When precision is required, content management delivers

An overview look at one of the manufacturing cells at rms Company Inc.With headquarters in Minneapolis, MN, rms Company Inc. is a contract manufacturing company that specializes in medical device implants and surgical instruments such as spinal fusion cages, knee replacements, hip replacements, and bone screws. As such, precision is essential. For more than 40 years, the company has ensured the accuracy and quality of its products, spurring expansion and business growth. But, as the organization grew, some of its processes failed to evolve along with it. To combat this problem, rms implemented best practices for enterprise content management (ECM), resulting in automated business processes that are as precise and quality-driven as the devices it manufactures.

Prior to implementing an ECM solution to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content and documents related to organizational processes, when a job order was received, that information was printed out and put into a folder, which employees walked from department to department throughout a 155,000ft2 plant. It was difficult to track the status of these folders at any given time. Folders went missing and people spent a lot of time trying to locate them. In addition, machinists had to wait for engineers to show them the prints and specs for the various parts they were responsible for producing, which caused production delays.

Because contract medical device manufacturers are mandated by the FDA to create and preserve Device History Records (DHR) indefinitely, employees spent hundreds of hours on data entry to manually generate these records.
In order to improve the efficiency of its manufacturing processes, rms’ objective was to implement technology that provides comprehensive capture, search, and workflow functionality that could:

• Store information in a reliable, consistent form;
• Electronically route orders to multiple manufacturing teams;
• Increase employee accountability;
• Automate repetitive manual tasks thus saving labor hours; and
• Guarantee that essential, job-related information could always be easily accessed.

The Laserfiche Workflow module was implemented to automate and streamline key business processes. Using Workflow’s graphical user interface, rms configured the system to perform activities based on the newly defined steps and sequence. When a new product is requisitioned:

• Order information including POs, prints, quotes, and manufacturing data is scanned into Laserfiche;
• Order information is electronically – and automatically – delivered to the departments involved in the manufacturing process;
• Department heads digitally sign off on the information; and
• Supervisors can log into Laserfiche and see which departments have acknowledged receipt of the information.

Laserfiche WebLink, a secure web publishing tool that distributes information to authorized users, was installed to provide employees with immediate access to job-critical information. It prevents users from altering, deleting, or tampering with digital data. At rms, WebLink has made life easier for machinists, who now have instant access to engineering blueprints and specs from virtually any computer on the factory floor.

“Prior to Laserfiche, our machinists had to wait for engineers to show them the prints and specs for the various parts they were responsible for producing,” explains Michael Eklund, information systems coordinator at rms. “Today they can access that information directly. It saves a lot of time.”

Quick Fields is another time-saving tool for the company, one that enables automated data capture and indexing. According to Eklund, the company uses Quick Fields for a variety of tasks, including:

• Creating Device History Records (DHR). Contract medical device manufacturers are mandated by the FDA to create and preserve DHRs indefinitely. Employees used to generate these records manually, and because rms processes so many jobs each year, this meant hundreds of hours of employee time spent on data entry. Today, the company includes barcodes on job-related paperwork so that when a device is shipped, a DHR is automatically generated by scanning the barcode and ensuring that the record is properly named.
• Electronically filing accounts payable paperwork. rms uses barcodes on accounts payable paperwork so that it is electronically filed after it is scanned into the system. This practice saves the accounting department two hours every Friday.

rms also appreciates how quickly employees across the company can locate indexed information contained in the Laserfiche repository. “Nobody has to search through filing cabinets anymore,” Eklund says. “With Laserfiche, it only takes 30 seconds to find exactly what you need.”

Quantifiable benefits rms has seen since implement a Laserfiche ECM:

• rms recouped its initial investment in Laserfiche within the first year, saving $70,000 through the automatic generation of DHRs alone ($50,000 on outside service and $20,000 on labor/storage);
• Laserfiche has improved the efficiency of the manufacturing process by accelerating order processing and by ensuring that machinists have instant access to engineering prints and specs. Critical documents are no longer lost or misplaced;
• The elimination of paper records has enabled this growing company to convert storage space into manufacturing space;
• For the accounting department, the solution has automated a key part of the accounts payable process, saving the department over 200 hours of staff labor time each year;
• FDA audits are conducted quicker because all the relevant documentation is available in an easily searchable electronic format and the system has comprehensive audit trail functionality to show who has created, moved, or approved any given document; and
• In human resources, the imple­mentation makes employee records secure and accessible.

Other information that is safely stored and easily accessed from Laserfiche includes:

• Customer agreements;
• Quotes;
• Shipping information;
• IPs; and
• Certification records.

“From an IT perspective, one of the best features is how easy it is to change and test the various workflows. Four of our major workflows could halt production if they stopped working properly. Because it is so easy to make adjustments, we never have to worry about downtime,” Ecklund states.

Laserfiche has had a significant impact on rms. Today, the company has eight major workflows in effect enterprise-wide, improving efficiency, cutting costs, and making information safe and secure. According to Eklund, it only took a matter of weeks to get the primary workflow written and running.

The company implemented Laserfiche in 2005, and is currently in the process of upgrading to the more advanced Laserfiche 8, which features:

• Greater interoperability with Microsoft Office applications;
• An enhanced system architecture that simplifies firewall configuration and improves performance over wide-area networks; and
• A redesigned Workflow module that is built on the Windows Workflow Foundation engine and uses the .NET framework.

rms relies heavily on the Workflow feature to accelerate shared business processes across its plants in Minnesota and Tennessee. “Our biggest accomplishment is our green folder system,” Eklund says. “It is what we use to distribute the information that is necessary for creating every instrument and every device.”

As the first step in constructing the green folder system, key rms stakeholders came together to define and standardize the sequence of steps necessary to electronically distribute new order information to machinists and engineers.

“From a management perspective, developing the green folder system helped us to identify inefficiency and created consensus around the best way to eliminate it,” Eklund states. “It was clear that using Laserfiche Workflow to electronically route information was the best way to accomplish our goals.”

From an environmental perspective, the rms green folder system decreases the amount of paper the company generates, copies, and stores.

rms Company Inc.
Minneapolis, MN
rmsmachining.com

Laserfiche
Long Beach, CA
laserfiche.com

Tornos U.S.
Lombard, IL
tornos.us