HCC Industries, a make-to-order, custom job shop that crafts high precision, hermetically sealed electronic devices, needed a solution that would consolidate existing systems, support multiple companies, streamline financial reporting and support lean manufacturing objectives. The company turned to Avanté to do just that.
 At a Glance:
- Company Name: Hermetic Seal Corporation, a division of HCC Industries Inc.
- Headquarters: Rosemead, California
- Services: HCC crafts high precision hermetically sealed electronic connection devices. HCC’s parts are used by a variety of industries from medical to telecommunications to commercial aerospace.
- Critical Needs: HCC required a strong system that could streamline a multitude of independent systems within the organization as well as support its lean manufacturing objectives. Important features included detailed tracking, inventory control, bar coding and tight integration on the customer service end.
- Solution: Avanté and Shop Floor Data Collection.
- Results: Hermetic Seal Corporation has reduced their order process time from 3 days to 1 day; reduced its work in progress balance by 56 percent; and reduced their lead time from an average of 22 weeks to only 10 weeks.
HCC Industries—Unmatched Experience
Tires screech and then metal meets metal. Your airbag deploys just in time, saving you from serious injury. Meanwhile, at a hospital across town, a patient receives an artificial heart and is able to return, to a normal life. Deployment components for airbags and implant cases for the new artificial heart are just two of the products produced by HCC Industries—helping to make a difference in lives everyday.
For 55 years, HCC Industries, headquartered in Rosemead, California, has been a make-to-order, custom job shop business. HCC crafts high precision, hermetically sealed electronic connection devices, which are used by the medical, automotive, telecommunication, petrochemical, military and commercial aerospace industries. As a high-level, vertically integrated manufacturer, HCC procures raw materials including metals, glass powder and rubber. In addition, the company makes most of its own tooling for specialized or generic machining equipment. Most items are engineered to order to each customer specification.
HCC has four operating divisions: Hermetic Seal Corporation in Rosemead, California; HCC Machining Company in El Monte, California; Glasseal Products in New Jersey and Sealtron in Ohio.
Searching for a New Solution – Providing Accuracy, Timeliness and Flexibility for HCC
In 1998, HCC embarked on a search for a new software system to implement throughout its four divisions. At the time, they were using a combination of home grown software for order tracking and production control, as well as a packaged accounting solution, none of which were integrated.
After a thorough analysis, HCC determined they required a solution that could consolidate their existing systems, support multiple companies, streamline financial reporting and provide visibility into many areas of the business. HCC turned to Epicor Software Corporation’s Avanté solution to do just that.
“Prior to our selection process, we established that our overriding goal was to implement a solution that would enable us to move to a lean manufacturing environment, while reducing our lead times to our customers,” says Chris Bateman, vice president of HCC Industries. “Avanté by Epicor not only would enable us to achieve our goals, it met all of our requirements.”
“We selected Avanté because of its rich functionality, ease of implementation and integration,” adds Steve Horwitz, IT director, HCC. “Since implementation, we've provided better customer service, as well as more accurate planning and material control. We’ve also greatly improved our shipping. The Avanté product has become an integral part of our success.”
Avanté at Hermetic Seal Corporation
“The primary features we were looking for at Hermetic Seal Corporation were production tracking and inventory control,” says Mike Mosallaie, vice president and general manager, Hermetic Seal Corporation. “Most of our business is make-to-order and engineer-to-order, but we also have some automotive lines, which are repetitive. So, we needed the ability, to run in a multi-mode environment.” The company also required an integrated production data collection system; so all information would be available in real time, allowing HCC to make better, faster and more timely decisions.
Increased, Real-time Visibility
Avanté’s Shop floor tracking provided Hermetic Seal Corporation with real-time visibility of where jobs are located by workstations throughout the company. “Avanté has given us a good overview across the plant. We can drill down into each one of our departments and workstations and find out what is going on and where. It has reduced many time consuming manual processes, while providing greater visibility,” says Doug Thatcher, manufacturing manager.
Streamlining and Consolidating Processes
The first step toward lean manufacturing was to eliminate unnecessary processes. Hermetic Seal Corporation started by minimizing the reporting steps on travelers and eliminating their manual buy cards and log sheets, which were time consuming and problematic.
Next, was to improve the time it takes to process an order. It used to take three days to complete an order, from the moment it was placed, through engineering review, then the materials could be ordered. Now, with Avanté, that process has been reduced to one day. Invariably customers make changes to their orders, which use to take days to implement the change. Now, with Avanté, change information is at everyone's fingertips immediately, which means improved customer service, reduced rework and expediting expenses.
“All data is in the system and viewable by all areas. Shipping, production control, stock room, material control and receiving are now all consolidated, providing additional streamlining and efficiencies,” adds Mosallaie.
Dispatch and WIP Reports Increase Efficiencies
Hermetic Seal Corporation has implemented department Dispatch Reports to see how jobs progress compared to completion deadlines. “Through Avanté’s Dispatch and WIP Reports, we can more easily re-appropriate underused resources, such as labor or machines, to ensure all products are manufactured in the most efficient time frame with the least amount of cost,” explains Mosallaie.
“Each department now works off of its own individual start and finish time, independent of job deadlines. As a result, the company has reduced its work in progress balance by 56 percent within a two-year period.” says Mosallaie. “Production meetings are also more efficient due to accurate WIP reporting.”
Organized Inventory Means Less Wasted Time
“We’ve also gained a lot of advantages in the stockroom,” says Mosallaie. “Avanté's timely production data ensures that the stock status display is always real-time and accurate.”
Within one year, Hermetic Seal Corporation saw its inventory transaction volume increase between 60 and 70 percent. In addition, reduced lot sizes and a 30 percent increase in sales have resulted in a 500 percent increase in manufacturing transactions. Avanté has given Hermetic Seal Corporation the tools it needs to keep its arms around this tremendous increase in manufacturing transactions.
“We use to depend on specific employees, as they had their own methods of stocking and storing parts,” adds Mosallaie. “Now, we no longer depend on them. We use the system to locate each item, so we are not wasting time looking for parts.”
Continuing to Improve
Hermetic Seal Corporation continues to make improvements regarding part run times with validated, accurate real-time data. The company is taking advantage of KanBan replenishment strategies, by stocking some finished goods inventory to support their customers’ quick turnaround. This creates some finished goods inventory, but with reduced lead-time and lot sizes, the finished goods required to support the KanBans are minimized. The company’s continued objective is to reduce lead times and have immediate KanBan supporting inventory available without building up large quantities in the warehouse.
“With Avanté, we are achieving what we set out to do. HCC has made great progress towards lean manufacturing, and we’ve significantly reduced our lead time from an average of 22 to 10 weeks,” concludes Bateman.
More Information
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