I had the realization recently of how many times I've heard this same phrase.
"I never knew this approach to software was even available to us."
It always comes after the first conversation I have with someone in the industrial space. I have a lot of theories as to why I get this reaction. But I think the basis of it is that for anyone making buying decisions, they feel constrained to a limited amount of choices, specific to their niche in the industry.
And beyond that, building something entirely custom for their workflow just seems out of the question.
On that note, I'm going to lay out a typical example of what is possible using a mashup of a few of our real-life customers.
My goal is to illustrate to you that innovation is not out of your reach. Real change within your business is readily available. You already have ideas that could take your business to the next level. It's merely a matter of making them a reality.
The Plant Tour
"Let's get you some PPE. Are you wearing steel-toed boots?"
I proudly gave an "Of course!". Not disclosing the 10+ plant tours that I've missed out on because I wore my favorite pair of sneakers.
One of the highlights of my job is the initial plant tour when we meet a new customer.
On this day, I was at a mid-sized steel manufacturer with a history dating to before WWII. Their General Manager and was giving me the plant tour. Over the past decade, they had been through some significant transitions. Not to mention the 2008 market crash, there were specific challenges that he had successfully lead them by setting them up for some serious growth.
This manufacturer was a LEAN operation, and making that transition, reshaped the way that the whole organization worked. Their efficiency was light years ahead of where it was a decade earlier. But all of that productivity ground to a halt when it came time to enter their job progress into their ERP system. To simply enter a few data points, it took about 35 clicks and the opening and closing of multiple windows. I don't think I need to explain the amount of hatred that the team at had for this software.
"Every time I walk the plant floor, I just can't get it out of my head. Why don't I demand the same LEAN mindset for this software as we do everything else in this plant?" the General Manager asked me.
This was my chance to give one of my favorite speeches. To explain all the ways that venture capital-driven, B2B software companies have spent decades conditioning and buyers that they have no other choices. Only to be stuck with generic software and forced to conform.
Luckily for him, I skipped that speech and said, "That's a great question, and we're here to fix that."
The Source of All the Trouble
After the plant tour, we started digging deep into what was going on. A scene that's probably not that unfamiliar to you. Here are the four things causing them the most trouble.
ERP
Their ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Software was the source of truth for this business. As one of 6 locations getting all of the companies data into the ERP was essential for the whole corporation to function. No getting around it. We had to figure out a way to innovate within the parameters the ERP gave us. We've done this 100 times. As we say in Alabama: "Ain't scared."
Spreadsheet Hell
A myriad of reporting tools was used throughout the business. But none on them were easily updated of particularly useful. So this resulted in everyone rolling their spreadsheet to track the most critical data they need to do their job. The most common types were directly exported from the ERP system and reformatted or transformed into a readable format. Good luck training your replacement on how to report things up the chain while you are on vacation.
Paper Processes
When using a software tool that isn't a great fit, it's easy to fall back in "just use the old paper form, and we'll deal with it later." Six months later, you've got a stack of paperwork to work through and no progress on streamlining this paper process. This was the exact situation we observed here. Much of their day to day data collection was still done on paper and caused substantial time sucks and bottlenecks for the whole organization.
Phone Calls
In the first couple of days we spent on site, I was surprised at how much time the plant managers spent on the phone. From the supply chain to sales to executives, they were always on the phone. And for the most part, these questions were all regarding production status, timelines, and delivery. Which, in theory, they could all see in real-time in the ERP system. But due to the struggles in data collection and entry, no one trusted the ERP. The plant manager had way more important and valuable things to do than repetitively relaying data back and forth. We had to fix this now.
Finding the Bottlenecks
When we looked at all of the plant inefficiencies, there were a couple of problem areas that directly impact the plant managers. They inevitably became a gatekeeper and bottleneck for a lot of information flow. Some of this information was mission-critical and part of the critical decision making. And when you boil it down to the value that they bring to the organization, this was why they were in that position in the first place. So we wanted to remove all of the mundane tasks of reporting, assigning jobs, updating status, and communication from them as quickly as possible.
"What would it look like if you didn't have to do any of those things day to day anymore?" I asked Andrew, one of the Plant Managers.
"Man, I don't even know. I've never let my mind go there before because I had just resigned myself to the fact that it will always be that way. Truthfully, if I could focus on decision making and not have all of this junk to deal with, it would open me up to do more strategic planning. I could do a better job of managing the team and the workload we have coming into the plant. I could work more closely with the maintenance team to keep everything up and running.... Man that would be a game-changer."
So that's where we focused our initial build-out. Remove all of the mindless tasks from the Plant Manager's plate and free them up to do their job. Here's what this looked like.
What We Built
We'll get into more detail on what we built precisely below. But here's a TLDR version:
We built an "Operator App" that lived at each production station that allowed the operator to enter all of the data they were responsible for and showed KPIs and other relevant information that was previously not available to them.
The "Production Dashboard" was a web app that had a collection of admin tools and rich reporting for the executive and management team.
Burn the Paperwork
First off, we had to get all the data that was living on paper now into a database somewhere. This would eliminate the double-entry of essential data that was a massive waste of time. We needed an app for the operators on the plant floor to replace their data entry.
After spending a couple of days at the plant, chatting with the operators, watching them work, we gained a lot of understanding of what their workday looked like, the data they are responsible for collecting, and how we could streamline their existing workflow. Our approach here is unique because we start with a clean slate and allow the user to lead us to a result. Instead of how most software works, you get what you get and hope that your team can figure it out. The result was a simple, clean iPad app for the operators to enter all of their data throughout the day. We also surfaced important status and performance indicators that they previously couldn't access.
From Spreadsheet Hell to Real-Time Reports
Next, we had to centralize the reporting. It consisted of a couple of different reporting platforms and a collection of shared Excel spreadsheets. We were able to eliminate the need to manipulate data manually. All while making their reports almost real-time. No longer did they have to wait a week or longer to see reports. Now they can see what's going on in the plant right now and adjust on the fly.
Our focus for the Plant Managers was looking at the endless reports that they were responsible for and eliminating any manual work around these. We then dug deeper into the data for insights into the data. Because we were bringing together two datasets previously siloed, there was a lot of work to be done here. And the insights gathered were precious and exciting.
We also gave them some easy ways to monitor and review the data entered by the operators. Building a system that allowed them to jump in and out throughout the day to make sure things were running as expected. Giving them the ability to react in real-time when issues arise or avoid potential problems before they appear.
Unlock the ERP
ERP Systems tend to turn into a walled garden of all your most important data. From a security perspective, this makes sense. But when it comes to seeing what the hell is going on in your business, it can be infuriating. The truth is that all of these systems have integration and access points that allow for the secure transfer of data to and from other software tools. And this is precisely what we did here. We synchronized the data on the plant floor with the ERP data to bring massive efficiency gains. And from a LEAN perspective, there was a treasure trove of data to improve their processes more than ever.
There's no real magic here. We put in a ton of work to understand where the data currently lives in the ERP. Then we architect a system that can consume that data and make it more accessible to the new system. Most ERP systems run on old tech, so we build some infrastructure to modernize the bits and pieces that we need to access to make everything work in sync. At an elementary level, we created a REST API that we can query from the app and website to get the data the user requests.
The Results
We're finally at the results, which is why we are all here in the first place. So let's get into it.
An advantage of building software tailored to your specific workflow is that training and implementation are way less complicated than most enterprise software. There weren't any workarounds or edge cases that we had to deal with during the rollout because the toolset was built to meet their needs precisely. So after a few tests with a couple of operators, we quickly got the whole plant online. As you know, it's hard to measure the effectiveness of a tool until everyone is on board, so this is critical to get through this process as quickly as possible.
After about two months on the system, we noticed some fundamental changes. First off, the Plant Managers were thrilled with the way things were working now. They reported that they had freed up a couple of hours a day to focus on some vital decisions doing the planning that they weren't free to do before.
Wait, did they say a COUPLE HOURS A DAY?!?
We were blown away! We expected to free up a half hour each day, but multiple hours were incredible! So the management team loved the new system, but what about the guys doing the real work?
While skeptical at first, all of their operators quickly saw the advantage of doing their work on the new iPad app. They also felt more informed about what was expected of them each day and the jobs they would be working on in the near future. The operators reported that this new system saved them about 30-45 minutes each day they were using to do paperwork.
Unlocking Innovation
At our monthly strategy meetings, I saw the leadership team start to change their approach. Ideas that once seemed far fetched and impossible now seemed doable and right at their fingertips. The albatross of their clunky enterprise software systems was now gone, and they saw a bright future where they applied that same LEAN mindset to everything in the organization. From the back office to the plant floor, innovation was sparked.
Together we have a roadmap of challenges to tackle next, and they see a future of growth with a clear plan of how to get there. While they might have questioned whether to pursue new business lines or fretted about their capabilities, they now feel confident that their leadership team is informed and prepared to tackle the challenges that they will face.
And the truth is that our software has very little to do with that. We simply gave them a more natural way to collect and review the data within their business. Yet, in the current enterprise software world, this is extremely difficult for companies to do on their own. These software companies sell you on the idea that they offer everything you could need, when that's simply not true and not possible from an industry-specific generic software product.
In Conclusion
We believe that software should empower your organization and act as the rocket fuel for your growth. Not leave you feeling chained down and unsure of what's going on in your business.
The leadership team went from feeling lost and frustrated to fostering an environment of innovation and growth by merely changing his mindset towards software. Are you tired of feeling lost and frustrated? Maybe we can help.