Towing equipment provider also leverages Infor technology platform to help improve time and work order management
Infor, the industry cloud company, announced that Miller Industries Inc., a world leader in towing and recovery equipment, leveraged Infor cloud solutions during the pandemic to implement a new workforce scheduling system that helped safeguard employees and drive business growth.
The company also is leveraging Infor’s technology platform to help improve time and work order management.
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Miller Industries, headquartered in Ooltewah, Tennessee, near Chattanooga, manufactures the bodies of wreckers and car carriers, which are installed on truck chassis manufactured by third parties. The company’s products are sold through independent distributors worldwide and through prime contractors to government entities. It has four manufacturing facilities in the United States, one in England and one in France.
Data-driven scheduling system helps produce 12-16% increase in productivity
Before the pandemic, the company had investigated the potential for a third shift during the weekend and night hours to support manufacturing demand and forecasted growth. Rather than make a significant capital investment to open a new factory, the company knew there had to be a better way to utilize the assets it already had.
Using Infor Birst analytics, Miller Industries first tested and validated a four-days-on, four-days-off schedule in its welding department. When the pandemic hit and forced essential businesses to operate with a socially distanced workforce, the company took the opportunity to implement the four-days-on/four-days-off shift pattern across all of its departments and locations. By splitting the workforce in half and implementing this schedule, the company helped safeguard employees while boosting productivity by as much as 16 percent. It also expects to double asset utilization because of the new shift pattern.
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“The pandemic triggered us to implement the new workforce system that reduced the density of people in the factory,” said William G. Miller II, president and co-CEO of Miller Industries. “Not only did it minimize health risks, but it also improved productivity and job satisfaction. As we enter a post-COVID world, we plan to continue this schedule, so we can increase people density in our factories, and increase our manufacturing capacity and asset utilization.”
Infor platform supports expected 5-10% increase in manufacturing throughput
Miller Industries also used Infor’s low-code technology platform to implement certain applications in a matter of weeks, which helped streamline manufacturing workflows and capture data that helped the company find opportunities to improve performance.
Infor CloudSuite Automotive kiosks (mobile terminals) were deployed throughout the factory floor to support more efficient time and work management. Before the kiosks were installed, valuable employee time was wasted when employees had to walk across the factory floor to clock in and out and manage work orders. With the kiosks in place, as soon as a job is completed, it is entered in near real time, and the next work order in the manufacturing process can begin.
With the user-friendly kiosks, Miller Industries expects an increase in manufacturing throughput between 5 and 10 percent. The kiosks also have improved employee satisfaction because employees can quickly clock in and clock out, right where they work, instead of having to wait in queues at a few time-clock locations at factory entrances.
President and co-CEO Will Miller notes that one of the biggest benefits of working with Infor is that “we can be on the cutting edge without the risk of these new solutions not functioning or integrating with our existing software. This gives us an incredible opportunity to push the envelope to try the latest state-of-the-art technology without the risk factors that we might have with a different vendor solution.”
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