Solutions for small to mid-sized ETO/project-based manufacturers

Greater competition, especially from offshore companies, rising customer expectations for quality improvements and on-time delivery, as well as demand for shorter lead times – all of these factors place tremendous pressures on any manufacturer’s continuing ability to secure new orders and maintain profitability, especially in a difficult economic environment.

Meeting these challenges puts constant emphasis on the need for productivity and efficiency improvements. For some, it becomes a matter of survival. Yet, for many manufacturers, the realities of limited resources and the day-to-day demands of running the business makes it very difficult to find the time or the resources to concentrate fully on achieving these improvements.

BW&A can help you meet these challenges. We are business improvement specialists, focusing on small to mid-sized, engineer-to-order (ETO)/project-based manufacturing companies. We have extensive experience in this type of manufacturing, and we deliver solutions that lead to productivity improvements and increased profitability by targeting:

• process improvements
• more effective systems
• reduced waste (“lean manufacturing”)
• cost reductions

• Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)
  - Production Tracking and Scheduling Systems
  - Shop Floor Data Collection Systems
• ERP and Materials Management Systems
• Process improvement
• Process and Product documentation

 
Successful manufacturers consistently demonstrate that investing in new production technology pays off. But not just investing in new production equipment. Recent studies of large manufacturers have shown that investment in improved IT systems can often have a greater payback, by enabling important process improvements and providing better decision support.

Fortunately, advanced business systems are no longer the exclusive domain of large business. The availability of software for small to mid-sized businesses has increased significantly in recent years. Costs have become more affordable and most of the new systems no longer require specialized in-house technical support.

Our emphasis is on systems that typically enable the most important process improvements – thus the greatest impact on productivity and costs – in an ETO/project-based manufacturing environment. We have done extensive research to find the systems that are effective for this type of manufacturing and since we are not tied to specific vendors, we can recommend exactly what we feel are the best solutions for each business situation.

Systems improvements can bring considerable benefits on their own, but it is the combination of systems and process improvements that delivers the real results in terms of efficiency and productivity. This is where BW&A is different: our industry knowledge gives us the ability to address both issues and deliver the most effective overall solutions.

If you would like to learn more about our approach and how this can work for your business, please contact us for a no-obligation discussion.