Impact                   

DATA ANALYSIS

Data Warehouse Project

The legacy ERP had very weak reporting capability.  A consulting company was providing some custom programming at a cost of several thousand dollars per month but their solution still required much manipulation of data via downloads to Excel before it could be published to the sales reps.

We Built a small Data Warehouse system to extract data nightly from the old system and put it in a MySQL database.  We also built standard reports that were automatically emailed to each sales rep each weekend on bookings for the last week, shipments for the last week, and historical sales by product for their customers.

This was mostly done with open source (free) or low cost software.  The total investment in software was under $750 plus the consulting company fees were eliminated.

I did all of the work on this project including the database design, programming, and setup for the small MySQL server.

We supplied accurate, timely, and complete data focused for each sales rep's customers that ran automatically without clerical manipulation via Excel.  The reps could then communicate better with customers on current orders and future requirements.

This system also allowed the marketing efforts to be more focused by doing custom queries used to improve planning as the business evolved from a manufacturer to an importer of furniture.

LOGISTICS

Operation Downsizing

Combining multiple manufacturing plants into a single location.

As part of the downsizing of the business (before the decision to discontinue the furniture operations) we combined 2 plants into a single location.

I created a project with minimal resources to move phone and data systems to one plant over a weekend.  I did most of the server relocation and setup.

We saved money and created very little disruption to the business by managing the project internally and collapsing multiple phone systems and networks into a single location.

Impact                   

SECURITY

Non-Business Web Surfing

The company had a problem of too much Web surfing by employees that impacted productivity.  They also had potential issues with surfing questionable "adult" sites that created a company liability.  No method to monitor or control Internet activity existed.  A survey of Web activity prior to the implementation of this solution showed about 75 people had used the Internet for very excessive personal use and many had surfed to "adult" sites.

HR wanted to purchase Web surfing control software but there was no budget. The focus was not to terminate "misbehaving" employees but to create a way to control behavior.

We created custom software to monitor Web surfing using existing Firewall logs.  The system sent a private email each day to each employee summarizing only his or her activity for the prior day.  The HR group created awareness of the problem and informed everybody that they would get a private email each day.

I did all of the Database design, programming, and MS-SQL Server administrative tasks for creating and managing this Database.

One week after implementation the "inappropriate" use dropped to zero and no employee had to be disciplined for his or her activity.

Cost of the solution: $0.00 since all of the software was developed in house.

VENDOR RELATIONSHIPS

Creative Negotiating

Before I joined the company Süd-Chemie had decided to implement SAP on Compaq Brand Alpha chip servers running Windows NT 4.0. Microsoft and Compaq decided to discontinue support for NT on Alpha chip processors less than 12 months after the initial implementation.

This essentially left our SAP servers un-supported. SAP would run under UNIX that Compaq marketed but some of the servers we were using would not run UNIX due to specific model limitations.

I began negotiating with the local Compaq sales representative regarding our dilemma. After several months of negotiating the local sales rep believed he could get us some new hardware at a deep discount under a special fund Compaq had designated to help certain customers. Our problem was made even worse because we could not make the conversion to UNIX without a parallel test environment but we did not have any extra hardware.

The final result was Compaq gave Süd-Chemie over $300,000 in free hardware to replace the old equipment plus they included some additional equipment to be used as a test system to allow simulation of a live production conversion without any risk to the live systems.

Süd-Chemie saved over $300,000 in hardware and only spent the cost of shipping to return the old equipment to Compaq. The conversion went flawlessly and users even asked on Monday after the conversion weekend "I thought we were going to convert but I can't tell any difference".

Not only did we get new hardware at no cost we were able to move to a UNIX environment that had fewer problems than the only current Windows alternative of NT 4.0.

After the conversion the extra hardware became our "sandbox" system for testing other patches, installs, and OS upgrades in a safe environment.

The net result was an investment of about $3,000 in hardware and software eliminated a serious on going problem.

ARCHITECTURE

Network Enhancements

Because of the "campus" layout of the production facilities and main office that spanned several city blocks the Wide Area Networking (WAN) costs were excessive.

The in-town (Louisville) portion of the WAN was redesigned with a blended approach using combination of a local carrier, our current global carrier, and wireless technology.

For an investment of about $5k in wireless hardware and changing carriers we created a redundant fault tolerant network, cut monthly WAN costs by $2k, and increased the WAN speed from the main office to the main production "campus" facility from 256 kilo-bits to over 10 mega-bits. A 40x increase in speed while saving money with an ROI of about 3 months.

Impact                   

CREATIVE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

Wireless Bar Code Solution on a budget

We needed a wireless bar code system to control rapid inventory movement (one water heater built every 17 seconds) but the current system did not have any built-in capability or interface for an off the shelf add on radio frequency bar code inventory control module.  Software options were limited but the rapid inventory movement was a serious problem if data collection got very far behind the production line output.

We built a customized system using a programmable terminal emulator to essentially simulate keying data into the system from the bar code terminals.  A custom program collected data from the hand held and fork lift mounted wireless terminals and then sent it to the terminal emulator simulating a user keyed transaction.  Error and information messages were extracted from the screen and sent back to the hand held terminal all in real time.

I did all of the VB Script programming for the terminal emulator to simulate an operator to automate the transactions.

More timely and accurate inventory transactions that ultimately saved money by reducing inventory handling and counting labor.  It also improved customer service and production planning by knowing what was in stock.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Phone System Replacement

The company used Centrex for local phone service (no in house PBX) that was very costly.  The local phone company provided this service.

We purchased and installed two phone systems for the main office and the main plant to eliminate the Centrex charges.

The monthly cost savings was approximately $15k after about $150k investment in phone hardware with an ROI of about 10 months.

Impact                   

CREATIVE LEADERSHIP

Shop Floor Feedback System

Inconsistent production on one high velocity product assembly line resulted in frequent lost production.  This line was partially automated and used a Kanban one pull manufacturing technique that did not allow any batch work at any station.  It had the potential to manufacture credit card imprinters at a rate of one every 14 seconds but frequently was under that standard.

I worked with two manufacturing engineers to add a scrolling LED sign to the end of the assembly line that showed the count of each imprinter as it was finished at the end of the line.  It also calculated the pace of the line and estimated that if the crew kept up the current pace they would complete a certain number of units by the end of the shift.  If they reached a certain higher level of pace the sign displayed some creative graphics to "reward" the crew.

Production management offered pizza lunches if a certain pace was maintained.

I did all of the PLC programming and interface to the electronic sign.

The production crew got continuous, timely, and accurate feedback of their progress on each shift long before they needed to "play catch up" to make up lost production.  They also enjoyed the graphic "rewards" and the pizza lunches.  The line was fully capable of the 14 second cycle time pace but if only 1 second per unit was lost all day the line would be 7% below their goal.

For the cost of the sign ($250), some free in-house software development, and a few pizza lunches a month the crew managed to stay on pace almost every day.

This was truly an exercise in "out of the box" thinking by the team that created the solution.