A Digital Transformation Journey
C&A Industries, a regional player in the food processing industry in Southern Alberta, embarked on a journey to overcome operational obstacles through digital transformation. This shift was primarily driven by their desire to achieve long-term goals and marked by a thorough facility tour and consultation with MEE Cluster’s Digital Transformation Expert, Paul Hogendoorn. The consultation aimed to identify tech-driven efficiencies, vital in fostering C&A’s growth beyond their immediate business environment.
Challenges and Objectives:
C&A confronted various challenges, including an overdependence on an outdated and manually intensive system for job estimation and proposal generation, lack of real-time operational insights due to the absence of dashboards and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and suboptimal monitoring of CNC machines. These hurdles affected timely project completion and expansion plans, notably in reaching markets beyond their 200km comfort zone.
Methodology:
A “Digital Gemba” walk, a thorough process review, was conducted throughout the operational lifecycle of the company’s services. A detailed questionnaire was employed to spark discussions that would yield qualitative insights into improving each phase of C&A’s operations, from initial customer interaction to project completion and invoicing.
Key opportunities for improvement were identified in three main areas:
- Automated Job Estimation / Proposal Tools: Automating the job estimation process could free up critical management time, enabling rapid proposal generation and effective tracking, thus bolstering C&A’s sales objectives.
- Real-Time Dashboards and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Building dashboards within the existing financial system or outside of it could provide granular insights into production operations, allowing for agile management decisions.
- CNC and Critical Machine Monitoring: By installing machine monitoring systems, C&A could significantly increase runtimes and operational efficiency at a beneficial cost-to-savings ratio.
Implementation:
- Documented the current value stream map (establishing the critical “weigh points” for the dashboard display)
- Gained more understanding of current project estimating process (to avoid duplication of data input)
- Gained more understanding of labor capture (to see what operator input functionality we can leverage and data.)
- Currently designing and building a master dashboard and smaller secondary dashboards for specific departments and roles, to create “instant understanding” on all projects in all departments.**Conclusion and Impact**
Conclusion:
By modernizing systems and embracing digital strategies, C&A positions itself to not only become more resilient to market fluctuations but also to expand its reach and remain competitive. This case study illustrates a robust model by which traditionally manual operations in the manufacturing sector can transform into a digitally optimized powerhouse.
All images courtesy of C&A Group.
The MEE Cluster would like to thank the C&A Group of Companies for allowing us to use our enagement with them as a Case Study and being able to share the information publicly.
Written by:
David Rist, MEE Cluster Program Integration Director
View the LEAP page to learn more about how the Cluster can support your company in digital tool, automation, and LEAN adoption.