It’s a new year and businesses are taking inventory of their organizations. By analyzing the previous year’s performance, managers typically identify short and long-term solutions to ensure greater profitability in the coming year. However, many of them fail to adequately plan for the complexities that accompany rapid growth. Experiencing such growth without adequately preparing for it can cause a myriad of challenges, including inefficiency, which leads to lost productivity, lower customer satisfaction, and decreased profitability.
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| StructureWorks evolution has brought Finfrock engineering and production team members to the brink of a paperless precast operation. |
ADAPTABILITY: KEY TO SUCCESS
It’s no secret that being adaptable to change is mandatory for any business that works in a competitive market. However, doing so requires a deliberate mind shift and a forward-thinking mentality. Take the precast industry, for example. As producers begin to take on more projects, there are more moving parts to manage: More information about projects in the pipeline; more products being fabricated, stored and shipped; more people to train; and, more information to share between the employees doing the work. With all of this increased activity, there is a greater urgency for management to implement scalable technology that will equip their organizations to maximize efficiency while adapting to the complexities that accompany growth.
GOING PAPERLESS
In 2015, Concrete Products published an article about how Finfrock Industries utilized StructureWorks’ PieceTracker to gain real-time, accurate information across the organization when and where it’s needed. At the time, I projected that a completely paperless process for precast concrete production was a dream that would soon be within reach. Since then, the functionality of these products has increased way beyond what we could have imagined.
Since the 2015 article, we have eliminated Piece Detail drawings with XceleRAYtor, moving instead to a completely paperless drawing system for the plant. The repair process is now handled inside of PieceTracker, removing one of the last areas where paper was used. There have been many other enhancements across all our software products to improve productivity and provide information to the people who need it to do their jobs efficiently.
Using PieceTracker, Finfrock Industries has been able to capture, distribute and effectively use information to manage its current operations and leverage data to create more efficient and responsible methods for the future. Best of all, it optimizes productivity, allowing Finfrock to bring its DualDeck Building System to market faster and more cost effectively—ultimately driving customer satisfaction.
Investing in the right technology solution is critical for precast companies who wish to manage complexity as they grow. What technologies are you currently using or evaluating? What is your timeline for implementing those technologies?
More information about PieceTracker and how it can help an organization become more adaptable and adept at managing complexity can be obtained at www.structureworks.net or by calling 407/367-2400.
Wayne Maiuri is the vice president of StructureWorks LLC, a subsidiary of Florida-based Finfrock. He has over 20 years of AutoCAD and over 15 years of SolidWorks experience, as well as 10-plus years of internal application development leveraging existing software and technologies.