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Precision Coating engineers innovative surface modification solutions to enhance the value and performance of medical wires, devices, and instruments. The company’s best-in-class processes and technology enable breakthrough property characteristics and the industry’s highest first-pass yields. The team works closely with customers to create custom applications that deliver functional performance, quality and regulatory compliance, and cosmetic integrity. With over 65 years of experience and operating locations in the US and Costa Rica, Precision Coating provides a seamless supply chain experience. It is committed to fulfilling the exacting demands of medical manufacturing across all major geographic hubs.
- Disparate, highly customized systems across three locations that could not support future company growth
- Excel- and paper-based records that provided no digital trails or single source of truth
- Need for leaner, more sustainable processes
- Company-wide standardization and communication
- Alignment among employees thanks to single source of truth and powerful reporting
- 100% inventory accuracy
Challenge
Disparate Systems Not Keeping Pace with Booming Business
After years of expansion, Precision Coating grew to rely on multiple, highly custom-configured systems to run their business. While a multi-system strategy worked for a period of time, the team knew it could not serve their needs long term as the company grew organically and through acquisitions. For example, six different systems were used across the company’s three locations, requiring significant manual reconciliation. Excel and paper were also used to record data for processes, which were not stored within any of the company’s current software.
Precision Coating needed a system that could provide a single source of truth across all locations and support their future growth. Specifically, the team wanted to increase visibility into business data and Key Performance Indicators, and facilitate more reliable decision-making. By implementing a new, scalable solution, Precision Coating would no longer need the disparate systems it had outgrown and could instead upgrade to smart manufacturing.
Solution
A Rigorous Selection Process with Built-In Insight from End Users
Precision Coating formed a cross-functional Selection Committee who performed a fifteen-month assessment of potential software solutions. Eight options were reviewed during the assessment and eventually narrowed to four frontrunners. The Selection Committee aligned on main priorities, such as ease of use, documentation and training, quality compliance supporting its ISO certifications, and more.
The company voted unanimously that Plex was the best-fit system for their needs, with manufacturing execution at its core. Specifically, the cloud-based Plex Smart Manufacturing Platform™ offered a single source of truth with a real-time view of the production lifecycle across all plants. One, enterprise-wide system would allow Precision Coating to drive performance, increase revenue, and reduce costs.
Precision Coating launched Plex in August of 2021 at their headquarters in Hudson, Massachusetts. The company started by raising orders and process sheets in the new system and following procedures with employees. A regular communication cadence helped all team members understand the implementation process from start to finish. After going live at headquarters in July of 2022, Precision Coating then went live in Costa Rica and their remaining locations in the United States.
Result
Empowering Plant Floor with Data-Driven Insights
With a view of their entire production lifecycle across all plant locations in one system, Precision Coating now has visibility into profits and manufacturing costs in real time. Before Plex, when production issues arose, employees had to review every process sheet scanned manually. Now, information can be searched quickly in Plex MES, which mitigates costly quality issues, a key focus as an ISO-certified company serving the medical industry.
Additionally, Precision Coating is working toward proper inventory management and achieving 100% inventory accuracy. Before Plex, the team used pen and paper for many steps like process sheets and job sheets, opening the door to manual errors and quality issues. Now, everything is digital.
Empowering Employees through Communication & Visibility
The cloud-based nature of Plex has helped increase visibility and facilitated standardization and communication across its United States and Costa Rica locations. The single source of truth and powerful reporting that Plex provides allows everyone to collaborate more efficiently in the same system and align on priorities and goals.
As Liam Clegg, Quality Manager at the Precision Coating plant in Hudson says, “…Plex enables the team to be on the same page when Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, and others collaborate on many different items at any given time. Plex allows for the possibility of creating reports that can be used both daily, for communication between Quality and Manufacturing, and at a monthly and quarterly level for reporting to and by senior leadership, and everything in between.”
The Precision Coating team knows they have yet to leverage all the efficiencies within their suite of Plex solutions. The potential is limitless, and they are confident that they made the right choice in Plex.
This case study is a replicated version, with the original available on the Plex website. To access the original version, please click here.
Published December 11, 2024