A standard accounting package meets most of the needs of this small successful factory in Auckland, New Zealand. But their package solution re-sellers told them they could not customize the Order Entry module to support factory floor workflows.
So Hunza called us in. We designed a custom solution called “Hunza Order Entry” using Microsoft Access on their existing Microsoft Small Business Server network. They purchased 5 second-hand PCs and set them up on trolleys that are positioned near the assembly and packing tables on the factory floor. Productivity was boosted dramatically as the system replaced a complicated paper-based Production Order workflow process.
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On each trolley PC, assembly station staff can use an “Orders to Make” screen. It shows Ordered Quantities by Product, aggregated over all separate Orders, within each of the major Customers. These figures automatically increase as office staff enter new orders, and decrease as packing station staff pack finished items into boxes for shipment.
At each packing station, staff use a hand-held bar code scanner with the “1-Step Packing” screen to scan every bar-coded item as it is placed into a box for shipping. The system keeps track of total box weight to ensure the allowed maximum is not exceeded, prints a Box label when the “Close Box” bar code is scanned, and prints the Shipment Packing List when all of the boxes have been completed.
Office staff process completed shipments by using “Hunza Order Entry” to create an XML file for their accounting package software, which imports the XML file and prints the invoice. No double-keying is needed, again saving hours of work each week. |