Aligning IT objectives to closely support Lean manufacturing business objectives can help companies gain or maintain a significant competitive advantage.
Brant OβHair, president of OβHair Shutters, Ltd., in Lubbock, Texas is using his ERP system to gain a strategic advantage in his constantly changing and increasingly competitive industry. By aligning his IT system investments to closely support his Lean manufacturing business objectives, he has outmaneuvered his competition.
OβHair Shutters manufactures custom wood window shutters. The firmβs dealers in the field configure and design each order using the firmβs proprietary PC-based design platform, Customizer2 (C2). After the customer approves the design, each order is fed into OβHairβs Fitrix ERP system. It then takes about five days to custom manufacture its high-quality shutters to the customerβs precise specifications.
Brant OβHair credits their close integration of IT resources with helping them attain and maintain a strong competitive advantage. βThereβs no doubt that coupling our design and ERP systems enable us to deploy Lean manufacturing to our strategic advantage. We now quickly and efficiently deliver a high-quality product that our competition canβt match. Even offshore manufacturers, who enjoy lower raw materials and labor costs, canβt offer our level of product customization or delivery schedules.β
OβHair uses advanced planning software to manage the blending of its continuous manufacturing of base components with the customer order-based variable components to create their finished shutters. The custom designed product specifications resulting from the application of their proprietary C2 configurator are transferred real-time into the Fitrix ERP system. Using the ERP systemβs make-to-order production planning and execution modules allows orders to be completed, inspected, and prepared for shipping in five days.
OβHair credits the integration of Fitrix with helping him improve performance to weather the storm of the economic downturn. βThis economy has played havoc with businesses related to residential construction. By automating many of our clerical procedures, weβve freed up about 4 man-hours of production supervisorsβ time per week and decreased our office clerical workload by about 15%. The savings have helped us retain our IT βbrain trustβ β people that are hard to replace. Meanwhile, work is progressing on our next IT endeavor - lean inventory control. We conservatively estimate that with our custom programming of Fitrix weβll be able to lean our inventories by over 50%. That means even larger savings.β
Interestingly, it was Brant OβHairβs son, Micah, a graduate student at Auburn University, who introduced him to the term: IT-Integrated Lean manufacturing. βMicah learned about the IT strategy weβre now deploying from a graduate school professor at Auburn. βWeβre taking what he learned in class and effectively applying it to our benefit.β
OβHairβs efforts to leverage manufacturing planning software to enhance his operationβs efficiency go back to 2004. He deployed a very expensive and well known MRP solution but later abandoned it in frustration over continued high maintenance costs. βDeployment of Fitrix ERP from Fourth Generation Software was successful in less than half the time. Fitrixβs Total Cost of Ownership is a small fraction of our previous system. Also, we did almost all of the implementation and we handle support internally. We saved a bundle by eliminating the need for outside consultants. Fitrix provides us with a full-function ERP solution and the capability for self-support. For us it has been a win-win.β
For more information on Fitrix ERP, please visit www.fitrix.com.