Historically, Kingsbury's manufacturing operations relied heavily on paper job tickets and packets that included drawings, 3D models, and pictures of the job to be completed. With thousands of jobs running at one time the coordination and logistics of the paper job packets was an impediment to increasing productivity. Kingsbury needed a solution to make it easier for machine operators and shop personnel to manage the jobs and information on the shop floor.
Kingsbury worked with Synergis Engineering Design Solutions, their long-time Autodesk solutions partner and business consultant to assess the project and determine the best solution to meet their business goals. Kingsbury's design tools are primarily Autodesk Product Design Suite, Inventor, iLogic, and AutoCAD along with an engineering-centric data management solution, primarily for engineers, designers and drafters, and Autodesk Buzzsaw, which the company implemented for use in their procurement process. Autodesk Vault Collaboration was selected as the new data management solution to achieve these goals.
Rather than using paper packets, Vault allows the jobs to be stored in the system in what is referred to as a "job folder." These folders contain all information necessary to complete the job, and include links to any file associated with the job. "It is becoming apparent that the unique, one-point sourcing of pertinent documents and information, which is from the common computer network, has expedited the manufacturing effort while simultaneously declining the potential for the distribution of materials with untimely revision statuses or other error conditions," said Jerry Powers, Kingsbury Senior Vice President. "The consequences of the 'Paperless Manufacturing Project' continue to become manifest in the increasing efficacy of production-floor information command and control. This represents a somewhat un-quantifiable, but absolutely real savings in both time and direct costs."
Out of the box, Autodesk Vault Collaboration was able to address the majority of Kingsbury's requirements; however when a user selected a file in Vault, the latest version of the document was displayed in the Preview tab of the Details Panel, regardless of its lifecycle state (released, in review, work in progress, etc.). Synergis Professional Services team was engaged to develop a custom add-in for Autodesk Vault that displays the latest released version of the selected document in a separate tab in the details pane for users to have access to both the current version and the last released version.
Kingsbury required Synergis' support to add a new replicated workgroup to their Autodesk Vault environment so that multiple locations would be able to access all design data which was primarily generated in their Philadelphia headquarters. This entailed the configuration, implementation and testing of their Vault Publishing Server, Vault Subscriber Server, and SQL Server replication services. Additionally, Synergis was engaged to teach Kingsbury personnel how to use the system in their environment.
With over one hundred seats of Vault installed throughout Kingsbury's facilities, both in the United States and Germany, shop personnel in any facility are able to search jobs and files using dual, large screen monitors placed around the shop or from other mobile devices (e.g. ePads) providing them accurate and timely job information.
"This project wasn't about saving trees, although it will. We estimate 20 hours are saved each week with this process because new job packets on the shop floor are no longer needed when there's a change—the changes are instantaneous in Vault. Not only do we save time with changes, we also save when creating a new job folder in Vault which takes a mere 15 minutes to compile," said Harry Geiger, Kingsbury Information Technology Manager.
About Synergis Engineering Design Solutions
Synergis Engineering Design Solutions, a division of Synergis Technologies, Inc., provides customers solutions to make them more productive, competitive, and profitable. Synergis is among the most elite of the Autodesk Value Added Resellers and holds privileged recognition as an
Autodesk Platinum Partner, Autodesk's highest level of certification, for the expertise, training and services it provides for the manufacturing, AEC and education communities; Autodesk Consulting Specialized Partner; and
Autodesk Authorized Training Center (ATC). Companies in these industries turn to Synergis for Autodesk software, and the highest quality training, professional services, and support available to help them stay ahead. For more information on Synergis Engineering Design Solutions, visit
www.synergis.com or call 800-836-5440.
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| Contact: |
| Synergis Technologies, Inc.
Kingsbury, Inc. Ellen Walter, Synergis Engineering Design Solutions, (215) 302-3062 Email Contact Web: http://www.synergis-adept.com |