Scheduling

The Challenge

A fast growing commercial printer had grown out of their manual scheduling system. The strained system led to press wait times between jobs, increased labor costs, and reduced plant capacity. Worse, two managers that shared scheduling duties were spending a combined 10-12 hours per day keeping up with the workload.

The Solution

Designed and built a web-based scheduling system that integrated with existing management systems to provide job status data, integrating with press equipment monitoring systems to provide real-time press status and speed.

Features & Benefits

• Fast and easy to assign/move jobs to any printing press
• Calculated start and stop times for each scheduled job based on shift schedules maintained by scheduler
• Schedule times recalculated each time a job completed
• Upstream cost centers receive real-time updates regarding when presses will need their output
• Monitor and display status of upstream processes on press schedule to indicate if press has everything needed to produce job
• Virtually eliminated wait times between jobs, resulting in a 20% increase in production across all presses
• Decreased time spent managing schedules by 85%

Software Integration

The Challenge

Today's businesses use a variety of software tools to manage various parts of their operations. While these systems may help in one area, they are often separate from each other, causing multiple entry points for the same information. This can lead to time-consuming and difficult management practices. In addition, many companies find that their ERP systems have gaps in functionality that can best be filled with supplemental software which is integrated with the ERP.

The Solution

Plum Run has years of experience in integrating systems of all kinds, and in writing software that improves or adds functionality that is lacking or missing in the base ERP.

Integration Project Examples

• Customer order entry module for Customer's ERP system
• Custom Invoicing module integrated to ERP accounting
• Integrated a personalized URL website to the management system of an 80,000 member national association. Allowed users to use our site to view their membership renewal invoice, and then click a link to go directly to the association site to pay for the renewal.
• cXML punch out between a custom ecommerce site and procurement systems by Ariba and Oracle
• Integrated ecommerce solution to production ERP, eliminating manual order entry and automating production tasks

Benefits

• Reduce or eliminate double entry in separate systems
• Minimize or completely automate non-billable tasks
• Streamlined procedures and reduced labor costs

Brand Compliance

The Challenge

A national sales and marketing firm, whose Customers make some of the most recognized products in the world, needed a way to simplify and streamline processes for their 20,000+ remote workers that regularly visit retail stores to inspect and manage the product displays for their Customers.

The Solution

We worked with 2 of the 15 largest software companies in the world (our Customer's Customers) to gather requirements for a solution that would meet their needs.

We designed and built a web-based portal that remote workers can access via computer, tablet, or phone to communicate brand display status, and order replacement display parts and supplies.

Features & Benefits

• Place orders for brand display parts and supplies from within the store
• Use phone or tablet to capture an image of a store display to document it's condition
• Send messages to managers regarding issues
• Geocoding of worker location each time site is utilized
• Full visibility of the activities of remote workers for both the agency and their Customers
• Customer was able to close call center supporting remote workers, saving over $35K per year