Aerospace and other manufacturing industries have accelerated outsourcing of manufacturing operations to increase efficiencies and reduce costs. However, moving some of the operations outside of the traditional four walls of the factory has created “dark areas” in the manufacturing visibility process. As a supplier to the world’s largest manufacturers, such as Boeing, Hobart was looking for ways to address these issues and become a better supplier by providing real-time production visibility to their customers in order to alleviate the fear of missing mission-critical deadlines. Hobart needed to track work orders through the different stages of manufacturing, and send real-time notifications on jobs that affect the quality or delivery schedule. Hobart needed these notifications automated as manual tracking is laborious, costly, and error-prone.

Requirements

To provide end-to-end, real-time visibility to its customers and internal operations, Hobart Machined Products needed to:

• Streamline receiving, inventory, shipping, and returns of raw material, parts, and finished products

• Simplify the creation of customer orders and shop-floor work orders

• Automate the kitting process based on bill of materials and parts inventory

• Prioritize work orders based on customer demand, predictive analytics, and resource availability

• Optimize manufacturing processes by projecting where work orders will be in the future

• Report on customer orders and work orders (where, what, who, when, why)

• Generate notifications to quickly address issues before they affect delivery

• Track at-risk or delayed work orders, and rework; and identify bottlenecks and material issues to fulfill future customer orders

The solution

Most companies attempt to manage customer orders, parts traceability, product quality, and on-time delivery status using their top-floor order processing systems and enterprise planning data. As with most other enterprises focused on supply chain optimization, this approach doesn't work for Hobart’s high-value and high-mix environment, because of the costs and complexity associated with integrating, configuring, and managing commercially available solution packages. Hobart was able to break this cycle by using a solution from Omnitrol Networks Inc., a programmable sensor-driven application network solution that taps business intelligence at the edge and synchronizes top-floor operations with manufacturing in real time while allowing external customers and partners to access the right information at the right time. Omnitrol provides automation and real-time visibility for three critical aspects of Hobart’s business: inventory, manufacturing, and customer satisfaction.

Automated inventory and warehouse tracking

Hobart manages a complex set of parts and raw material used in the manufacturing of their products. Receiving, inspection, and put-away procedures have to follow strict rules for Hobart to maintain its AS9104A and ISO 9001 certifications. Errors due to manual processes have an immediate effect on quality, on-time delivery, and margins. The Omnitrol solution was deployed to automate the receiving, inspection, and put-away processes utilizing a combination of noncontact technologies, and fixed and hand-held sensors. Supplier, warehouse, part number, lot, batch, quantity, and advanced shipping notification (ASN) information are directly accessed through an easy-to-use web interface. Detailed transaction, part status, and inventory reports provide users with a real-time view of what is available or expected to come.

Order management, kitting, and work in process

New customer orders are received through a secure web portal or as a result of replenishment signals directly from the customers’ shop floor. The system automatically reserves parts and components required for the new orders, and sends alerts if additional parts need to be procured based on Hobart’s own replenishment schedule. Omnitrol automatically pulls information from the bill of material and inventory modules to assist employees in building a “kit” before the start of a given manufacturing process. Using a hand-held device, shop-floor technicians can see part number, quantity, location, and container information of parts associated to a customer order. Barcodes or RFID tags are scanned to verify that the correct parts are being kitted, and to also track lot and details for complete traceability. Tools in inventory can also be added to the kit if required. Real-time visibility on customer and shop-floor orders is provided by the work-in-process visibility module which receives data directly from an Omnitrol smart shelf (see right). The smart shelf not only tracks work orders and employees as they move from one stage of manufacturing to the next, but through a touch screen also provides shop-floor employees with information about the work order’s route, and allows them to request rework.

Improved customer satisfaction

Using advanced predictive analytics, the software is able to estimate the completion time of each customer order on the shop floor. Based on schedules of current work orders and a number of other configurable parameters and signals from the shop floor, the system updates the status of each work order. The system constantly updates the estimated time to complete until the finished goods are shipped to the customer. Based on customer requests, Hobart is able to share delivery projections of customer orders and work-in-process information in real time, 24 × 7, with key customers. Customers can access the information remotely or have alerts about expected delivery dates e-mailed to them.

The benefits

The system has simplified the process of entering and tracking customer orders through a web portal that can be securely accessed anytime from anywhere. By choosing an integrated solution from a single vendor, Hobart benefits from a seamlessly integrated view from customer orders through to their inventory system to generate an extremely accurate production forecast with customer feedback capability. Based on what is available or expected to arrive in the warehouse, the system gives Hobart’s employees a detailed view of what they will be able to kit, assemble, and produce—now and in the future.

“Not only does the solution save us time and increase accuracy in receiving, moving, and kitting, but it also gives us incredible visibility on all the work orders on the shop floors,” says Brian Knowlton, operations manager at Hobart. “There is no more guess work about where things are and when they will be completed. And our customers love that.”




Automating the inventory and warehouse processes virtually eliminated errors and uncertainty about stock level, parts availability, and locations. The main benefit for Hobart is to now have a clear view of their inventory levels and valuation across their warehouses, but also to be able to track the origin of each part that enters the fabrication of their mission-critical products.

Shortages are avoided by automating replenishment with Hobart’s suppliers. Low-cost wireless hand-held devices have been deployed for employees to scan parts throughout the warehouse, and provide the information right on the shop floor without integration with complex and costly enterprise resource planning (ERP) and warehouse management systems.

Planning, training, deployment, and testing of the entire project took less than a week. And because of the use of noncontact technologies, very few changes were made to Hobart’s processes. Return-on-investment (ROI) calculations based only on efficiency improvements showed a positive return in less than six months. Better tracking of reworks and returns were not considered in the ROI. Higher customer satisfaction and new customer acquisition will represent an even more significant benefit to Hobart. Hobart’s customers, such as Boeing or NASA, now have access to their orders status in real time. They can better plan their own manufacturing operations knowing the information is more reliable and more accurate than with their other suppliers.