28 Oct WorkWise Helps Manufacturers Squeeze Bottom Line
John Schmitt would like to be sitting in piles of cash right now. But since he (and just about everyone else in manufacturing) isn’t, he’ll take the latest version of WorkWise’s manufacturing software instead.
WorkWise, based in Milwaukee, is a provider of enterprise-wide solutions that help manufacturers to maximize profits through improved use of their information assets. The company recently announced that more than 100 companies upgraded to the latest version of its TCM (Time Critical Manufacturing) product.
The release of TCM 7.0 represents more than 50 functional enhancements including e-commerce functionality, and an advanced ODBC interface, making it possible for popular third-party applications such as Crystal Reports and Microsoft Excel to easily and efficiently access TCM data across many platforms, the company says.
For Schmitt, treasurer at H.G. Weber & Co. Inc., in Kiel, Wis., this latest version improves on a software package his company has been using since the late 1980s, when WorkWise was under the first of several different names the company has operated under to date.
H.G. Weber still does what it did back when it was founded in 1924, manufacturing machines that make paper bags. The company still services all that original machinery, so staying on top of obsolete parts while cranking out new equipment requires a bit more than some ERP systems can provide.
“Our equipment is very big, very expensive and very complex,” Schmitt said. “We needed something to throw logic at this whole thing—identifying in a time-critical manner the things we need to do, when they need to get done by, what we need to buy and when, what we need to build and how. That’s where the software comes in.
“We service everything we made back to 1924, so we’ve got to have the right kind of stuff on hand and our customers have expectations of how quickly you can turn around things, even for obsolete parts. So it helps us identify what we have on hand and what demand there is and what our history has been on that item and make good judgments as to what we do with this particular item when demand comes up.”
The TCM software helps H.G. Weber keep track of its manufacturing and its books, with the software’s shop floor module acting as the hub around which all the other spokes turn.
It has helped other companies, as well. Sypris Test & Measurement in Orlando, Florida was one of the first WorkWise customers to install this version. Tim Ladow, MIS Manager at Sypris said, “TCM 7.0 is working great for us, our need to contact their support department has reduced dramatically.
WorkWise President Wayne Wedell said the software is all built around giving companies the information they need about their manufacturing in “right time,” as opposed to the oft-abused “real time.”
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Lincoln Brunner is a Stevens Point, Wisconsin-based freelance writer and a regular contributor to the Wisconsin Technology Network. He can be reached at lincoln@wistechnology.com.