ISAIC Pilots a Manufacturing Execution System: Prodsmart

Prodsmart is a software solution provider, which digitizes and automates production operations. The cloud-based manufacturing execution system (MES) has the capacity to track everything from orders to shipping. Thanks to Autodesk, we use it to monitor production, inventory and warehouse management, sales and purchasing, quality control and management, and maintenance.  

Prodsmart allows us to pull reports to track and analyze our entire production flow, enabling us to make more informed decisions and fulfill our production commitments on-time. The Director of Operations, Lionel Vargas Cruz, states, “the reports and analytics provide real time data over an extended period that gives us the ability to make on demand decisions to look at the past to make better decisions in the future.”

Below, Lionel Vargas Cruz, Director of Operations, and Alex Stchekine, Research and Innovation Manager, breakdown how Prodsmart assists throughout manufacturing from start to finish: 

The scheduling feature helps manage timelines for the team to meet delivery dates on-time, keep track of orders and our progress toward completing them, and provide visibility of operators’ productivity numbers and quality measures.  

The inventory and warehouse function helps keep track of our goods and materials. For example, if we're supposed to use 17 rolls to produce 150 units, but instead use 20—we’ll be alerted. The system measures the output on our targets, which helps us understand our waste and make decisions to improve.  

We can see all orders and shipments in one place through Prodsmart, making sales tracking simple. The software records all our materials purchased, the value of them, and displays all shipping and sales orders in an aesthetically clean graphic. It integrates with QuickBooks, but we have yet to take advantage of this option. It is slated for a future project as our company expands.  

Activities related to quality control and management are currently being optimized through the system to ensure we hit our quality targets. For example, operators note every instance of skip stitches on the Carhartt beanie label. This information is condensed into a report to illustrate the number of occurrences and identify where in the line it is most frequent. This allows us to investigate the source of the issue to prevent the instance in the future.  

The maintenance feature monitors downtime to notify our mechanic through email of an issue or reminds him of a scheduled preventative maintenance check. With this tool, we consistently tend to our equipment to ensure longevity and optimal use.  

Prodsmart is an innovative technology for manufacturing because the alternative is tracking everything on paper with a stopwatch and data logs. In the past, the manual tracking of data was ineffective and inefficient. Vargas Cruz describes, “a lot of data was gathered but it was never used for anything, so it didn’t provide any visibility for decision making. Having real time data allows us to make decisions on the spot. The system is very flexible and has layers that you can add as needed; it grows with the company.” Furthermore, it is user friendly. Stchekine says, “you don’t need a huge IT team to support; Prodsmart is accessible from multiple devices, like a tablet.” Also, it is great for small to mid-sized manufacturers that don’t have large budgets, because it is a cost-effective solution.  

The tablet is affixed to a stand beside the operators’ machine for easy access to update information and access basic training. Our last cohort of apprentices were taken through Prodsmart basic training to learn how to log on, insert production data, view orders, and navigate various pages. Sewists often describe their favorite feature as the ability to see their productivity numbers in front of them and the number of units left in an order. Some competitive operators use the information as a benchmark to try to beat.  

In the future, we want to use the productivity data to inform our points-based reward system, which will recognize both individual and collective efforts related to performance, community engagement, leadership, and consistent demonstration of operators meeting company standards. Additionally, we are working to refine our on-the-job training schedules and data through Prodsmart.