Yes, it can! How? Two ways. Long and expensive, or affordable and NOW.
Do you have a mixture of new and older machinery, different brands and a substantial amount of labor-intensive operations? If you want to update to a Smart Factory, you will need heaps of money, spare resources and lots and lots of patience. You will need to update your existing ERP, or possibly need to purchase a new system. If you don’t have MES, then that will be your next big investment. New shop floor operator terminals, servers, firewalls, networks, Ethernet I/O servers and drivers to connect older machines will also be required. And this is only the beginning. Do you remember how long it took to install, customize and familiarise yourself and all the staff with your first ERP? This was just a little training…not likely.
Why Most ERP Systems Fall Short in the Smart Factory Journey
Currently, the majority of sheet metal fabrication job shops utilise approximately 50 to 70% of ERP features, often excluding scheduling, estimating and job costing. Managing your Smart Factory means, that you will have to utilise everything, otherwise, it will not work and your people on the shop floor will become administrators, which is already common practice. It is a very hard way to build your Smart Factory without a high degree of automation throughout your entire operation. To invest so much money and time and pretend that your company will in time grow into it will end up with great disappointment and a serious waste of money. Unfortunately, this is the long and expensive way.
An easier, faster and more cost-effective option is ZOOMFAB. Sophisticated, yet quick and simple to install, ZOOMFAB will give you more useful data than ERP with MES. Get the real-time picture of your productivity, machine utilisation, generated revenue and profitability, see the electricity and gas consumption, and identify work centres where you are making and losing money. Most importantly see how you can improve your bottom line.
ZOOMFAB is not an investment, it makes money the day you install it.
