Repairing The Machines That Make Our Machines
In the increasingly automated manufacturing industry efficiency is key and broken robotic equipment can cause costly delays. Industrial Control Repair, Inc. has been supporting manufacturing plants for the past two decades providing everything from equipment repair to preventative maintenance and engineering services. With thousands of products at manufacturing plants around the world and multiple repair locations, they needed a way to make sure there are always working parts on hand and machines get repaired as quickly as possible. We created a custom web app that tracks their inventory and makes it easy to see where each individual part is in the repair process.
- Web Development
- Inventory Management
- Design
- Analytics & Reporting
The Big Picture
Our first challenge was making sense of the sheer volume of data in ICR’s internal systems. We conducted user interviews and shadowed plant workers to learn what information they needed and how parts flow through the system. The end result was a dashboard that allows users to sort by plant and see all of the open service records with quick links for time sensitive information like low stock warnings and parts awaiting shipment.
Inventory Management
Each part has a detailed record with cost, warranty and vendor information. The system tracks how many spares of each part are available at each plant which allows managers to avoid shutting down machines. In the event that a shut down is necessary we also created a system that identifies other machines at the plant that contain the part needed. The system suggests which machine is the least costly to shut down and tracks the cost savings associated with swapping needed parts from under-utilized machines.
Repair History
Each individual part also has a complete repair history that records how many times it has been maintained and repaired. This allows managers to easily identify faulty parts and remove them from use.
