Publication date: 28 January 2010
As a company at the leading edge of manufacturing excellence and one that prides itself on deploying the latest tools and techniques in its manufacturing processes, it was important for DEK to select the correct Manufacturing Enterprise Tool when looking to replace our written work instructions with an electronic version.
Here at DEK, everything we do is focused on driving productivity for our customers, enabling them to expect more across the board - from speed improvements right through to the intrinsic accuracy of our technologies. That’s why it’s imperative that we work with a tool that not only offers improved functionality, ease of use, future proofing, issue control and deployment, data logging, reporting and improved training times, but also, one we can rely on to improve the overall quality of our products. Our customers have learned to set their standards extremely high when they work with us, so our Manufacturing Enterprise Tool needed to rise to this challenge.
Having analyzed the technology, we discovered that a key aspect of ProWorks is the interactive nature of the tool. Since the quality of our products is key to our success, the fact that each step of the defined process in ProWorks requires the operator to confirm that they have successfully completed each step before continuing, and that all steps have to be executed before a job is completed, was extremely appealing. This functionality enables us to continually maintain and improve build quality for customers working with diverse applications.
When evaluating the system, it was also important that the creation and editing of the work instructions was easy and did not need the services of a software engineer to compile. ProWorks fulfils this requirement due to its intuitive nature; with little training our Production Engineering team transferred all existing paper-based work instructions into ProWorks both in the UK and in China.
We were also impressed by the fact that ProWorks enables any critical dimensions or measurements to be collected within that process step with parameters that check that they are within tolerance. If not, ProWorks will not allow the operator to pass that step, taking them into a corrective action loop that builds into a highly useful online help and support feature.
In an effort to reduce administration and streamline the control and issue of work instructions we needed a tool that could control changes and up-issues in real time across multiple sites and various geographical locations. ProWorks has enabled us to do this and has reduced the volume and complexity of our system administration.
In this business it is very important to be able to ramp production quickly when demand requires so we required a system that was user friendly and clear and concise so that when training new operators or cross training existing ones we could rely on the process and the information provided rather than having to utilize skilled operators to act as trainers, ProWorks has fulfilled this role and the feedback from production has shown that training times have reduced dramatically whilst quality has not been affected. It is exactly this kind of process optimization without compromise that our customers demand; ProWorks has enabled us to continue to help DEK customers around the world expect more.
By A. King -Production Manager at DEK
For more information about ProWorks visit www.proworksinfo.com.
