Information Systems

Paramit has designed manufacturing and engineering operations that increase productivity, reduce waste, and in general improve on the standard operating practices found at most other manufacturing companies. During this process we discovered that most ERP (enterprise resource planning) and MES (manufacturing execution systems) systems were designed to support the same operating procedures we were trying to change. To use these information systems we either had to conform to their structured way of running operations or we had to pay contractors hundreds of thousands of dollars to modify the software to work in our environment. Paramit chose a third option.

Spotlight Software

In our view, a manufacturing operation based on fresh thinking and innovation demanded a new information system which reflected and reinforced Paramit's unique approach. We designed and developed a new information system called Spotlight that integrates with the MRP (material requirements planning) and business software we were already using to create a central information repository with powerful cross-system functionality. Spotlight consists of custom applications we created to support our new processes, middleware to connect the various software components, and a report writer that integrates data from all areas of the business.

Automated Purchasing

Spotlight's purchasing application pulls data from the MRP system and organizes it in a useful way for our buyers. The application aggregates purchases from different buyers and automatically places orders with suppliers using the custom data formats defined by each vendor. As a result many suppliers are able to verify, accept, and acknowledge our purchase orders within 24 hours, an exceptional statistic. Spotlight automatically updates the status of the order and alerts the buyer if there are any exceptions that must be addressed. Our purchasing application has dramatically limited manual purchasing activities and allows us to execute more than 3,000 weekly purchase transactions with a relatively small team of buyers when compared to standard practices.

Performance Monitoring

Spotlight gathers data from all areas of manufacturing, including purchase orders, bills of materials, test results, production status, and more. As a result there's no overhead involved in assembling metrics; Spotlight automatically collects the necessary data. With data accessible at all times, our teams can monitor business activities in real time. Spotlight provides a drill down capability so analysts pursuing one line of inquiry can easily access supporting data or even investigate a different, but related question. Spotlight also monitors goals and will assign actions or trigger alerts when projects get off track. As its name suggests, Spotlight provides visibility into every data-driven process in the factory.

Variance Management

Spotlight also allows us to monitor manufacturing variances in real time. The software automatically compares the bill of materials to the list of materials issued to a work order, highlighting discrepancies and calculating per device costs. Our supply chain analysts review the material and cost variances on a daily basis to determine the causes for the variances. In some cases we may need to review and modify our accounting procedures to ensure that we're tracking parts more effectively. In other cases, we may find that a change in the cost of parts, rather than a change in the number of parts used, has caused a cost variance. In either case, Spotlight provides the information our team needs to manage and correct variances.

Surface Mount Technology Optimization

Complex medical devices are frequently built in lower volumes and often contain numerous printed circuit board assemblies (PCAs). This scenario can result in a complicated SMT (surface mount technology) set up process where operators must pull together the appropriate materials and set up the line separately for each PCA. For example, to build a device containing 20 PCAs, operators would need to pull materials and set up the line 20 times. For high volume environments, the ratio of set-up time to run time may not be a significant cost factor. However, for a lower volume environment like Paramit, shorter set-up times are critical to reducing waste and improving productivity.

Using Spotlight Paramit can run what-if scenarios and, in many cases, reduce 20 setups down to one or two. Spotlight then aggregates the materials for all the PCAs covered by a single setup and generates one kit pull list. When Spotlight optimizes one SMT line setup to generate multiple boards, the increase in productivity is dramatic.