Rapid-Line, Inc.

"As important as plant equipment is to our business, the right software is probably even more important." Mark Lindquist President Rapid-Line

Rapid-Line Improves Operations with Integrated Advanced Planning and Scheduling

Rapid-Line was founded in 1926 as a manufacturing division of the Behler-Young Co. In its early days, the company produced duct, pipe and fittings of light guage sheet metal for the HVAC industries. Rapid-Line moved to its present location in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1968. Since that time, the business has expanded its original 10,000-square-foot facility to a 42,500-square-foot building. In the early 1980s, Rapid-Line began serving the office furniture industry in addition to the construction industry.

In 1989, the Behler-Young Co. sold the duct, pipe and fittings portion of the business to Masterfit Co. in Indiana. The office furniture fabrication portion of the business became Rapid-Line, Inc.

According to company President Mark Lindquist, Rapid-Line has seen a great deal of change in its customer and competitive environment during the last six to 12 months. "Most of our large furniture OEM customers are using sophisticated enterprise resource planning (ERP) and advanced planning and scheduling (APS) systems," Lindquist said. "As a result, customers not only expect high-quality products and stable prices, but are also demanding much shorter lead times. In fact, some of our largest customers want us to ship straight to their assembly lines two or three times a day."

Since Rapid-Line’s six major competitors are aggressively pursuing market share, the company finds itself upgrading plant equipment as often as every four to five years to stay ahead of the curve. "These days, software is an integral part of our business," adds Lindquist. "We need a completely integrated system so we know where we stand on every job. As important as plant equipment is to our business, the right software is probably even more important."

Establishing the foundation
"The hardest lesson for us was understanding how to effectively train our staff," says Lindquist. "We learned that general lectures simply did not work. Instead, we needed to do almost one-on-one training and provide specific instructions on how to use the new system. Both our value-added reseller, Godlan, and Infor provided the support we needed throughout the process."

According to Lindquist, one of the biggest advantages of SyteLine has been its ability to integrate information from quotes through shipping. In the old system, employees often created standalone word processing or spreadsheet documents and frequently needed to double-enter information into different systems. Now, all employees have access to the same information.

For customer service manager Kathy Lindquist, the switch to SyteLine has meant a more efficient working environment. "From a customer service perspective, I wanted a system that would give me easy, quick access to information while I was on the phone with the customer," she says. "In the past, I’d have to go ask someone and then call the customer back. Now, I can get order status while I’m on the phone." According to Kathy Lindquist, SyteLine has been very easy to learn. "I’m training a new employee now, and she understands the majority of the system after one day," she adds. "Our old system was so complex that I don’t think I ever mastered the entire package."

Moving forward
Once Rapid-Line had successfully implemented SyteLine as its ERP system, the company quickly moved on to adding SyteLine APS.

"For us, the implementation of SyteLine APS was a strategic necessity; we didn’t have any real alternative," explains Mark Lindquist. "Many of our customers already had or were planning to implement APS systems of their own. We had two choices: construct a 40,000-squarefoot warehouse and become a make-to-stock manufacturer, or implement APS and build to order."

Rapid-Line added SyteLine APS to its SyteLine suite. "Most standalone APS systems are very high-end, expensive and not integrated," continues Mark Lindquist. "Since SyteLine APS is completely integrated, it runs transparently behind the scene. It’s important to understand that SyteLine APS allows us to think differently. We can now think in terms of time instead of thinking in terms of all the detail about orders and capacity. APS has moved us from an inventory-driven company to one that is much different – and faster on its feet."

Because of the tight integration with SyteLine ERP, the initial implementation process for SyteLine APS took only six weeks. "We came up to speed on APS quickly and configured it to our business in a month and a half," says Mark Lindquist. "Now, we’re into the more difficult part of implementation–the part that has required us to change our business processes. We’re working on cutting our queue times and changing the way we process our 500 open orders. Each day, we change a little more. We still have a fair amount of work to do with our customers, because they have fixed expectations for delivery times. We understand that this process will be ongoing; however, we hope to complete all major business improvements over the next several months."

"Some of our people expected that we would turn on the software and all the problems would go away," he adds. "What they have since learned is that there is no magic pill here. What’s new is that we now have detailed visibility plus complete control of the variables that allow us to be successful with our customers."

Making a promise
Rapid-Line’s first objective was to achieve solid capable-to-promise dates. "It’s much easier from the customer’s standpoint to get the bad news immediately, while there is still time to do something about it," says Mark Lindquist. "SyteLine APS lets us look forward, see potential problems, and correct them before they have an impact on our customers."

Within one month of APS implementation, 70 percent of incoming orders were able to accept the capable-to-promise date offered by the system. After five months, this figure jumped to 95 percent of incoming orders.

"Customers would rather have a firm date that’s a little farther away versus a close date we might miss," Kathy Lindquist explains. "It makes my job much easier. I don’t need to amend lots of orders or tell customers after the fact that we can’t meet their dates. Customers can plan their assembly and other processes, and they don’t need to amend orders on their end either."

If a customer absolutely needs a particular date, Kathy Lindquist can now turn the order over immediately to the information systems department and to the president. With APS, they can see what orders will be negatively impacted if they agree to the customer’s request and decide if they should schedule overtime to help mitigate any problems.

"It's important to understand that SyteLine APS allows us to think differently. We can now think in terms of time instead of thinking in terms of all the detail about orders and capacity. APS has moved us from an inventory-driven company to one that is much different and faster on its feet." Mark Lindquist President Rapid-Line

Keeping a promise
Rapid-Line’s second objective was to correct the causes of late shipments. The company has reduced its percentage of projected late orders from 90 percent to 5 percent. In addition, actual past due orders have been reduced to 0.2 percent.

The company’s third objective was to increase velocity through the manufacturing process, which is measured as non-production time on launched orders. Since the implementation of SyteLine APS, Rapid-Line has reduced the amount of non-production time on the factory floor by more than 50 percent.

In addition, Rapid-Line expects APS to provide information that will help them sell "extra" capacity, obtaining incremental work for additional income.

"We also expect that APS will help us reduce our overtime," states Lindquist. "We have a highly skilled labor force to run our complex equipment. Every industry in our area has the same problem. It’s hard to find enough good people. Under these tight conditions it becomes critical to assure that our people are always working on the highest customer priority. And when the priorities need to change that everyone knows immediately. This is the only way we can assure that we get the most from our organization."

Looking forward
Rapid-Line plans to upgrade its Website from strictly an advertising-based site to one that is more functional. "I imagine that we’ll begin providing electronic newsletters and more customer-based information online," continues Lindquist. "We’re already transferring 80 percent of our customers’ drawings from the Web; we expect that to continue."

"The bottom line is that we want to be easy to work with. We are trying to quickly disseminate information to all 80 of our employees so everyone knows what’s going on. We’re working as hard as we can get the most value out of our technology investment today. Infor, and SyteLine APS, will help us meet these goals."