Quest recently had the opportunity to meet with Riesa Case, Director of Global IT, and Deron Brod, Software Development Manager, at Stanley Engineered Fastening to discuss their implementation of JD Edwards along their Internet of Things (IoT) journey.
Stanley Engineered Fastening Company Profile:
Stanley Engineered Fastening is a division of Stanley Black & Decker and a full service fastening supplier to the automotive, industrial, electronics, and aerospace industries. They engineer, build, and install robotic fastening systems and manufacture plastic and metal fasteners for our customer base. Stanley’s 10 North American facilities have used JD Edwards since 2000 – their user base consists of approximately 1000 named and 300+ concurrent users. They were a beta site in 2000 for the JDE web client, went live in 2001 with web only clients on ERP 8.0, and have been an early adopter of scanning direct to JDE, IoT Orchestrator, and mobility solutions.
JD Edwards Release Summary
The company has been using applications 9.1 since July 2014 and tools release 9.1.0.4 since July 2016. They are currently in the process of upgrading to tools release 9.2.1.4.
JD Edwards Usage
Stanley Engineered Fastening uses Financials (G/L, A/R, and A/P), Manufacturing and Engineering, Mobility, Sales Management, Supply Chain Management, Procurement, and Tools and Technology.
How is your organization using IoT?
We have implemented real-time production reporting from our Manufacturing Execution System (Plantstar) directly into E1 without any manual intervention. Another use is to track the location of bulk inventory bins via RFID. We are also in the process of integrating several 3rd party applications with E1 using the IoT Orchestrator.
What were the main drivers behind wanting to implement IoT solutions?
Time and money. Our business users are always looking for faster access to better information. IoT has enabled us to provide improved data accuracy and significant savings in employee labor costs.
How have your business processes changed since implementing IoT?
The level of automation on our manufacturing floor has increased and the number of data entry errors has decreased. The reduction in non-productive work (counting and reporting) allows our floor employees to focus on tasks that add value to our processes.
What are some of the results that you have seen?
By improving the timeliness and accuracy of production reporting with our IoT solution, we have eliminated raw material inventory shortages. This has allowed us to greatly reduce our costs for expediting supplier orders and customer shipments. The automation of reporting also allowed us to eliminate a dedicated resource (1 employee per shift) whose primary responsibility was to count parts and report the production. Our RFID inventory tracking solution has eliminated 3-4 hours per week of searching for bulk inventory bins, freeing up that time for productive activities.
What would you tell someone who is considering implementing these solutions?
Don’t be afraid to experiment with the new technologies even if the ideas seem a little far-fetched. Also, start with a prototype solution and test, test, test! The end users will usually do something that you could never predict.
Does your solution require maintenance?
In the first year, there has been no additional maintenance needed for our IoT solutions and we do not foresee any in the future.
How do you continue to innovate?
How did you begin the process? Did you use any Quest resources or collaborate with other users?
We began by talking to other users in the Quest E1 community including other customers, Oracle resources, and third party solution providers. These discussions kick-started our journey down the IoT path. Also, special thanks to our managed services provider, ERP Suites, who has been able to assist us in creating the IoT solutions for our business.
What’s next?
We are currently looking at an IoT integration with our online customer portal and an integrated consume to pay solution for MRO supplies.
Learn more:
- Read our other customer stories
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