METALFORMING INDUSTRY -
Founder Pat Thompson launched Trans-Matic Manufacturing in 1968, starting out with two presses for its deep-draw metal stamping company in western Michigan.
Today, Trans-Matic is a global leader in the industry, creating precision metal parts with state-of-the-art, high-speed transfer presses that range from 5 to 600 tons in capacity. The company is a leading global supplier of essential precision deep-drawn metal components and value-added solutions.
The Challenge
Our engagement with Trans-Matic started with a challenge to improve the management of system integrations. As time went on, the project grew to a significant business transformation, with the goal of improving workflows, developing tools for better shop floor data collection, implementing MES and QMS, improving PLC connectivity, gaining sales forecasting, and developing predictive quality and predictive maintenance procedures.
Trans-Matic originally tried using (Dell) Boomi to manage system integrations but quickly realized that Boomi processes required far too much effort to engineer — Trans-Matic needed something more streamlined and configurable.
In addition, the company was looking for better visibility into production/scrap recording, inventory and IoT data, lab status data, press status, quality, OEE and production monitoring. Getting their data into their ERP was time consuming and still didn’t provide the visibility they needed.
The company’s goals included a reorganization of processes to maintain the same workload with fewer resources and less container movement, time savings for Trans-Matic’s highly skilled team members, and more accurate real-time insights with cleaner data for improved analysis and forecasting.
“We’re interested in using Fuuz as an automation platform for predictable administrative tasks. Our organization, like many others, is looking for opportunities to embrace business process automation. We see great potential for building high value automated systems on the Fuuz® Platform.”
The Solution
Working with Fuuz, the company implemented a new CRM system, making sure that the information in its Plex ERP — customer records, locations, contacts, parts — could be managed across the two systems with minimal impact on users.
“It’s all about connectivity. Not just the machines but the people, the software and everything else that makes the business tick. Like any process, there’s always an input and an output. Our challenge is to do more with less… specifically, minimize manual transactions,” reported Trans-Matic Director of Global IT and Communications Michael Kroll.
Using the Fuuz applications platform, Trans-Matic now has a bidirectional integration between its CRM and ERP — users can update customer information in either the CRM or ERP and their changes are applied to both systems. Data visibility is vastly improved, and manual systems have been automated.
“This means that the sales team can stay focused on working within the sales platform, and other functional areas can continue making updates using the ERP. It means less time spent jumping from system to system and more time spent getting things done,” commented Systems Architect Stephen Sherwood.
Following the implementation of the Fuuz applications platform, Trans-Matic:
- Automated production recording with one-click production/scrap recording, improved visibility, gained automatic label generation, and achieved data visibility into container quantities with less container movement.
- Automated the recording and uploading of quality lab data into the ERP solution, which eliminated manual rekeying, saved labor and delivered immediate shop floor results.
- Achieved real-time visibility of shop floor performance and press status, gaining insight into production status, quality and OEE data.
The Result
The Fuuz and Trans-Matic teams developed more than 100 workflows on the Fuuz applications platform to gain production efficiencies. Shop floor data collection via Fuuz’s MES features ensure accurate, real-time data. PLC connectivity is now improved, and the Fuuz team is developing sales forecasting, predictive quality and predictive maintenance tools.
Notable improvements include:
- Business units now have new real-time status screens.
- Receiving processing time now averages about 20 minutes per day, reduced from 3 hours per day.
- Trans-Matic now receives alerts for WC pickups and material needs.
- The lab receives alerts if production parts go “out of control” or “out of specification.”
- The mass data upload includes new tooling orders.
Using the Fuuz Flow Designer features, Trans-Matic can now build integrations using fewer steps than with Boomi. Trans-Matic has found that the Fuuz integration process flows are cleaner and much easier to replicate as needed. The CRM/Plex integration delivers data about customers, parts and new business awards. Real-time data is integrated between Plex and Trans-Matic’s other software solutions.
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