Excellerant can bridge the (widening) Gap
From it’s inception, Excellerant was designed as a platform to increase communication and collaboration across your entire manufacturing shop – bridging the gap between the front office and the shop floor. This gap has now been temporarily widened by the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19).
Social distancing has become essential as this global pandemic continues to unfold, and businesses are struggling to move towards a more remote workforce. Many manufacturers find themselves in a balancing act when determining which teams are essential to maintain on-site, and which staff can work remotely. Machine tool operators and maintenance crews are obvious candidates to remain on-site. But for many traditional shops, who rely on paper job travelers and white-board-style schedules, even transitioning to a remote office staff presents a major operational challenge.
With remote staff and emergency procedures in place, Excellerant has become an invaluable tool for empowering your entire workforce.
ESP for your ERP
For estimators, planners, and other support staff, even if your manufacturing business’ ERP system is remotely accessible, these systems aren’t able to provide the full picture – they cannot process what they cannot see. Manufacturing data is so complex and non-uniform that ERP and MES systems often struggle to reach even basic manufacturing environment data. As a result, your (now remote) front-office remains critically separated from the shop floor.
Excellerant directly addresses this challenge by providing your remote staff with direct access to your shop floor with real-time machine data, actionable insights, and direct communication tools. Below we will explore some of the key benefits:
1. Real-time status updates for every job
With instant data synchronization into and out of your ERP system, Excellerant allows both on-site and remote staff to monitor and update job progress in real-time.
Our quick-scan summary view (pictured above) provides a live snapshot of your entire shop – customer orders, machine and operator statuses, dynamic completion dates, and more. Operators can qualify parts coming off a machine and instantaneously push this data into your ERP via tablets. Planners can use our included forecasting tool to remotely manage and adjust production schedules.
2. Eliminate paper-data from your manufacturing business
Our previous blog post explored the pitfalls of paper-data in manufacturing. When working with a remote support team, paper data becomes an even larger roadblock to daily operations. Moreover, paper job travelers moving between stations represent a potential sanitation hazard during this critical period of social distancing.
Excellerant’s remote DNC and digital file management tools (available on tablets at each machine) are the perfect solution for both risk-management and increased operational efficiency.
3. Built-in communication tools
The built-in chat functionality in our Shop Floor Interfaces allow operators to easily and effectively communicate across departments, management levels, and shifts – even with staff members working remotely. Planners and project managers can alert team members of high-priority tickets. Maintenance or material requests can be issued in real-time. With Excellerant, physical distance is no longer a factor.
Our platform has a proven record of boosting a shop’s overall operational efficiency, even under normal circumstances. With remote staff and emergency procedures in place, Excellerant has become an invaluable tool for empowering your entire workforce.
Our remote install kits are the perfect solution for simple and immediate deployment. Allow us to remotely assist your team with our online tools and decades of experience. Contact us today or schedule an online demo to get started.
