Scenario
Do you recognize this scenario? An employee armed with pen and paper wanders through the warehouse checking supplies. If supplies are low, the employee returns to the office inputting an order via telephone, email, or fax. Valuable time is lost jeopardizing delivery dates. This dangerous scenario occurs in small- and medium-sized glass companies throughout North America. It highlights bottlenecks to the overall success of your company. A bottleneck, according to Investopedia, “can have a significant impact on the flow of manufacturing and can sharply increase the time and expense of production.” Bottlenecks in a glass factory can delay orders, idle employees, frustrate customers, and/or disrupt the entire process, including costing you time and money.
Potential Bottlenecks & Solutions
For example, paper orders, tracking via spreadsheets, communication, optimization, and planning are bottlenecks experienced by some small- and medium-sized glass companies as they struggle to survive and grow. Most bottlenecks, including these, can be solved by smarter solutions including software. Software is the most comprehensive, strategic, flexible solution available to solve these and other bottlenecks. By investing in software, you demonstrate your willingness to address bottlenecks, optimize for today, and plan for the future. Smarter facilities, run by smarter software solutions, are enabled by digitalization and automation through all aspects of the company, including communication with customers, suppliers, and partners. Digitalization and automation are prerequisites for creating a truly "smart factory" of the future based on software.
With advancements in technology, the development of the “smart factory,” and changes in consumer behavior, companies are finding the need to adapt an ever-increasing challenge.
These challenges are actually opportunities for your company. Breaking routine, rethinking processes, and adapting/adopting new procedures presents opportunities, where smarter software solutions can be employed. Software solutions can control as much or as little of your factory as you want. Finding that balance allows software, when configured correctly based on the goals of your company, to flexibly meet your factory’s needs today, and grow with you into the future.
Smarter software solutions designed and implemented by A+W Software are integrated, flexible, comprehensive, and malleable. They untangle bottlenecks, make printed order files outdated, eliminate spreadsheets for tracking, manage inventory, enable better communication, optimize production workflows, allow customers to order directly, ensure better delivery reliability, and make all processes easier and more efficient.
When your company is more efficient, you can realize other benefits, such as reduced printing costs, decreased environmental impact, improved workplace and public image, possible rebates and reduced taxes, increased business opportunities with green-friendly companies, and sustainability.
Conclusion
Profitability is rooted in your value chain, its speed, the ability to solve sudden problems, and how well all the components talk with one another in case a breakdown takes place. By employing an integrated software solution, such as A+W Clarity for glass and A+W Cantor for window fabricators, you can guarantee materials management, purchasing, quote creation, manage inquiries, order processing, production flexibility, delivery capability, and much more. If you are looking to grow your business or keep up with current demand, have you thought how smarter software solutions can help reduce bottlenecks and grow your business into a thriving enterprise?
