest size scrap to use. Our whole inventory is tracked. We cut a lot smaller quantities than we used to. Now we go out 3 months instead of 2 years when we overcut.

IA: How do you plan on using IA software in the future?


Manager: Our future products will incorporate FactorySQL and FactoryPMI to set up recipes and use a barcode for location. One limitation I've always seen is searching capabilities. We have 300-400 recipes.

IA: How do you plan on solving that with FSQL/FPMI?

Manager: Next year the goal is to hook into the PLCs and become more automated in all of our machines. We'll use FactoryPMI and FactorySQL for everything. We'll store the recipes in MySQL and send the recipes to the PLC. The operator at the machine would use a barcode scanner and have a screen to verify that they have the correct selection. They will then print a work order (router) with the chosen recipe.

Their biggest setup time right now is finding the recipe in a long list. The biggest scrap producer is choosing the wrong one. Both can be solved with your software.

IA: Is there anything else you would like to say regarding your experience with IA software?


You guys have great customer support!