As a contract manufacturing company that specializes in medical device implants and surgical instruments, precision is a chief concern for RMS. For over forty 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.

“As a contract manufacturer, we fulfill a substantial number of jobs every year,” explains Michael Eklund, information systems coordinator at RMS. “We used to place all of the order information into a file folder and pass it around to multiple teams throughout our 155,000 square foot machine shop. As you can probably guess, files went missing and people spent a lot of time trying to track them down.”

In order to improve the efficiency of its manufacturing processes, RMS began to look for a technology solution that would:

• Store information in a reliable, consistent form.
• Electronically route orders to multiple manufacturing teams.
• Increase employee accountability and decrease wasted time.
• Automate repetitive manual tasks.
• Guarantee that essential, job-related information could always be found.

After considering multiple technology vendors, RMS selected Laserfiche because of its comprehensive capture, search and workflow functionality, as well as the strength of Laserfiche reseller Crabtree Companies.

Leveraging Laserfiche Workflow for Business Process Management

RMS relies heavily on Workflow to accelerate shared business processes across its plants in Minnesota and Tennessee. “Our biggest accomplishment is our ‘green folder system,’” says Eklund. “It’s what we use to distribute the information that’s 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,” says Eklund. “It was clear that using Laserfiche Workflow to electronically route information was the best way to accomplish our goals.”

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.
• Supervisors can log into Laserfiche and see which departments have acknowledged receipt of the information.

“In the past,” says Eklund, “employees would physically walk hard copy folders between departments on the plant floor. It was hard to figure out which departments had seen what, and where exactly each order was in the manufacturing process. Thanks to Workflow, information now has a clear and consistent path around the factory floor. It never gets lost and it’s easy to track exactly what’s going on at any given time.”

Today, RMS has eight major workflows in effect across the company. According to Eklund, it only took a matter of weeks to get the primary workflow written and running. “From an IT perspective,” he says, “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’s so easy to make adjustments, we never have to worry about downtime.”

Ensuring Access and Saving Time with WebLink and Quick Fields

Aside from using Workflow to automate and streamline key business processes, RMS employs Laserfiche WebLink to provide employees with immediate access to job-critical information; it also leverages Quick Fields to cut down on manual data entry and save staff time.

WebLink is a secure Web publishing tool that distributes information to authorized users. Designed to protect the core content repository, WebLink prevents users from altering, deleting or tampering with digital data. At RMS, WebLink has made life much 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 Eklund. “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 much more quickly employees across the company can locate indexed information contained in the Laserfiche repository. “Nobody has to search through filing cabinets anymore,” says Eklund. “With Laserfiche, it only takes 30 seconds to find exactly what you need.”

Moving Forward

Although Eklund acknowledges that it is difficult to put a dollar amount on the savings RMS has experienced over the last four years as a result of implementing Laserfiche, he believes that the company recouped its initial investment within the first year.

To get the most out of the system, the company is currently in the process of upgrading to 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.
• A redesigned Workflow module that’s built on the Windows Workflow Foundation engine and uses the .NET framework.

Eklund’s parting advice to IT professionals who are interested in implementing Laserfiche is to “be patient. Users will follow your lead once they realize how good the system is. Laserfiche is the heartbeat of our company. It’s a great system to administer, and a great system to use.”

Today, Banks Hardwoods has two manufacturing facilities in Michigan, another in Wisconsin, and a sales office in Arkansas employing upwards of 175 people. But as the business grew, says Dana Kennedy, Banks Hardwoods’ Controller, sawdust wasn’t the only wood by-product piling up around the organization.

“All this expansion means a huge amount of paperwork,” she says, “and the need for constant communication between the divisions.” When the company added its third division in Newberry, Michigan and saw a 20% increase in customers as a result, she felt the paper jam.

“The paperwork created by one shipment of lumber could amount to over ten pages per packet,” she explains. “These customer order packets were passed through many hands in the corporate office before finally being filed in one of a dozen filing cabinets. That filing system gave way to several frustrations as the volume of files grew.”

Kennedy began looking for a document management system with three goals in mind:

1. Creating a paperless office with a “virtual filing cabinet” to back-up files daily and eliminate the fear of lost or damaged files—and having to store 60 bankers boxes a year of old customer and vendor invoices.
2. Making filing efficient. “Filing paper was considered a chore and was often put at the bottom of the list by our employees,” Kennedy explains. Needless to say, this led to both unorganized piles of paper and misfiled documents.
3. Bridging the communication gap between the divisions and offices.

At the same time, Kennedy knew a document management system would only work if people could use it. “I wanted a system that was easy to understand and would have a small learning curve when it came to training our employees.” Cost, of course, was a concern, but, as she explains, “Our company has always appreciated that there is a value to be placed on quality.”

Dana Kennedy brings Banks Hardwoods toward a paperless prosperity

She researched document management solutions on-line and discovered Laserfiche. “My next thought was that it would be great to have a local company available to buy from and turn to for support,” she explains. She localized her search, and found Laserfiche reseller Bolt Document Management.

Working with Bolt’s Jeff Nelson, Kennedy spent six months analyzing and testing workflow problems and solutions in various departments, including accounting, IT, sales and purchasing. “We tried very hard to sort out what documents we would scan and how to go about indexing those documents,” she offers. “Jeff was very patient through the whole process and never pressured us to hurry up and get this deal done. He knew I was hesitant about spending money on a system that upper management might view as just a glorified filing cabinet.”

To that end, Nelson supplied Kennedy with a list of Bolt’s Laserfiche clients in the area. “I was able to visit one of the companies and actually see the system in action. Even better, I was able to ask people who were actually using it how they liked it and what benefits they had seen. They were also able to tell me what their experience had been with Jeff and his team at Bolt,” she says.

“This was definitely the deciding factor that made us go with Laserfiche and Bolt,” Kennedy adds. “In our business, relationships are very important and we’ve built our reputation on ours. It was imperative to me, as well as my management, that before we invest in a new software system, we also feel comfortable with the company we are buying from and the support team we will be using.”

For Banks Hardwoods’ initial installation in late 2007, Kennedy limited training to a few key people. “This way we knew what the system was capable of and could use that knowledge to customize it to our needs.”

A month later, the whole office started learning how to access the information they needed. “We also have a very strong IT department that had been involved from the beginning so our need to have a lot of support from either Bolt or Laserfiche has been minimal,” she adds.

Kennedy met her initial goals—moving toward a paperless office, efficient filing, improved inter-office communication—almost instantaneously.

Amy Wickey enjoys the efficiency of scanning what used to be filed.

“We jumped in by scanning all new documents and stopped filing the paper right away,” she says. “It was hard to convince our data entry people to give up paper at first,” Kennedy admits, but adding a second desktop monitor eased the transition. “We have the scanned document in Laserfiche on one screen and the program they are inputting to on the other. Now they can’t imagine doing it any other way—they love it!”

This meant no more ten page customer order packets, plus scanning was being done much more quickly than the paper filing. “We have been able to increase our communications with our remote divisions as well as our production yard now that they are able to access documents online,” she adds. “The customer service department was very excited to be able to access invoicing packets from their desk rather than searching through files.” Plus, she notes, “There is a greater sense of security knowing that we have an electronic backup of all our documents in case of a loss to our office.”

But perhaps the most profound benefit of Laserfiche is how it naturally aligns with the environmental and financial sustainability at the heart of Banks Hardwoods’ continuing success.

“The Laserfiche system has really complemented our ‘Go Green’ methodology,” says Kennedy. “We’re constantly evaluating new and better ways to make our facilities and production more environmentally friendly and introducing this system has been a big step in reducing our paper usage.” Snapshot is the big paper-saver, she says, enabling staff to print reports and the e-mailed payable invoices directly in to Laserfiche.

Alyson Fortin uses dual monitors: one for the scan, one for the program.

The most visible sign of Banks Hardwoods’ improved sustainability is the smiles on all its employees’ faces. “There are two things that they say are their favorites about using Laserfiche,” Kennedy begins. “The first is how clean their desks are now that they are becoming more paperless. The second is how easy the system is to use and how quickly information can be accessed. Regardless of what stage the processing is in, we are always able to find the documents we need.”

As Banks Hardwoods has learned, sustainability comes in many forms.

“We depend on a natural resource, so we are constantly reinvesting in that resource—which is why we have made going paperless a priority in keeping our company as ‘green’ as possible,” says Kennedy. She says the cost savings realized in the year Banks Hardwood has been using Laserfiche is aligned with its company’s economic sustainability. “No matter what our market is doing, we have found that we have to think of our own resources as a company in terms of sustainability, and Laserfiche has been a big part of that.”

The 150-year old firm needed some way to readily access some very important papers it kept in notebooks at its US headquarters. Many of its operations were completely computerized, but not information in the notebooks, which held safety specifications about the materials they buy to make perfumes smell sweeter and soft drinks taste better.

According to federal guidelines, those documents, called material safety data sheets, had to be stored for some 30 years and Robertet wanted a safer way to store them. The company also wanted an easy way to store new material safety data sheets that came into the offices from time to time, and it wanted them stored in a document management system that would automatically index them in a way that would make them easy to find and retrieve.

This wasn’t a job for ring-bound notebooks. It would take a flexible document management software package and an installer that knew how to take advantage of that flexibility.

Champion Workflow Systems in Pine Brook, NJ, has 18 years’ experience in document solutions and network and Web services. Laserfiche is an industry pioneer whose document management software is helping thousands of government and business offices worldwide run more efficiently.

Robertet’s business applications—accounting, inventory, manufacturing and the like—ran on a MAPICS ERP with an IBM DB2 database. Champion wanted to install the Laserfiche Quick Fields™ Real-Time Lookup module to handle Robertet’s scanning and storage needs for the material safety data sheets.

That’s where the innovation came in. Quick Fields could automatically populate several document index fields simply by having users scan and type in a short product code number. The only problem is: Quick Fields doesn’t support DB2. There was no way to get the material safety data sheets into Robertet’s MAPICS DB2 without typing them in by hand.

“No problem,” said Gary Loew, Champion’s president. Working with Robertet Systems Manager Ed Lykins, Champion designed an interface between DB2 and Quick Fields that has Robertet staffers singing its praises.

They developed a table view in DB2 that contains all of the indexing information required to populate the Laserfiche template. The information required for indexing resides natively in the MAPICS DB2 database.

Any time a MAPICS transaction results in a relevant data change to the indexing information used by Real-Time Lookup, the view is updated, Loew says. Moreover, that updated view is automatically exported to a comma-separated variable file.

It is that CSV file that Real-Time Lookup utilizes for automating the material safety data sheet indexing process, Loew says. Employees need only enter a product code number. Real-Time Lookup accesses that number and looks up the remaining index information.

“Users love the fact that they are only required to make 3 mouse clicks and type a short code number. Quick Fields and Laserfiche take care of the rest,” Loew says. “This ensures minimal opportunity for data entry errors and standardized information in template fields.”

The emphasis on simplicity is not lost on Robertet staff trained on the new system, Lykins says. Simplicity was a prerequisite for the installation and Champion and Laserfiche came through with flying colors.

“One of the big things we needed from this system was it had to be easy to use, and Gary made sure it was,” Lykins says. “We didn’t want to have to train people for days to use this system. We needed to get the information on these documents fast and this system does that well.”

Champion is equally impressed with Laserfiche.

“It speaks very well of Laserfiche when you can make that much happen with so little effort,” says Loew. “It’s really a very efficient system that we installed there.”

When an order shipped, the accompanying paperwork first went to the company’s accounting and quality assurance departments for review. It then went to the file room. When a customer called with an order-related question, staff had to leave their desks and visit each of these locations in turn to search for the relevant document, while the customer waited on the phone. If the document was sitting on someone’s desk or had been misfiled, staff would have to undertake a more exhaustive search and return the customer’s call once they’d found the necessary information.

Recognizing that staff needed instant access to order-related documentation from their desktops, Brown’s CIO, Justin Lasley, began researching digital document management. Although Lasley and his colleagues quickly saw the benefits of scanning order-related paperwork, they had doubts about the manual data entry processes most systems relied on. “Our biggest concern was how to accurately associate metadata—such an invoice number and purchase order number—with each scanned image,” Lasley explains. “Most document management systems require manual entry of those values. This increases costs and does not necessarily guarantee a high level of accuracy.”

Laserfiche® quickly put these doubts to rest. When staff scan order-related paperwork into the Laserfiche repository, the Quick Fields™ module reads a bar code printed on each document. Quick Fields then uses this information to automatically populate the document’s template fields with the relevant metadata, which is retrieved from the company’s orders database. Thanks to this process, customer service staff can now quickly locate a document using any piece of information they have, including customer name, invoice number, sales order number, purchase order number, part number or ship date—without leaving their desks. “Now, our orders are easy to locate and retrieve, and important information can be relayed to customers more quickly,” Lasley says. “We’ve built our business on our ability to quickly respond to customer inquiries. Laserfiche helps us maintain that edge over our competitors.”

The ability to quickly locate orders also helps production personnel. “When we receive a repeat order, we refer to previous orders to review the processing instructions,” Lasley explains. “Because our production team can quickly find the original order in Laserfiche, they can provide instructions to the machine operators and shipping personnel without first having to look through a file cabinet. This helps us process orders quickly and accurately, and allows us to furnish a consistent product to customers.”

Laserfiche benefits staff and customers in other ways as well. For example, staff can quickly e-mail bills of lading, invoices and other documents to customers directly from the Laserfiche repository. Optical media publishing enables staff to easily transfer both individual documents and entire directories to disc, which greatly improves document portability and enhances business continuity planning. And, whereas the file room could only hold five years’ worth of orders, the Laserfiche repository has an unlimited storage capacity, meaning that Brown Metals can now build a comprehensive digital archive of all order-related documentation and correspondence.

Although Lasley originally intended to use Laserfiche only for order-related documents, he soon realized that the system would help him solve other information management challenges as well. He started with customer specifications. “We have a number of customers who are ISO 9001-registered, and who have their own manufacturing specifications they ask us to adhere to,” he explains. “We receive these specifications in a variety of formats, including Microsoft® Word® documents, PDF files, faxes and e-mails. Our own ISO 9001 procedures require us to retain these documents, have them available for reference and distinguish between current and older versions. The manual system we were using to manage this information was not very convenient for our sales staff. Looking up customer requirements became daunting.”

Now, Brown stores all customer specification information in Laserfiche. When staff need to reference a specification, they simply log in to the repository and navigate to the customer’s folder. As customers submit updated specifications, staff use a custom template field to flag existing specifications as obsolete. Thanks to this flag, Brown can easily retain obsolete specifications for historical purposes, without causing confusion as to which set of specifications is current.

Lasley currently has plans to use Laserfiche to manage accounts payable documents, as well as the Word, Excel®, and Visio® files associated with the company’s own ISO 9001 registration. He’d also like to install the Laserfiche Workflow™ module to automate the document routing process. He feels Workflow will prove particularly useful in replacing the manual process that the shop traveler currently follows to collect information about an order—including weights, coil sizes and box dimensions—as it moves through the production process.

No matter how much he expands the system’s use, Lasley knows there’s one thing he won’t have to worry about: staff buy-in. “When we started our initial implementation, several users were not convinced that Laserfiche would bring value to our business,” he says. “We’d been using a manual filing system for years, and new systems can cause feelings of uncertainty.

“After they started using the software, however, these users saw its value,” he continues. “Customer service staff can quickly locate tracking numbers and other information for customers. Production personnel can easily retrieve order-processing instructions, which speeds the order fulfillment process and promotes greater accuracy. And everyone spends less time worrying about lost documents.”

Lasley recommends Laserfiche to other organizations that want to streamline business processes and build stronger long-term relationships with customers. “Laserfiche has definitely helped us increase employee productivity, provide better customer service and distinguish ourselves from the competition,” he says.