THE NEXT STEP IN AUTOMATION: ERP UTILITIES

Many metal fabricators rely on enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to keep their operations running smoothly, but it actually takes a bit of overhead to keep the software itself on track.

Every day and/or night, often more than once, system utilities must be launched and monitored to sync the software with the newest job orders and all the other transactions that occurred during business hours. For many shops, unfortunately, this is still a hands-on activity that ties up valuable staff in repetitive tasks akin to housekeeping.

One metal manufacturer that decided to change the rules is Magic Metals, Inc. (Union Gap, WA), the largest job shop in the Pacific Northwest. As the company prepared to install a new ERP system in 2008, software coordinator Jeff Parker resolved to take utility-related matters out of the staff?s hands ? literally ? by automating daily utility responsibilities.

Today, key ERP tasks, ranging from running the system?s job scheduler to updating the costing module, are configured to self-execute with no manual intervention needed. Emails are sent automatically to designated personnel as each process is completed, as well as when a given process fails, to ensure timely error handling. The automation strategy is saving well over an hour every day, relieving the shop staff of nightly utility duties and freeing personnel for more productive work.

DAILY GRIND
Magic Metals fabricates sheet metal and machine parts for industries spanning agriculture, marine, packaging, semiconductor, telecommunications and beyond. The company operates out of a 130,000 sq ft facility located 150 miles southeast of Seattle.

Until 2008, Magic Metals had separate shop floor, purchasing and accounting applications that required duplicate and, in some cases, triplicate data entry. To eliminate those inefficiencies and gain new capabilities by integrating all data into a single cross-functional software platform, the company decided to replace its existing information systems with Infor ERP VISUAL, in part because VISUAL specializes in supporting discrete manufacturers such as metal fabricators.

But Parker balked at the typically manual nature of the system utility responsibilities that go with the ERP territory. In the usual scenario, a designated employee must navigate the same computer screens, click the same buttons, and babysit the same processes day after day and night after night to be sure that any execution problems can be resolved before the next business day. Otherwise, the ERP system will lack accurate data for performing vital functions like job scheduling, material requirements planning, costing and billing.

?We have an IT staff of one, and that?s me. If I had to trigger and watch over our ERP utilities manually, I would have to log in remotely from home or physically be in the plant for at least an hour every night. Neither option was practical,? says Parker. ?I knew that automation was the answer, but I wanted to do it as simply and inexpensively as possible.?

AUTOMATION SHORTCUT
Automation traditionally involves writing scripts, batch files or custom ?applets.? For Parker, that would have meant four to six weeks of custom programming at a time when he was up to his elbows in the ERP deployment. Rather than delay the VISUAL implementation or hire an expensive third-party programmer, he began looking for a process automation development platform that already had a set of common processes pre-programmed.

Through the technology grapevine, Parker learned that one of Magic Metals? own customers was using a software product that fit that exact description. The program, AutoMate Professional from Network Automation (Los Angeles, CA), provides an extensive menu of pre-automated actions such as ?Send keystrokes? and ?Send email? that can be dragged and dropped into a task-building window in the same sequence as if they were being performed manually. No coding is needed. The software then automatically launches and executes completed tasks according to any schedule or other trigger specified by the user, simulating manual input.

In April 2008, as the VISUAL implementation was in its preliminary stages, Parker purchased an AutoMate license and built the necessary automations in less than an hour. When the ERP system went live seven months later, so did the automations ? just as Parker desired.

NO MANUAL INTERVENTION
Magic Metals? hands-off strategy is being used for a variety of tasks that are essential to maintaining efficient workflow on the shop floor as well as in the back office.

For example, VISUAL?s job scheduling and material resource planning utilities automatically launch and run at both noon and midnight five days a week, providing updated information essential for the shop floor and the purchasing department. The system?s costing utility also runs by itself every night, applying the cost of materials and labor to the appropriate job.

On the first day of each month, costing data is automatically moved from the shop floor to VISUAL?s accounting module, and work-in-process and inventory valuation reports are run for the previous month, all without a single manual mouse click.

Parker has also automated several ERP-related computer maintenance chores to help the company keep tabs on the health of its information technology infrastructure. Disk usage is automatically checked once a day at a pre-set time to ensure that the SQL Server database holding the company?s ERP data has been backed up. In addition, the log files containing VISUAL?s material resource planning data are purged twice a day to save disk space.

TIME SAVINGS & MORE

With these and other automations, Parker has trimmed repetitive ERP and computer systems maintenance duties by hours every week while also ensuring that Magic Metals? ERP system is ready for business for each new shift. There is no risk of human error, no danger of delays caused by work emergencies or other distractions, and no need for night ERP duty.

In addition, because the automations were accomplished without programming, Magic Metals has avoided problems associated with ongoing code or script maintenance. This includes a reliance on the original programmer to resolve process failures, the need for another technical resource to decipher the code if the creator leaves the organization, and the need to rewrite code from scratch if the new programmer cannot interpret the original work.

These factors are enabling Magic Metals to operate more efficiently both on the shop floor and off. They also make the automation of ERP utility runs the next logical step for metal fabricators looking to go lean in all aspects of the business.

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Marty Gadzinowski is the vice president of Network Automation Inc., 654 S. Western Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90005, 213-738-1700, Fax: 213-226-8783, www.networkautomation.com.