OnRamp and Mancor Featured in Manufacturing in Focus

January 14, 2022

Manufacturing in Focus is an online magazine that “delivers a comprehensive view of the manufacturing industry”, so when the chance came up to feature Mancor Industries, the team at Mancor was happy to let them know how much their processes have been improved thanks to OnRamp ERP.

To paraphrase from the article:

Partners in Success

Mancor’s success is tied to OnRamp Solutions, which elevates its overall performance to a whole new level of fabrication. One of OnRamp’s most impressive skills is its ability to adapt to its partners’ needs in as little as a day, pivoting on real-time data capabilities and expert guidance provided by experienced professionals.

Benefits from OnRamp

Some of the benefits brought on by using OnRamp at Mancor include:

• OnRamp Solutions makes obtaining large amounts of complex information easy.
• New solutions must solve issues for all its clients.
• OnRamp improved profits for its clients by as much as twenty-five percent per year.
• OnRamp sells software and shows clients how to use it to their best advantage.

Evolving Software

The premise for developing the software was to improve existing functionality while adding capabilities that other software packages did not have, for example:

• Enhanced automated shipping
• Automated weekly financials
• Consolidated financials for multiple plants
• Automation changes that have led to decreased office staff
• Capacity planning that increases operational efficiency and quickly shows areas that need improvement

“Again, this is stuff you don’t find in standard software. There are all kinds of things we can do to respond to our customer that makes us unique. Because we have our own, we can make it work the way it needs to work.”

– Art Church

On the Shop Floor

The software also extends to scaling-up fabrication shops. For example:

• Enhances existing automated laser cutting equipment with automation that can produce on-demand work orders
• MRP systems that produce nesting order prompts
• One work order for multiple nests
• Automatic material needs requests
• Shipping planned according to the weight and volume of the materials so that vehicle capacity is maintained while supplying each facility’s daily metal needs

“This is huge savings. We had a guy on fulltime nesting. He now only works two hours a day, doing this process and running another laser the rest of the time. The [physical labour] savings are great; our on-time delivery has gone up; efficiency goes up,” – Art Church

Other functions include:

• Shop monitors fitted on all fabrica­tion equipment reporting on output volumes, availability, and equipment effectiveness
• Integrated statistical process controls to chart the quality of machining and laser fab­rication
• Preventative maintenance prompts
• Monitors even display setup and operation directions, and much more.

Paint Line Benefits

The benefits of OnRamp are also evident on the wet and dry coating painting lines, where OnRamp reports on everything from the volume of surfaces painted to the quantities of materials consumed. A visual density report allows significant improvements in the quality of work produced by its paint shops. The management system also provides suffi­cient data to support improving output capacity and processes without physical expansion.

Onsite and Online

With OnRamp, the entire system is hosted onsite but Internet-based. This allows many of its employees to work remotely with easy access to every­thing they need, including real-time access to the monitors displayed on every piece of equipment across all its facilities. The software also reflects workforce diversity, prompting every screen to be translated into languages like French or Spanish simply by selecting the text and hitting a translation command.

The Right Background

“What’s interesting is that my whole background has been in programming and manufacturing management. So, I’m very aware and capable in terms of manufacturing systems. I know what’s good and bad,” says Art Church.

After using OnRamp at Mancor, staff members who join other com­panies often recommend the software to their new employers.

Conclusion

“It’s probably more functional than many of the big names in ERP. But we didn’t do it to beat the other guys; we did it to have Mancor do extremely well. As a result, even if I never sold another package I’d make money ahead of time because of the improvements it made to Mancor. It’s been that kind of success,” Art says.

True to their shared values, the two companies will explore every avenue leading to growth without increasing their physical footprint for now.

References

Müller, Pauline (2022) Improving Fabrication with Next-Generation Software https://mags.manufacturinginfocus.com/mag/MIFDec2021/#page=98