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.”

So much so that in just three years, Saco has set a standard for e-government so high that its regional neighbors are beginning to look into it as well.

So why has Saco been so successful? For starters, when City Administrator Rick Michaud and Saco’s IT staff looked into document management three years ago, they didn’t have a problem, they had a plan.

“Our objective is ‘Online, not in-line,’” says Michaud. “We had a vision of public documents available 24/7 without ever having to wait in line again.” Now all they needed was a way to implement it.

In 2006, General Code Solutions Consultant Herb Myers demonstrated Laserfiche for city staff, prompting Saco’s IT Department to choose Laserfiche. Ease of use, scalability, “going green,” and establishing a portal for improved public service all factored into the decision. Myers, for one, was impressed. “I was amazed at how forward-thinking they were,” he says. “They wound up teaching me as much as I taught them.”

With the foresight and commitment of both IT and Michaud that, as Myers puts it, “’green’ starts with technology,” Myers and IT mapped out an implementation strategy in meticulously planned phases (see sidebar).

Saco’s initial roll-out called for multi-departmental implementation almost immediately, which prompted the appointment of Laserfiche Luminary Fran Beaulieu as the in-house Laserfiche Administrator. Beaulieu underwent what Myers and the City refer to as “’train the trainer’ training.”

Beaulieu admits progress was slow, owing to the need to assess each department’s willingness, as she puts it, “to let go of the paper.” Key to ensuring user buy-in, she says, was not so much dictating a way of doing things, but establishing a standard by “planning with each department’s staff, hearing their needs and wants, and helping lead the way.” This included weekly meetings, discussions of how to avoid duplicating files and coming up with a consensus of what would be the “logical place” to centralize information. “Some visualized immediate benefits, others required a bit more help in the vision,” she says.

This help began with all Administrative Assistants—Beaulieu dubbed them “power users”—training on the Laserfiche client for importing and scanning documents. Department Heads learned how to use the system via Web Access. “I sat down with them one-on-one and made sure they felt comfortable with what I was showing them before I left.”

Beaulieu also worked with the Assessing Department, one of the City’s biggest paper users, to import deeds into Laserfiche. “Once they were able to see the speed of a search and ease of use, they became my highest achievers,” she adds. “The Assessor’s Department has almost completely added a deed for every parcel within the city for constituents to view and access.”

Beaulieu used this experience to identify and standardize procedures and file structure in creating the City’s all-important Document Management Manual (DMM). Beaulieu’s committee determined that the addition of folders, renaming of documents and deletion of documents would be done only by Laserfiche Administrators.

Trainings were limited to certain shift times, so, inspired by General Code’s own training Webinars, staff created a short “how-to” video for Web Access users along with a simple guide—customized using the file structure created by the City—available internally.

By April 2008, expanded training and more departmental buy-in paved the way for enterprise adoption and Phase 3 public access. Saco’s Department of Public Works and Wastewater were by now online via Web Access. And implementing Quick Fields enabled the Assessor’s Department to automatically scan and index Property Tax Cards where OCR had been formerly problematic and manually typing the information was, as Beaulieu puts it, “not an option.”

How effectively? “The process used to require approximately 2 to 2 1/2 days of printing time for one person to accomplish and used about a whole toner cartridge and 20 reams of copy paper,” Beaulieu says. “Now the cards will be downloaded into Laserfiche in a matter of minutes. This process will save time and money.”

The final frontier was to break down the fourth wall of government and push it out to the community. WebLink would allow public access to city documents through the “Find-A-Doc” interface, with a how-to video and on-line instructions leading the way. Roll-out took some time due to customization, but General Code’s Brian Hoody set-up quick search links to bring users directly to a specified folder, even getting audio files to work for the City’s Planning Department via the “Find-A-Doc” portal.

Saco's "Find-a-Doc" Public Web Portal

Though just a few months old, “Find-A-Doc” is already resonating with staff and citizens alike. Maggie Edwards, an Administrative Assistant in the Planning Department, admits to being “a little intimidated at first” by the Laserfiche system, but now shares in Saco’s vision of a successful portal strategy. “If there’s a subdivision or site plan you want to know about, you can view the entire files online. If you wish to hear an audio of the minutes from the Planning Board meetings, you may do so,” she says. “Laserfiche has made it very easy to maneuver.”

Saco’s savings so far total over $10,000 a year, but as Beaulieu points out, “We also look at the value of the system for not departments, but individual value to users. Service to constituents is a big factor.”

• Planning and Engineering saves $7,580 a year by scanning large format maps.
• Inspection Reports saves $1,780 and 1,335 sheets of paper a year.
• The Assessor’s Office saves over $1,600 a year.

And now with the economy forcing municipalities to do more with less, neighboring Scarborough has requested a look at Saco’s Document Management Manual while other budget-strapped cities are investigating sharing services to access various documents and parcel information. Saco is also looking into integrating Laserfiche with its GIS application. “We’re already sharing some personnel so the idea of shared services and ‘umbrella IT’ makes sense,” Beaulieu says.

“The lines are so blurred in areas like road repair that regional administration makes the most sense,” she adds. “When you can see what documents are attached to parcels, that saves you phone calls and extra trips and that makes their life easier as well as ours.”

The Chula Vista engineering department keeps detailed maps and drawings of individual land parcels that are often referred to by working developers and in order to complete work. When new developments are planned, professionals use the maps and drawings to check sewer pipe outlays, flood-prone areas, sanitation department zoning, and other information pertinent to the future housing of hundreds or thousands of citizens.

A higher workload mandated a digital way of life for the engineering department. As more land found itself the target of new developments, easier access to documentation of the city’s 49 square miles was needed. Previously untouched parcels had to be staked out for subterranean or logistical impediments to new development, necessitating greater attention to detail. The engineering department needed up-to-date, easily accessible map data in an interactive format that could be quickly changed with all the development taking place. Large scale drawings and minute numeric details shared equal importance.

The Engineering Department needed digital access to the complete details of city contracts, so the City of Chula Vista centralized its extensive collection of ESRI-based data—from ArcGIS and ArcInfo systems—with ArcIMS Viewer. Previously, the information was accessible only through an in-house browser, which was challenging for engineers spending a lot of time in the field. The customized ArcIMS Viewer used an ActiveX Connector and was dubbed internally as CV Mapper. Now the engineers could view and modify GIS data through a Web browser.

Engineers use CV Mapper to instantly check the Internet and find out if a parcel was within a flood zone, or what day of the week a street was being swept. The ArcIMS tool could also easily access work order data to check the specifics of new developments, such as a manufacturer’s phone number.

“We set up our ArcIMS Viewer to provide engineers with the basic GIS information and related work order specifics in a concise format suited to help facilitate quick decisions,” said Bob Blackwelder, the city’s Lead Programmer/Analyst. “We also saw an opportunity to add all the images from the map room, which was an extra trip engineers often had to make when researching a parcel.”

ArcIMS gave engineers the ability to pull up small but important details like manufacturer type from their desks or laptops. Blackwelder’s GIS team extended that functionality to include the construction maps and drawings.

The open-ended ArcIMS platform meshed easily with Laserfiche Document Imaging, the digital source of the city’s collection of maps and drawings. In 1999, the city contracted to have approximately 40,000 engineering related maps and documents indexed and scanned into the Laserfiche database, which includes a desktop program allowing users to search and display scanned documents. Laserfiche also had a dedicated Web-based thin-client, WebLink, deployable to browser-based work environments in a fashion similar to Chula Vista’s ArcIMS Viewer.

“All of the objects, properties, and methods developed by Laserfiche were at my disposal for incorporation into our CV Mapper,” Blackwelder said. “We only needed to add the appropriate WebLink methods and properties, and our document management system, which included the entire contents of the city map room, was a full-fledged part of our ArcIMS tool.”

Chula Vista engineers use ArcIMS to get storm pipe size, type, width, material and other specifics that can be expressed in a searchable value, while they use WebLink to pull detailed, lengthy documents like original blueprints. The integration between ArcIMS and WebLink lets engineers find the curve schematics of a drain pipe at the same time they determine its width.

To achieve one-click compatibility between Laserfiche and ArcIMS, the drawings were spatially-enabled and layered with corresponding GIS base map information. A Chula Vista technician linked the unique work order number on each construction drawing into the appropriate project by using ArcIMS Viewer to screen-digitize the project boundary and add the work order ID found on the drawing. This created a definitive relationship between the drawings and the geographic images.

Engineers use ArcView to zoom into a specific area, then enter a work order number and run a search for all associated construction drawings, without needing to open another application. This allows engineers to view all documents and maps associated with a project in real time. And the Chula Vista GIS staff only had to install the thin-client Laserfiche WebLink once on their Dell 2500 server, deploying it instantly to the city’s entire fleet of Pentium PCs.

By configuring ArcView to access all of these construction drawings, Blackwelder and his GIS team put all of the city’s engineering resources at users’ fingertips. Now, engineers get those little intangibles that help them pinpoint a problem when it occurs. In the event of a flood or leak, engineers use ArcView to quickly examine georeferenced characteristics of the affected location, then click on a hyperlink to Laserfiche to review a construction drawing and determine how far a sewer is beneath the surface; how a main slopes; or where pipes are connected. These fractious details help explain a sewage problem and expedite a solution. They also help ensure that Chula Vista’s many new developments are built in the safest areas possible.

Blackwelder and his GIS team continue to devise more ways to simultaneously put geographic information and digital images at users’ fingertips.

“Our Building and Housing Department would like to use the ArcIMS Viewer with our Permits Plus database to quickly display documents associated with building permit status or code violations,” Blackwelder said. “The Planning Department is looking forward to viewing detailed assessor parcel maps on the same browser as the GIS map.”