Tech-X Develops an Innovative custom solution for a Silicon Valley manufacturer
DC Electronics is a leading custom cable manufacturer in San Jose, CA. Founded in 1979 by David Cianciulli, DCE distinguishes itself by delivering service and quality to customers with exacting needs. DCE quickly grew, establishing itself as a valuable resource for companies needing high-level engineering services and fast turnaround production capabilities. Over a dynamic 25 years in Silicon Valley, DCE has financed its own growth and maintained a diverse customer base, staying strong through industry ups and downs.
The past years have shown continued growth for DCE despite the global economic recession. This growth introduced new challenges however, as the acceleration in production coincided with increased customer demands. After a conversation with a key customer about quality requirements, DCE recognized the need to mature their production systems and processes. David Cianciulli, President of the company, committed to guide the company through the necessary changes. DCE engaged with Tech-X and a change management expert to help in the process, recognizing that many of the necessary solutions would take a technology guide implementation.
Tech-X
Tech-X is an IT consulting and development firm in Austin, TX that specializes in the electronics distribution and manufacturing industry. With 14 years in the industry, and equal experience servicing DCE’s technology needs, we followed a hands-on approach to improving the technology infrastructure of DCE.
As part of the initial discovery process, Tech-X identified and categorized key improvements according to priorities for the future.
- Move DCE toward fully-automated, computer and database management of inventories and processes. Optimize the process and create more accurate records and increase efficiencies. Improve the quality of the information entering the system.
- Create greater access to information across multiple departments allowing more timely, accurate responses. Give sales people more real-time visibility of the production process. Integrate Process-specific systems and software throughout the overall process.
- Build a specific database to improve production control. This allows the company to have an exact idea of where in the production process each cable is and how long it would take at each step in order to improve the production scheduling, resulting in consistent “on-time” delivery.
In response to these priorities, integration between the ERP system (DCE runs on Cetec) and the various other pieces was an immediate priority. The systems were linked through the Tech-X “OnTime Delivery” system, including the Quality Assurance, Labeling, and Sales systems to the overall flow. One of the immediate results was that the labels could be automatically printed with system-generated data, addressing one of the customer identified issues.
Taking advantage of new technologies while finding the lowest-price solution, some job functions were moved to iPads. This was a cost-effective way of making sure that the relevant employees could update data, and have access to the most updated data at any moment. For example, the warehouse staff could select parts for orders while directly viewing the list and updating inventories immediately, allowing DCE to improve the inventory controls and give precise tracking of parts and processes.
As a result of the increased data capture across the production floor, Tech-X was able to create dashboards that were available on LCD screens throughout the plant therefore giving real-time statistics to everybody in order to improve productivity and increase throughput and sales.
Finally, customized software was developed according to DCE’s needs that would track capacity and improve the production efficiency by identifying potential bottlenecks as well as measuring the true costs of production. This will be significant as DCE moves forward and continues their growth.
The Future
2011 is a promising year for DC Electronics. They continue to grow; they expect higher sales and increased revenues, and with their changes they know they can increase productivity, efficiency and improve on profits. We at Tech-X are committed to serve DCE on an ongoing basis in their vision toward continuous improvement. We understand that technology improvements can be an endless and costly cycle, and companies can be derailed by implementing expensive technologies that in the end do not improve their production. Questions such as Cloud technologies, ERP migration, CRM software, and others will always need an honest evaluation and response. We at Tech-X want to be the company that our clients can trust for that honest response. We continue to be committed with DCE and our numerous customers in meeting some of these challenges into the future.
To learn more about DC Electronics go to www.dcelectronics.com.