Manufacturing: Belco Optical

Situation

Belco Optical is a producer of prescription safety glasses for transportation and construction companies throughout Canada. Their business requires them to store a patient's prescription and track the required lenses through a 9 phase manufacturing process. Should anything go wrong during manufacturing, clients must be notified of the delay and the process restarted.

Belco's technology assets and budget were modest. A legacy single user Lotus Approach database was used to track lens orders. All other orders for accessories or frames were tracked with excel spreadsheets and paper. Orders were not tracked during manufacturing or when they were shipped out.

When a client called inquiring about an order's completion, numerous people would have to search every area of manufacturing for the order. The disconnect between production status and client service was stressful for customers and staff.

To retain Belco's existing customer base, Belco had to attain ISO9001 certification. The current manual paper-based order manufacturing process had to be automated.

Belco understood prescription lenses, not software vendors. They turned to the experts at Nuway Software to guide them through the development of their custom software application.

Solution

Following Nuway's standard process, a project champion was selected from both Belco and Nuway to collaborate during the analysis and design phase. The analysis resulted in several components for the solution:

• The single user database was replaced with an enterprise level relational database: Microsoft SQL Server 2000.
• Computer workstations were purchased, networked, and installed at strategic locations in the office and manufacturing facilities.
• A data migration and backup schedule was identified to protect their valuable customer data
• A client-server application, LabMate, was developed according to Belco's specific business rules and manufacturing process. As a lens would complete a manufacturing step, the lab technician would update the status

Key features of LabMate:

• Consolidate orders for lenses and all other products into one centralized place.
• Inventory tracking for all products
• Damage/Wastage reports to show where in the manufacturing process this would occur
• Instant order status searching
• Shipment tracking for orders by courier waybill

Benefits

• Since each step of the manufacturing process was tracked, it was possible to gain an objective understanding of team efficiency
• Through Belco's internal network, any employee could instantly find the status of an order from their workstation instead of wasting hours looking for it
• Reports would highlight technicians and equipment that were causing unnecessary wastage, lowering costs Orders for which there was no inventory would be reported to
• Purchasing so the necessary supplies could be ordered, shortening order completion time
• LabMate became a critical component of ISO9001 Certification
• Detailed sales reports highlight success of product options (frames, coatings) with certain customers

Customer Information

Ray Townsend, President
Belco Optical Ltd.
905-624-3103
1515 Matheson Boulevard East, Mississauga, ON L4W 2P5