One of the premier metal spinning companies in the Midwest, KRYTON Engineered Metals, Inc. is a leading producer of spun metal component and fabrication parts. Founded in 1981, the company uses advanced laser cutting, metal spinning and metal fabrication technologies to produce parts designed for agricultural fans and blowers, architectural lighting, furniture, and more. When companies need a custom metal product that involves cutting, spinning or fabrication, KRYTON’s skilled engineers and machinists can handle it.
Like most custom job shops, efficient scheduling of work flow has always presented a challenge for KRYTON. Since implementing Global Shop Solutions’ Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) software, that challenge has become significantly easier to manage.
“With our old method of scheduling, which involved a lot of manual planning, we struggled to come up with reliable ship dates,” says Mike Zehentner, Vice President of Business Development for KRYTON. “We would give customers ship dates based on what we thought we could do, but they weren’t always accurate. With APS, we can provide accurate dates while also giving ourselves an internal cushion to hit those dates and make sure our machines are being fully utilized.”
Until recently, KRYTON also struggled with another key component in today’s highly competitive manufacturing markets: accurate job costing. Using FLOOOM, Global Shop Solutions’ job costing accounting software, management can now determine individual costing components with remarkable precision.
In addition to reviewing current transactions and costs, KRYTON managers dive into a complete history of finished goods costs, allowing them to make better management decisions.
“Now we use the historical data in Global Shop Solutions to create our own forecasts,” continues Zehentner. “By comparing current usage with last usage we can do a better job of keeping the right quantities on hand for our customers without overproducing.”
We’ve made real improvement, including reducing inventory carrying costs by 20%.
Mike Zehentner, Vice President of Business Development at KRYTON
Perhaps the biggest benefit from ramping up their use of Global Shop Solutions has been a significant growth in new business that has driven revenues to record levels over the past eight months. Zehentner attributes much of the growth to increased visibility of data throughout the business.
“At first, Global Shop Solutions was a tool for improving processes here and there,” says IT Manager Jason Mathern. “Now that we can trust the data, we’re using the software to manage the entire business, and it’s making a huge difference. This has produced a tremendous improvement in throughput on the shop floor, an increase in on-time deliveries – and a big jump in revenues.”