21st May 2012
In any busy works department job planning is key to maximum efficiency, and the Top Tubes laser tube department is no exception, even more so now that a fourth laser tube machine is in operation.
Our Laser Tube Planning System – a customised extension of our Tube Manager software – has been in operation for about a year and a half and is now well proven and thoroughly bedded in.
Steve Powell and Adam Bradley
Dave Wise: “Increased workload due in part to
success of planning system”.
Dave Wise: “Increased workload due in part to success of planning system”.
With it, we get an overall view of every job going through the laser tube department at any given time: the stage it’s at and when it will be completed. It enables us to juggle jobs if necessary, perhaps pulling a job forward if it’s especially urgent. Crucially, it allows us to keep a customer fully informed as to the progress of the work and to provide an instant answer to a customer without their having to wait.
As Dave Wise, Laser Production Manager, says, “An element of fire-fighting is inevitably going to be present from time to time in a busy department like ours, but this is fire-fighting in a planned manner”. “We’re sure”, he says, “that the increased workload that has necessitated our new laser tube machine is due in part to the success of our planning system”.