Dalsin Industries Builds Foundation for Industry 4.0

Dalsin Industries, Inc. (Bloomington, MN) is leveraging enterprise resource planning (ERP) system technology from Epicor Software Corporation (Austin, TX) to build a foundation for Industry 4.0 with seamless sharing of downstream and upstream information across their factory floor. They are a precision metal manufacturer that prides themselves in being an extension of their original equipment manufacturer (OEM) customers, but they face significant challenges involving increasing demands from customers that want technical ability, documentation, and reduced service lead-time, all for less cost. In such a cost-competitive market, Dalsin is relying on advanced ERP technology to stay competitive and reduce the time to get their products to market.

A former Epicor user, Dalsin tried another ERP system for a few years before returning. “We eventually figured out that we couldn’t accurately track our costs on the jobs using that system,” recalled Jeff Dalsin, an IT business analyst for Dalsin Industries. “You could only do one quantity for a quote at a time, and we couldn’t see the actual costs of a job in real time. This caused some concern and some problems, because we didn’t know exactly how we were performing on our jobs. It just wasn’t a good fit, so we had to make a change.”

Since their return to Epicor, Dalsin has fully embraced the future of manufacturing by adopting Industry 4.0 principles, such as ensuring that machines communicate with one another about data and performance. To do this, they must have a technology foundation, and one of the ways Epicor has supported the company in figuring out their Industry 4.0 future is by taking advantage of the business activity queries (BAQ) that have given the company visibility into virtually all aspects of their operations.

“The BAQs for getting reports generated or information out of the system is very important,” noted Dalsin. “We need to be able to create dashboards so people can have quick information on their screen. That flexibility allows us to get the answers to the people that need them as soon as possible. It can be about anything: from what jobs are late, to a certain operation, to what’s ready to ship so they can get it out the door.” The flexibility of the ERP system is also crucial in helping the shop determine when to purchase new equipment. The system allows the company to see how many hours are on their shop loads, how many hours they’re getting off the load, and how efficient they are against using that machine so it can better justify purchasing equipment.

“Businesses such as this that adopt the latest in ERP technologies will be fit to grow and respond to the new digital challenges of tomorrow while achieving a competitive advantage right now,” said Scott Hays, the senior vice president of product marketing at Epicor.

www.epicor.com