We help companies eliminate waste.

We recently interviewed our client Adam Frericks, Vice President of States Manufacturing. 

Here’s what Adam had to say about his company’s challenge, the CTC solution, and the results:  

Challenge 

Our workflow from sales through engineering was highly inefficient. We had no clear record of what our sales team had committed to customers, we had inefficient tools to do resource planning for our engineering team, and we could not quickly find pertinent information in our tracking system. The project status was also very scattered–we had to look at individual file folders and email inboxes to determine a project’s status, rather than having everything centrally located. We typically have 6 people involved in every project, which also adds a layer of complexity.  

When there was a scope change, our existing process made it extremely difficult to assess and estimate. We had good visibility of individual projects, but there was no supervisor’s portal where we could see all projects together and how to schedule next steps.  

In addition, our ERP offered insufficient reporting, as well as the inability to manipulate data. We needed a project tracking tool and handoff mechanism that was simpler to use, had stronger visibility for the individual steps of each project, afforded us the ability to manipulate all of our data, and that we could easily train our staff to use. We determined that we needed a better system with more efficient tools.  

Solution: 

Upon evaluation, we realized we needed help. You can’t develop the right solution until you uncover the underlying problems, so we decided we needed an expert to dig in and identify the root problems before we could find the solution. We didn’t even know for sure what our pain points were, but we did know something wasn’t working.  

We originally felt we needed help from an expert in our industry, but early on we found that this was actually not important. What we learned we needed was an expert in process improvement and Microsoft 365, so we turned to CTC Productivity. We had a history with the company and had seen value in their services in the past.  

Working with CTC was pivotal to our success. They helped us: 

• Have a fresh perspective. It was critical to bring in outside resources. They would share new ideas and we would try to break them. This was a highly effective and even enjoyable process. 
• Lay out a vision and a plan for how to get there. Often you don’t know what you don’t know until someone presents a new approach for you to consider. 
• Understand how to fully leverage the power of Microsoft 365 with better task management, handoffs between teams, and reporting. 
• Leverage our existing Microsoft tools to keep ongoing costs down as there was no additional upfront or ongoing system cost. 
• Understand SharePoint. We did not have the experience to know what was possible or how to build it out. CTC demonstrated their expertise in this area. 

• By leading the project. No one on our team had time to lead, nor the type of skills necessary. We had project management experience, of course, but not for this type of project. We also would have had to sacrifice a resource to lead the project and we didn’t have the capacity to do so. 
• Reduce the number of emails for communication.  SharePoint allows for better, more streamlined communication between team members. 
• Train our internal resources to be able to manage the tool long-term. We didn’t even think to ask for this at the start of the project and were thankful that CTC suggested it as a smart, long-term strategy to keep costs down. 
• Understand the importance of streamlining the workflow before building the solution. This was critical to the success of the new tools.  
• Identify that we didn’t have all the right roles defined. No other vendors did it this way. This was key. 

• Clarify the roles and responsibilities of our team members. Drafting roles and responsibilities helped us explain to others how they would fit into the long-term solution when we pitched it to the rest of the company. The roadmap of responsibilities was key to see the gaps in our processes. Historically we would assign tasks to a department, but didn’t get as granular as specifying an individual or role within that department, which wasn’t thorough enough to ensure that the workflow was running smoothly. 

Results:   

Managing this process is much easier with our enhanced visibility to staff and department workloads. We can easily see our resource planning, and our schedule is now based on availability and capacity, rather than gut instinct. With two clicks of the mouse, we can see everyone’s availability and how far out they are scheduled.  

 Our Engineers like the new process and software, and they feel empowered to schedule their own time accordingly and have a more accurate schedule. We are more confident that we can meet our deadlines using factual, accurate data to plan, and we now have a proactive versus reactive discussion if our staff feel they can’t meet a deadline.  

 In addition to our management view of availability and in-process projects, our employees now have individual views of their own active projects and tasks as well. This allows them to not feel overwhelmed by data and they now know exactly where they need to focus their time and energy. Our Engineers have their own active project list which alerts them when it is their turn in the process.  

 We are thrilled with the streamlined project management that comes with using Microsoft 365. We are able to easily see which projects still need a kickoff meeting, we have a tool and quality data for forecasting and future project planning, and we can capture timestamps to understand the length of submittals/projects and use this information for future planning and forecasting. It has also made engineering deliverables and dates more transparent to the other groups (sales and operations). Now everyone knows when we are meeting and the status of various projects. Production can plan more accurately and sales can see each project status and keep customers updated. This has put a stop to constant interruptions, as we are no longer constantly asking each other for the status of projects.  

 As a fast-paced organization, we appreciate the transparency and improved communication that comes with having one central place to find information. The simplified process has reduced the amount of finger-pointing between departments and has saved time and energy, while simultaneously reducing confusion.  

 Our new solution allows our lead engineers to more effectively manage their areas of responsibility. They have the information they need to answer day-to-day questions versus having questions being raised to management. The enhanced calendar view and reporting have also made a huge impact on the efficiency of our team across the board. 

 When we decided to work with CTC Productivity, we didn’t realize we would get a system that is so sophisticated. They shared their knowledge of process improvement, which was a great learning opportunity for all of our team members. We now feel confident that we will know what to do when having process issues in other areas. We saw great value in defining the high-level workflow before building out our processes, as each department had a different opinion about the process. Defining everything from the start ensured that everyone was on the same page.  

 We were pleasantly surprised at how quickly we saw results from the changes CTC made. For example, within one hour of working with our CTC lead, we had completely revamped our Excel quoting tool. With the average annual compensation for engineers being around $100k, leveraging their time more efficiently is completely priceless. 

Project Cost, Timeline, & ROI 

Onetime Project Cost: $58k 

Ongoing cost: $0 

Timeline: 4 mos to fully operational system & trained staff 

ROI: Sales gained an average of 47 days/yr that they can now spend on selling rather than chasing down the status of a project for a customer. This is simply one easily calculated example of the many ways this process improvement has impacted the efficiency at States Manufacturing. 

We recently interviewed our client Wyatt Shallbetter, President of States Manufacturing. 

Here’s what Wyatt had to say about his company’s challenge, the CTC solution, and the results:  

Challenge 

Our production scheduling process was inefficient and had to be done manually, which caused a large number of bottlenecks and left us with ample opportunities for error. We needed to look for ways to automate and streamline the workflow, with our primary focus being the need for a better tool for scheduling, automation, reporting, and visualization.  

We’d previously had great success using Microsoft Planner for machine scheduling because everything can be stored in buckets, so we tried to leverage it for resource planning, but it was too limited in its capabilities. Our information was scattered across multiple systems and tools, which made digital clutter a real issue. Each of our projects has anywhere from five to ten subassemblies used to produce finished goods, and each flows through our production environment in different phases and rates of completion. Therefore, for each step in a project, a production supervisor would have to log into the system to dictate the next step and, potentially track down the paperwork by walking the production floor environment to find the necessary materials and paperwork to help steer it to the next step. It was a full-time job in and of itself.

We considered our ERP system, Epicor, as a potential solution to issues, but decided it was not the right solution for these reasons:

• Functionality was limited in its current state. 
• We couldn’t easily manipulate the data. 
• Quality, affordable Epicor consultants were hard to find. 

Solution: 

We had recently hired CTC Productivity to help us streamline our sales-engineering workflow and engineering resource management. First, they lead us through the process of reviewing and streamlining our workflow. Then, they assisted us in building out a technology solution on Microsoft SharePoint, a tool we already owned as part of our Microsoft license, but had never fully explored. Here is a link to that case study: Engineering Resource Planning

We were very pleased with the results we saw with CTC’s assistance, so we decided to continue leveraging their expertise and building on that solution. We wanted to have one tool for all resource management and take advantage of the power of that platform.

We also wanted to capitalize on Epicor in the areas where it works well – financial planning, material tracking, order entry, job entry, raw material inventory, and purchasing. We decided to build out our scheduling, reporting, automation, and visualization in SharePoint with CTC’s guidance. This had the added benefit of not having all our eggs in one basket, our ERP tool.

Since Epicor sits on a sequel database we could use the data while not having to deal with the complexities of that system–we were able to move data from Epicor to SharePoint. This ended up being a great solution for us and checked all of our boxes, while making it easier to maintain long term. 

As with our engineering project, CTC recommended we identify internal resources to become SharePoint/PowerBi experts to own and maintain the process. CTC would help train our personnel to take over ownership of the system, which is a much more economical approach in the long run. 

Results:   

(This project is still under deployment and implementation, but we have already recognized equivalent or greater efficiency in our project tracking compared to our old methods.) 

By leveraging CTC’s expertise, we were able to simplify our toolset by now having just two places in which we manage production. We greatly streamlined our workflow through automation. Since making this change, we no longer have to rely on manual intervention when a task is complete–now we just need to keep an eye on it. We were able to say goodbye to fact-checking, which has resulted in a speedier and more accurate process. 

In addition to the time saved with inefficiencies, it will also be much easier to onboard and train new staff with this simple-to-use software. All of our resource planning and projects are managed in SharePoint, reducing the amount of time dedicated to training new personnel. 

Our switch to SharePoint has created efficiencies in our process, therefore saving us time, but it also comes with no additional cost to us as a business, as SharePoint is part of our Microsoft 365 license already.

We would highly recommend CTC Productivity for any manufacturer looking to streamline their workflow and manage resources effectively.  

Project Cost, Timeline, & ROI 

One-Time Project Cost: $21K  

Ongoing Cost: $0 

 Timeline: 3 months 

 ROI: (Data still being analyzed) 

Recently we had an interview with our client Kaarin Mantz, Administrative Lead YMCA Camps, YMCA of the North.

Here’s what Kaarin had to say about her company’s challenge, the CTC solution and the results:
Challenge:

“I have been with the organization 13 years and have observed the following issues that were affecting our productivity across the entire organization:

• Communication
• Organization
• Internal Project management
• Lost knowledge with staff turnover

As a non-profit we needed a smarter way of working that would streamline the way we communicate and collaborate and ensure we were capturing knowledge in people’s heads.”

Solution:
“I had been attending the CTC Productivity webinars and reading their blog posts. I started to make the connection between how our business challenges could be solved by Microsoft 365. We had invested in Microsoft 365 but were not fully using it to our advantage. Although the IT team knows how it works, they don’t know how to use it on the ground in the day-to-day business operations.

I realized working with someone that knows how to apply it to solve the organization’s business issues was critical. So, we decided to bring in CTC Productivity to guide us.

I just loved their approach. We identified the business problem areas and they explained how 365 could meet our needs. This method made it easier for me to see how we should leverage the tools.

Looking back on the project I didn’t realize what we needed. I thought we needed a communication plan but when working with the CTC team I learned there was a better way to approach it. I had no idea all the ways we could be addressing the issues with 365.

I also learned when working with CTC that this was too big of an endeavor to try and change the entire organization all at once. The CTC team suggested we pilot the new approach before rolling it out to the rest of the organization. We needed to start small with one location and hone in on exactly how we should be using it. This was a critical step before training everyone.

I also learned it was very important to get some momentum going on the project and create a team of champions that were sharing the value of the tool with the rest of the organization before the broader rollout.

Piloting the approach was pivotal. We needed the right team, so we piloted in an area where I have intimate knowledge and was confident the pilot team would be up for the challenge. I knew we picked the right team because they saw the struggle and were willing to invest their time and energy. They understood the issues and were passionate about finding a solution.

The CTC monthly retainer model was perfect. It kept me on task as the Client Project Manager and was a great incentive to ensure we were making steady progress every month. In this busy world it’s easy to let projects slide but this made sure things were progressing and we were getting our full value for the investment.”

Results:
“The pilot was a great success and now other areas of the business who have heard about our success want to know more. Doing a pilot was the trick to ensure full adoption.

Our Learning and Development team has decided to create a handout that will be adopted throughout our organization on best practices on how to use 365 the way we have designed it.

The immediate business benefits are:

• Having a better communication process where we can easily separate work and home life.
• Keeping things organized.
• Going paperless. Paper binders are now a thing of the past.
• A more streamlined approach to onboarding new team members. I’m very excited about this one as it will help make transitions easier. When we have turnover, we will save months of training new people as now all the information is saved and stored in a way that is easy to access.

Now we are primed and ready for busy season this summer!

I am much more knowledgeable about Microsoft 365. I never knew all these tools and options were available. I can’t believe we had been paying for but not leveraging these features to solve our day-to-day issues.

One of my biggest aha moments was learning how to approach a project like this through the help of CTC. I now feel more confident with my project management skills going forward.

I discovered the most effective way to leverage technology to solve our issues is to start with identifying the business problem. Then explore if technology can help and how to configure it correctly. That shift in mindset, the need to focus on the area of improvement first was a different way to look at it and was a great learning opportunity for me.

What is most exciting for me about this project is that we now have a plan on how to fully utilize Microsoft 365. Our organization had no plan prior to this.

I would highly recommend you have CTC Productivity guide you through the process. There is no way we could have done this on our own. I would not have had the time to research everything and figure it out. It was a valuable investment and now that I have been trained, I can train others.”