Customer Profile
Ultimate Technology Corporation is a leading provider of open system point-of-service (POS) hardware solutions and services. Based in Rochester, NY, UTC goes beyond offering retail-hardened products by delivering a range of POS services that ensure customer success. UTC implemented the IFS application suite to help manage their rapidly growing buisness.
Business Problem
Ultimate Technology operates two distinct businesses; one in Victor, NY that engineers and manufactures new POS equipment and systems, and the other in Cleveland, OH which maintains existing POS systems. Both units use IFS to run their business, but in very different ways. Victor uses shop orders to manufacture new systems and Cleveland uses work orders to repair and maintain used equipment.
Each business unit has significant serial number recording and tracking requirements. Equally important is the need to track labor and material with each order. The business driver for the project was the need to provide customers with a web portal so they could track their order status. The only practical way to meet the demands of the customer-driven tracking system that UTC wanted was by using real-time data entry and validation as material moved within the plant. UTC, working with eNSYNC Solutions, used ScanWorks® software with standard and custom-developed transactions to deliver a system that fully meets the needs of UTC.
Solution Delivered
After an initial site visit and consultation, eNSYNC consultants, working with UTC, recommended significant changes to the existing business processes using new capabilities in the upgraded version of IFS they were using. Once the new business flows had been established, a data collection system to support it could be developed. Starting with their “out-of-the-box” bar code solution for IFS ScanWorks, eNSYNC blended several standard transactions with a few new custom transactions that supported the Work Order process required by the repair business.
One unique but critical transaction “Create Work Order” incorporated a “Warranty Check Logic” that would perform a look up of each customer order line to determine if the item had been in for repair within the past 90 days. In addition to creating the work order, a custom list of values for priority ID was created to meet the needs of the users performing the repair operations. To provide the customer with better visibility of the status of their order, a move/change work order status transaction now records the location and current status of the order.
Critical to the data capture and the streamlined data entry was the use of smart bar code labels that combined several fields in one scan. ScanWorks has significantly improved the data entry process and created a real-time reporting environment that both UTC and the customer can now rely on.
The following ScanWorks transactions were delivered for IFS Applications version 2004 Flex:
- Change Inventory Part Location
- Work Order Material Issue
- Work Order Report Work Done
- Create Work Order
- Change Work Order Status
- Capture Serial Numbers
- Capture In/Out Tracking numbers
- Bulk Move
eNSYNC Solutions worked with UTC to specify the Intermec hand held RF equipment and to take advantage of some existing printers. ScanWorks is hardware independent.
Benefits Received
Employees now automatically scan part numbers, serial numbers, and movements into the system real-time, with validation and error checking taking place at the time of the movement, not after the fact. Warranty work is recognized at the point the work order is created and better customer service is provided by prioritizing the work and the real-time update of the system. Today inventory and WIP are maintained at their highest degrees of accuracy, while clerical work has been dramatically reduced. Efficiencies gained from ScanWorks have enabled greater growth and higher levels of customer service.
