Manufacturer Streamlines Information System, Step by Step
“Mommy, Mommy! I got a star on my picture!”
The voice comes tinny over the desk phone. Mommy punches the speaker phone so she can keep entering data while she talks. “Honey! That’s great! You worked so hard on that.”
“When are you coming home? I want to show it to you.”
“I have to work late tonight, sweetness. I’ll have to see it . . . ” She trails off, distracted by the numbers on the screen in front of her, but the kindergartner finishes for her:
“After the database rollout. I know.”
The elevated stress levels. The overtime. The lost data. That one lady who insists that change is Bad! Change is always bad! And she shouldn’t have to deal with it!
Launching a new information system can be traumatic for everyone involved. It can also be costly, as customers get frustrated, estimates get miscalculated, and overtime hours for staffers grappling with the new system accrue.
This is why one Greater Cleveland manufacturer, already having growing pains from a mini-boom in business, was worried. “We’ve just acquired this huge new contract,” a manager explained. “It’s great for the bottom line, but we’re building trust with these guys. We’ve got to have a way to track everything, but we can’t afford a screw up.”
Done, and done.
“What’s the most critical information challenge you have right now?”
He didn’t have to think about that for long. “We need to be able to quickly produce accurate estimates for the different projects. We’ve got the part costs coming in from one place, the lab’s stuff coming from another and way too much information stored in people’s heads.”
The built-in flexibility of Filemaker allows for continual expansion, so the solution was simple — a rollout done in stages, starting with the number one concern: getting those estimates into an automated, accurate process. It takes very little time to set up connectivity with MySQL sources (the lab), and not much longer for an Oracle source (the parts supplier). The most time consuming aspect: “downloading” the data in people’s heads into a comprehensive, consistent process. Finally, training the users. Filemaker Pro is an intuitive application, but it’s not always easy for users to change how they’ve been doing tasks since birds started flying.
This is where the manufacturer will see the biggest advantage of a gradual rollout. Prism Database Design provides one-on-one training, “cheat sheets,” instructional videos, on screen instructions and a help call line to ensure that every user is confident and practiced. Clients will receive seamless, professional assistance, and will never have to hear the fumbling, “I’m so sorry . . . we just changed to a new . . . ” Best of all, when it’s time for the next step (tracking trials, in this case), the solution will work the same way. The manufacturer will already have in-house experts — practiced users — who can answer quick questions.
And, to finish the entirely fictional anecdote that begins this blog:
“I can’t wait to see it!,” says Mommy. “I don’t need that expensive time-and-a-half pay to do an effective job for our clients — I’ll be home in a half an hour!”
The system is fast. The development is fast. So this guy can take his time to strategize and make smart decisions about his next move.
