Document
Imaging Speeds up Product Distribution:
United Fastener, a $30 million company, adds scanning
to improve
the flow of government-required documents through its
sales and shipping process.
United
Fastener,
a $30 million company, adds scanning to improve the
flow of government-required documents through its sales
and shipping process.
Moving
millions of dollars worth of fastener inventory, including
nuts, bolts and rivets, in one year is no easy task.
But United Fastener Company, Inc. does just that. The
company, located in Bayshore, NY, is a distributor of
fasteners to the aerospace industry.
More
than 2,500 different vendors ship products to United
Fastener’s 45,000 square foot warehouse. The company
ships 60 to 70 orders daily, with each order consisting
of several hundred items. The company has 5,000 customers
in the United States. Established in 1972, United Fastener
has 71 employees. Its annual gross sales are $30 million.
Handling
the Flow Of Government-Required Documents
Because
the aerospace industry requires government-standard
parts, United Fastener must provide certification or
"certs" to its customers for each part it
ships. Certs are documents from United Fastener’s
vendors that state the specifications of a particular
product, such as its size, weight, finish and mechanical
properties. The certs also state that the products were
manufactured to government standards. Certs are one
or more pages in length, depending upon the products
they describe.
The
certs for each shipment sent to United Fastener are
routed to the shipping and receiving department. Two
clerks handle between 100 and 200 documents, including
certs and purchase orders, every day. "Managing
the flow of these documents through the company’s
sales and distribution process was inefficient,"
says Gerard Placa, former MIS director for the company.
He is currently acting as an MIS consultant to the company.
Anthony Maratta is vice president of operations. He
oversees United Fastener’s MIS department.
Pulling
Files Is Inefficient
Placa
explains that the certs were filed by date and by a
tracking number. When parts were sold, a clerk pulled
the cert from the file cabinet, photocopied it and refiled
it. The photocopy of the cert was sent with the order
to the customer. One cert could be pulled several times.
For
example, a shipment of 5,000 screws arrives with one
cert. Ten customers may buy screws from that shipment.
The cert for the screws would be pulled, copied and
refiled ten times. "Too much time was spent pulling
paperwork and looking for misfiled documents,"
he explains. Not only was managing the paperwork becoming
a problem, but storing it was as well. "It seemed
as though we had a warehouse full of file cabinets,"
says Placa.
Searching
For A Scanning Solution
United
Fastener’s president charged Placa with finding
a solution to what was becoming a paperwork nightmare.
"I started out with the idea of using a Lotus Notes-type
system," says Placa. (Lotus Notes is a groupware
program that allows multiple users within an organization
to share and edit documents.) Placa contacted a local
VAR, ISG (Hauppauge, NY), for a proposal. "ISG
suggested we try a scanning system and brought in ARvee
Systems (Bohemia, NY) and its millennium::OMS
™ software" explains Placa.
Placa
also investigated several other document-imaging vendors.
He narrowed his search to two software packages, millennium
and a package from another large, document-imaging software
developer. "We brought both systems in-house for
a demonstration," says Placa. "I was looking
for an easy-to-use system that included a scanner, software
and some type of search engine," says Placa. He
chose ARvee Systems’ millennium:OMS software. The
software stores, indexes and manages scanned images
and electronic documents, as well as video and voice
recordings.
One
reason Placa chose the ARvee software was because of
its Windows 95/98/NT "look and feel."
"We were already using Windows-based software,
so our employees were familiar with it," explains
Placa. An NT server runs the Oracle database
and millennium software. ISG installed the hardware,
including an Intel-based computer and HP Netservers.
ARvee installed the millennium software and the
Panasonic scanner.
All
the scanned documents are saved to a hard disk and archived
to an HP Surestore Optical 40FX storage jukebox
[run by InveStore Storage Management Software
for Windows NT from Pegasus Disk Technologies]. "We
wanted unlimited storage space for documents, and we’ve
achieved that," says Placa. He also considered
price when he chose the scanning solution. The total
cost of the system was under $15,000. "Other systems
were double or triple the price," he explains.
Placa
set up the index fields (identifiers) for retrieving
the scanned documents. Documents are indexed by date
received, product and vendor. The certs that United
Fastener receives are not standardized; each vendor
presents the information differently. Despite this,
after one half-day of training, the data entry clerks
were able to use the system.
"We
picked a starting date to begin scanning all new certs,"
explains Placa. A backlog of certs from before the "start"
date are also being scanned. Placa admits this will
take some time. Eventually, after all the old documents
are scanned, only one clerk, instead of two, will be
needed to work in that area. The company is required
to store the original documents for 10 years for quality
assurance purposes.
Tying
Scanning and Distribution Systems Together
While
the ARvee system manages certification documents, United
Fastener runs the bulk of its operations using Global
Logistics 2000 distribution software from Dymax
Systems. The distribution software runs on a
DEC Alpha CPU. "The distribution system manages
United Fastener’s inventory, price quoting, invoicing
and accounting," says Placa. The millennium::OMS
integrated document management system currently stands
alone from United Fastener’s computerized distribution
system. There are plans to tie the two systems together
in the near future, says Placa.
United
Fastener receives customer orders by phone, fax and
EDI (electronic data interchange; see related
sidebar, below). Orders received by phone or fax are
manually entered into the Global Logistics system, which
generates the sales orders. The sales orders generate
pick tickets in the shipping department. For example,
a sales order is entered into the system with a ship
date of March 1, 1999. On that date, a pick ticket is
printed. Shipping clerks fill and ship orders from the
pick tickets.
United
Fastener assigns bar codes to all of its inventory.
The bar codes indicate what the product is, the manufacturer,
and the product’s location in the warehouse. Items
are scanned as they are picked to fill orders. "Texlogix
handheld terminals are replacing the pick tickets. The
handheld terminals will display the orders, scan the
bar codes and delete items from inventory in the Global
Logistics system," comments Placa.
If
a part is not in stock, the system generates a purchase
order (PO). The PO is scanned into the millennium system.
According to Placa, there are no plans to change this
process. The scanned POs are stored with the scanned
certs by vendor when the product is received.
Tying
the millennium system with the Global Logistics system
will make retrieving certs for shipments more efficient,
says Placa. United Fastener plans to use bar codes on
the scanned certs. The bar codes will match the bar
codes of items in inventory. When the items are scanned
for shipment, the certs will be retrieved and printed
automatically by the matching bar code. According to
Placa, integrating the two systems to take full advantage
of both will not be difficult. "Our scanning solution
was designed with integration in mind," concludes
Placa.
Written By: Lisa Kerner of Integrated Solutions Magazine
(January/February 1999)
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