Fapco continuously upgrades its Quality Assurance Department (QAD) software to improve supplier performance and customer satisfaction. Heading up this effort is Fapco General Manager Scott Sloniker. He has been working for the past year on the Fapco team to upgrade the in-house software capabilities to QAD EB2. This will provide significant enhancements for Fapco customers and suppliers of the Tier One parts programs.
“One of the biggest enhancements we are looking at is the ability to actually allocate material and schedule its production,” explains Sloniker. “There is a new ‘Scheduling Work Bench’ where we can see everything that has to do with a particular part on the screen.”
We will be able to simultaneously view customer forecasting, demand, current inventory, and future demand.
“This will allow us to make an educated decision based on real time supply and demand information that was not available before without a cumbersome research process,” he states. “This tracking is provided per SKU so each part for each supplier can be evaluated to ensure on time delivery to our OEM customer.”
The new QAD upgrades will also provide Fapco with more flexibility to track and manage inventory processing throughout the entire system.
“We had great inventory software, but this new upgrade provides us with more advanced control with more options and flexibility to serve the many types of customers our OEMs serve,” states Fapco Material Manager JoAnn Pressey.
OEM dealers, distribution centers, and even retail outlets may all have different shipping and blister packaging needs. This part of the QAD upgrade allows the tracking and customization of each, providing an easily modified, pre-programmed plan.
This system – combined with EDI that is already in place – will allow Fapco to accept and process orders in real time rather than manually entering data, thus eliminating keystrokes and the chance of human error.
“We began looking at the upgrade two years ago,” says Sloniker. “We have had it up for several months and are continuing testing and migration of various elements. In the near future we will, with a few clicks, be able to track production and quality performance of all the Tier One suppliers to help improve service standards to our OEM customers,” he concludes.
Learn more about part kitting and small parts packaging solutions from Fapco.