Upgrading to the Epicor Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system begins a new phase of discovery for everyone at MEC. Up to this point, as manufacturing teams for each of MEC’s facilities completed the initial implementation, they have predominantly concentrated on how to get the system running to its highest level of efficiency. Now however, the new system is beginning to shed light on ways to drive substantial enhancements in customer service and productivity, for the range of electronics manufacturing services MEC offers.

According to Rick McClain, MEC’s COO, the new system is a real-time window into vital performance information – including data related to quality, productivity and delivery statistics for the entire team. This data can be analyzed all the way down from a very centralized work-center level, up to the larger picture showing overall information for the entire plant. ‘Action items’ for improvement can now easily be created, and their impact is measured via plant performance results, which makes it an extremely powerful tool. The previous system didn’t provide MEC with the ability to translate this broadly scoped level of information into such an easy to understand interface.

“Our assemblers, engineers, and entire manufacturing team can now see how they as individuals can positively impact plant performance for our electronics assembly customers. This has created an extremely efficient environment, with all of our people on board for improving quality, delivery and productivity within their own specialty of the PCB assembly process. Although we still have a considerable amount of additional work to do in order to get the metrics within the system fully rolled out, we can already see the enthusiasm throughout the factories for the valuable gain of information. The fun part is to see the team come up with solutions on their own, then be able to see the improvement roll into the entire EMS outsourcing performance for the plant as a whole.” Rick said.