It was to provide this continuity that Radan developed its e2i estimating-to-invoicing software system. St Neots Sheet Metal Company is one of its most experienced users, having been operating this powerful system for three years. As works director Wayne Mathews puts it: `We may not know more than Radan how the system works, but we know more how to work the system.'
Now St Neots has become one of the first users of Radan's new bar code logging module for e2i. This shop floor data collection system uses light-pen barcode reading technology to provide real-time recording of job movements. At St Neots it will track work from punching through to dispatch to provide data for use, among other things, in verifying accuracy of estimates.
Before e2i St Neots did its estimating manually but as the business grew computerised estimating seemed the only way to deal with the workload. Despite being a long-time user of Radan CADCAM it did look at other computer estimating packages before choosing e2i. In the end the support Radan had given the company over a number of years became a deciding factor.
As Wayne Mathews says, ‘After all, that's why customers buy our services. We give them delivery and quality. They might pay a few pence more for it, but it is quality and delivery that sells at the price. It’s the same with Radan. We may pay a bit more, but we get the service, the back-up, the whole package.'
Radan's e2i is probably also the most complete estimating system to run on PCs. The full set of modules - which St Neots has installed - covers estimating, estimate analysis, parts lists and bills of materials, contract details and schedules, rough cut capacity plans, materials lists, purchase orders and invoices.
The e2i database holds a software core that is custom-build for each user. At St Neots the database forms the repository of all its manufacturing data. That includes information relating to shopfloor machines and workstations, along with details of materials, suppliers, customers, estimates, contracts, orders, deliveries, route cards, invoices and more.
`We can list all estimates to any customer, for any period of time. We can see what percentage was successful and how many are outstanding or regretted. If we progress them we can give them a different status on the system. On the shop floor we can see all the operations, all the parts and their status.'
Established in 1982 as a one-stop sheet metal operation, St Neots manufactures fine limit sheet metal work, from prototypes and low batches through to full volume production and sub-assembly projects. Operating 24-hours a day from its single location on the outskirts of St Neots in Cambridgeshire, it currently employs 58 people.
St Neots' way of working is based on short cycle manufacture. This involves making what the customer wants in time for when it wants it, not before and certainly not for stock. All of the customers work is progressed through the shop, using route cards generated by e2i, by mixture of scheduling at the front end and Kanban-type pull-through towards the back end.
With a current turnover of £4 million, it is hard to imagine St Neots working in such an efficient high-speed way without e2i providing control. As well as preparing accurate estimates, it monitors estimates until they return as firm orders. It then generates the route cards that go with the order onto the shop floor and progress with it through to completion.
The original estimating data generated by e2i forms the basis of the route card. It is sufficiently accurate and detailed that once an order is received both the contract and the route card are created from it. Any minor editing can be done at this stage and details concerning tooling requirements added. Route cards go down onto the shop floor with workpiece drawings and progress with the job, controlling its progress through the shop in the usual way. The bar-coded cards are used by the operators to log on and off at each stage of manufacture from punching through welding, to finishing and inspection.
The importance of comparing estimated production times and costs with actual times and costs has always been appreciated by the company. Prior to installation of data capture, which at present is confined to two shop floor stations but will be extended to cover individual workcentres, comparisons were based on a sample 20 per cent of route cards being retrieved.
`But as our business has grown so a lot more information has been generated. Today we can produce 600 part numbers through the factory in one week, of varying quantities. Data capture gives us 100 per cent feed back of information to the computer, we can see which estimates are incorrect or why jobs are taking so long.'
`Also if a customer rings up asking us to pull a part forward or wanting to know where it is, the computer will be able to tell me. Customers do not want to wait half an hour for an answer. With data captured into the e2i system I can give them an instant response from the screen.'
St Neots is also a big user of Radan's CADCAM programmes. For the past six years it has been running Radesign and Radraft for drawing, and Radpunch and Radbend for sheet nesting and for programming its CNC punching machines. It now has 10 CADCAM seats in total, in addition to a licence for up to eight e2i seats.
Not surprisingly Wayne Mathews sees Radan as an important part of St Neot's operation. `I have tried other CADCAM systems but Radan is my preferred. It is the most concise and easy to learn and it does everything we want it to. Through the DNC link it runs our two FinnPower punching presses. No programmes are stored on the shop floor but are held in the system's database.'
Both the CADCAM drafting and programming system and the e2i estimating system run on a common network. This makes it possible for data to be moved between the two, with obvious benefits when it comes to ensuring the accuracy of data which is at the operational heart of both the St Neot's Sheet Metal Company and the Radan e2i estimating-to-invoicing system.
