BROADCASTS.com

A s a company that provides a wealth of services from product development and design support to full manufacturing and product life support, ANR Manufacturing specialises in electronics and PCB subcontract manufacture. The Buckinghamshire business offers specialist services that include cable assembly solutions, PCB manufacturing and box builds with full management services and technical support for CNC milling, CNC turning and manufacturing services. As you would imagine, co-ordinating production, creating traceability and ensuring orders are produced and delivered to tight deadlines can be a challenge \u2013 a task that PSL Datatrack has certainly excelled at since its introduction to the company. Not only does the 25-year-old company have a busy machine shop with a series of Mazak Integrex and Hurco machine tools with Erowa automation systems, it also has an electronics department that produces PCBs. Using automated technology to apply the correct diodes, connectors, resistors and other miniscule electronic components to the correct PCBs is no small feat, but PSL Datatrack has undoubtedly streamlined the process. Looking at the job card for just one particular PCB, Geoff Gartland from PSL Datatrack says: \u201cWe have a job card for this particular job that come direct from the quotation. The quote details the process for building the PCB as well as the full bill of materials for the PCB. Whilst the quote is very comprehensive, it can also be copied quickly to other jobs to minimise data input and save time. In an average machine shop, there will be one piece of materials and possible a few other components to complete an assembly. This PCB has 912 components that makes it a huge logistical challenge that is easily dealt with by the system.\u201d\xa0 \u201cThis information will link into other modules such as the scheduler that works through the workflow. There are a vast number of jobs running through a machine shop at any one time and all jobs have their own processes and materials and all of that can be scheduled and followed through the workshop with PSL Datatrack.\u201d Purchasing is another challenge that PSL Datatrack takes in its stride. At ANR, there are over 27,000 line components and to discuss how PSL is used for the purchasing function, ANR Manufacturing\u2019s Dan Avery says: \u201cPSL Datatrack allows us to run reports and status reports for any part that I need, whether it\u2019s a minimum order requirement or parts for a specific project. As pricing can be a huge element that could lose to losses on jobs, we have to ensure the price on a purchase order adds up to what is on the quote and if it doesn\u2019t, it gets picked up by accounts and it then comes back to me to determine why there is a discrepancy. We have to ensure we are buying the right components that vary from month to month and PSL helps us to effectively do that. If we didn\u2019t have the PSL Datatrack system, we just wouldn\u2019t be able to run.\u201d Commenting on production in the machining department, Mr Nick Wilson says: \u201cPSL is now the backbone for our business. If you take it away, ANR stops. This is because it ties-in every aspect from quoting and invoicing through complete scheduling of workflow.\u201d Looking at the Bill of Materials (BOM), ANR Manufacturing\u2019s Mike Garside says: \u201cFor our PCBs, a BOM will typically be around 1000 components and we just take data that the customer provides us and what they want us to use. We convert this to Datatrack part numbers, we then create a BOM to quote the customer and if we are successful that then transfers into purchasing and they then buy the parts for us. Through the BOM module we can control things, so if a customer wants to change quantities or even the specification of the part. It gives us the ability to check if that part is used on any other customer equipment and who uses it. So, we can advise customers pro-actively if there are any changes.\u201d The shop floor also has data boards, which are monitors that provide and collect data on shop floor workflow. Referring to this, PSL\u2019s Mr Gartland says: \u201cThe idea is that from the PC, staff can clock on or off different activities whether its setting, production and even non-productive times. The board has a live feed of everything clocked on and the colouring is specific to the status of each job, this gives a complete overview of each job to make sure the shop floor is as productive as possible.\u201d The company has eight different status boards in the office, and these are specifically for management information. As Nick continues: \u201cThese boards allow us to just glance up and see that we have the materials, the jobs are being invoiced, what the next few months forecast are. It also incorporates the CRM information, but the core theme is giving people information. We have 20 different configurations that have been developed by using PSL Datatrack over 17 years.\u201d The latest 2019 version of PSL Datatrack has now been released and it fulfils 227 \u2018Wishlist\u2019 ideas, which has added 131 new operational options to the system, taking the system to over 1300 options. For details on the latest version, contact PSL Datatrack.