2009-09-11 : James Alexander Corporation Improves Production By Implementing Decision One
by http://www.taylor.com
In 2008, James Alexander Corporation in Frelinghuysen New Jersey implemented Decision One from Taylor Scheduling Software.
James Alexander Corporation is a contract packaging manufacturer. Both pharmaceutical and industrial customers use James Alexander glass and plastic single-dose ampoules for dispensing products to their customers. So, if you've put flea & tick medicine on your pet, played with a chemiluminescent light stick at one of your kids' birthday parties, or applied a cosmetic solution from an ampoule, you've probably been using something from James Alexander.
Prior to implementing Decision One, all the scheduling at the site was being done manually. Each schedule and each change to any given schedule had to be done by hand. This meant creating hand - written spread sheets which would record the manufacturing of any order through the formulation, filling, washing, inspecting, packaging and shipping processes. Any change in the schedule (something late, something went wrong, a new order) meant that all affected steps for the change as well as all the affected steps for other orders using the same equipment or resources had to be manually changed.
Creating a schedule in this way was obviously a time consuming process fraught with the errors that come with manual entry in a complex environment. And, the problems encountered with that kind of system were many. Mainly, however, it was a case of ensuring that the RIGHT MACHINE was being used by manufacturing for the order and then monitoring the CURRENT STATUS of the order as it was being processed through the different production steps in the plant.
What Decision One brought to the table was a significant degree of increased VISIBILITY and CONTROL. Every current schedule in Decision One can now be viewed by the production supervisors so there is no mistake about what is running where and when it is expected to begin and end. With the day-to-day operations now visible, the scheduler's office is no longer a revolving door of people continuously looking for answers about what should be where or the current status of some hot order - each supervisor has an up-to-date view of the schedule and immediate notification of any changes being made. Further to this, as a change does need to be made, the scheduler no longer has to start from scratch, as it were, to generate a new schedule. It is now a simple matter of "dragging and dropping" the operation(s) that have been affected and re-issuing the schedule to the production supervisors.
What does it all mean? Jobs are no longer falling through the cracks and deliveries are being made on time. It also means that, in a smoother running operation, the stress of not knowing has been eliminated and, with that, an improved working environment with fewer errors has become a reality.
For more information on the James Alexander Corporation, please visit: http://www.james-alexander.com