If you receive errors when attempting to view this white paper, please install the latest version of
Adobe Reader.
"Global Shop's One-System ERP SolutionTM integrates all of your business processes into one easy-to-use system that puts you in total control of your business. You make better decisions on the shop floor and in management meetings - this translates to leaner, more efficient operations and long-term improvements to your bottom line."
Source: Global Shop Solutions
Case Study: Martin's Wood Products
Shop Floor Management is also known as :
Manage the Shop Floor,
Shop Floor,
Shop Floor Efficiency,
Global Shop Solutions for Shop Floor Solutions,
Decisions on the Shop Floor,
Gains Throughout the Shop Floor,
Own Shop Floor,
Careless Shop Floor,
Lean Shop Floor,
Shop Floor Management,
Work Order on the Shop Floor,
Track Job Costing on the Shop Floor,
Global Shop Solutions Shop Floor Project,
Real-time Management Shop Floor Activities,
Shop Floor Operations,
Shop Floor Management System,
Shop Floor Handling,
Shop Floor Project,
Real-time Management Shop Floor,
Shop Floor Activities,
Shop Floor Software.
21st Century ERP Preserves American Craftsman Tradition
They say that a personal approach to finely-crafted wood furniture is a lost
art in the United States. In a world of plastic and particleboard, the
centuries-old tradition of taking a piece of American hardwood like Appalachian
oak or Pennsylvania cherry, and turning it into an heirloom chair or table is
simply not worth the effort. Well, don't tell that to the Martin family of
Meyerstown, Pennsylvania. Nestled into the rolling Amish farmlands of
Southeastern Pennsylvania, the Martins have been producing some of the best
solid wood furniture made in America for over 20 years.
However, theirs is neither a typical industrial job shop, nor a sleepy
backyard shed woodworking operation. Martin's Wood
Products (MWP) is a highly sophisticated custom furniture
manufacturer whose lineage of family management has kept pace with the
technological and enterprise resource planning (ERP)
advances of the 21st century. According to MWP's General Manager James Martin,
one reason they've been able to continue to craft and sell the highest quality,
American-made solid wood furniture is due to their decision to acquire Global
Shop Solutions ERP software in 2003. "We found out about Global Shop through
researching many different ERP software products. While doing this, I received
an invitation to a seminar that Global Shop was holding in Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania. I went, and their discussion and software demonstration really
raised my interest. So, after speaking with them further, we purchased the
Global Shop system, and I must say that we've had great success with Global Shop
from day one," Martin explains. "We have liked working with them ever since."
For MWP, the Global Shop system, as well as the company itself, was a natural
alliance not only in terms of the ERP software needed to bring costing under
control, but also in the similar basic business philosophies held by the two
companies. Both MWP and Global Shop are family-owned and operated businesses
where exemplary customer service and employee relations are vital to their
success. It is the Global Shop personal approach to doing business that first
appealed to MWP-in Global Shop, MWP saw their own traditions of consistent
quality business management style and execution. Martin observes, "Like Martin's
Wood Products, Global Shop is a customer intimate business. That's just one of
many reasons why they're a perfect fit for us."
"Our business evolves around the Global Shop Configurator. We
can quickly configure hundreds of thousands of options of furniture, accurately
price the options, and put an accurate work order on the shop floor
automatically, consistently, every time. Providing this level of service and
such a vast product line has set us apart and gained a competitive
advantage in the marketplace. Global Shop has given us the tools to automate
from order entry, through the many manufacturing processes, all the way to
shipping, all the while tracking inventory and labor in real time. Accurate job
costing has enabled us to price accurately and competitively to ensure
profitable growth."
James Martin
General Manager Martin's Wood Products
Global Shop's Configurator Calculates Millions of Design Options
MWP is a multifaceted production operation. They're a made-to-order
manufacturing business that produces custom work as well as carrying a standard
product line. As malleable as wood is in the hands of the master craftsmen at
MWP, there are nearly an endless array of options possible with their product
furniture designs-different configurations, hardware, color choices, styles,
sizes, and shapes. For example, in the subcategory of finishes alone, MWP
customers can choose any number of colors and/or textures in general categories
such as stained, glazed, painted, distressed, and planed. Ultimately, there must
be a central database where various design options can be considered and
ordered. And a powerful software tool to make it happen. Global Shop's
Configurator application fills the bill.
Martin explains, "The Global Shop Configurator helps our customers to choose
from the millions of different options available to them within our
manufacturing services. And, it's all automated-automated pricing, automated
part number, automated description, automated router. In other words, we've made
our process as automated as possible- from the order entry on out, and that has
given us great flexibility in what we can provide to our customers. Global Shop
has elevated customer service for us to a niched marketing capability. With the
Global Shop Configurator, we exceed customer expectations of quality and product
selection, and we're able to keep everything in the production process in order
and running smoothly."
Automation has also been a boon to MWP in shop floor management. In an era
where business survival depends on strict cost accounting, where pennies of
material cost saved per part can mean the difference between major profits or
narrow loss, shop floor management becomes increasingly important. It is here
where Global Shop ERP applications excel. In fact, MWP is heavily tied to the
use of Global Shop's graphical user interface (GUI)
as terminals on the shop floor where employees can clock on and off a job,
requisition materials, and monitor myriad other job processes.
"We use Global Shop all around the shop for both accounting and
manufacturing," Martin states. "Through the GUI system that is used throughout
the plant, we're very, very focused on tracking our job costing on the shop
floor. For this reason, Global Shop is a complete package where accounting and
manufacturing are all tied together in real time and in one single and easy to
use database-it's simply one-stop ERP shopping for us, and it makes cost
accounting an important part of our daily management."
Martin's Wood Products operates a highly sophisticated furniture
manufacturing facility in rural Pennsylvania.
Global Shop's Configurator
gives Martin's Wood customers literally millions of design options to choose
from. This customizing capability keeps the company ahead of competition,
especially from overseas where much of today's furniture manufacturing takes
place.
"MWP is heavily tied to the use of Global Shop's graphical user
interface (GUI) as terminals on the shop floor where employees can clock on and
off a job, requisition materials, and monitor myriad other job processes."
James Martin
General Manager Martin's Wood Products
Significant Inventory Improvement
When it comes to the success that MWP has achieved since their implementation
of Global Shop, the facts speak for themselves. In addition to enhancing their
on-time delivery, Global Shop has facilitated a better way of doing business in
just about every area of the sprawling MWP plant. "Global Shop has helped us
succeed in inventory management and control. In the first three months of
implementing Global Shop, we dropped our inventory six digits." Martin exclaims.
"Now, I get inventory in as I need it- just in time. Global Shop has
tremendously helped our lean journey, and helped us lean all shop floor
operations from work order generation to shipping out the door. As the general
manager, I am particularly pleased with the overall Global Shop shop floor
management system, and its tremendous capability at controlling costs of labor
and material."
The Tradition Continues at Martin's Wood
"I get inventory in as I need it-just in time. Global Shop has
tremendously helped our lean journey, and helped us lean all shop floor
operations from work order generation to shipping out the door."
James Martin
General Manager Martin's Wood Products
The success MWP has realized since acquiring their Global Shop system can
give hope to custom manufacturers across the nation. With strong ties to their
local community, enduring customer-oriented business philosophy, plus their use
of cutting-edge ERP technology, MWP is an ideal realization of manufacturing
success. That MWP sees their use of their Global Shop system in strategic terms
means that their crafted wood heritage will not be lost; rather, the best
practices business management approach offered by Global Shop helps to ensure
that Martin's Wood Products should continue their unique American craftsmanship
for generations of Martins to come.
Who wouldn't be proud to own this Martin's Wood dining room suite with its
American wood, design, and decades of craftsmanship built in?