The manufacturing industry is evolving, creating exciting new opportunities for forward-thinking companies. New technology emerges seemingly every day. It allows manufacturers to accelerate production and improve operations.
But companies resistant to change risk falling behind in a competitive market.
At ReNEW Manufacturing Solutions, our philosophy is built on capturing efficiency in every area of our operations. By combining traditional manufacturing values with cutting-edge technology in our network of shops, we’re able to drive down costs and improve lead times.
This philosophy drives our adoption of Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions at ReNEW.
Modern SaaS solutions represent one of the fastest-growing opportunities in manufacturing, transforming processes that have remained unchanged for years or even decades in many shops.
Until recently, our shops relied on a quoting method common throughout the industry: a hybrid of paper processes, spreadsheets, and ERP systems. These manual processes were functional, but we recognized that modernization could transform and speed up our quoting.
Our transition to Paperless Parts, a cloud-based quoting platform, has revolutionized our RFQ response process.
With this tool, we consistently deliver clear, organized quotes within 24 hours.
The platform also streamlines customer collaboration by moving many aspects of discussions from email into a centralized system.
Three of our facilities have already adopted this modern SaaS solution, significantly simplifying the quoting process for both our team and our customers. Every customer who experiences our RFQ response for the first time remarks on the speed and clarity of our quotes.
Our quoting software is an example of how we invest in technology and automation to increase the timeliness and efficiency of our processes
We do this because we’re committed to giving our customers the best service possible.
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have advanced significantly in recent years, allowing shops to monitor and control operations more deeply than ever before. For instance, we recently adopted Fulcrum at one of our facilities, and it’s transformed our scheduling visibility and management.
The impact has been clear — by moving away from spreadsheet-based tracking, we now gain comprehensive insights into operations.
For our customers, this is significant.
We can better accommodate rush orders, dynamically adjust production schedules, and deliver even more reliable service. Software worth investing in is software that makes our customers’ lives easier.
Some of our shops still maintain legacy ERPs, and to bridge this gap, we’re investing in business intelligence (BI) tools that enable data analysis across facilities. These solutions allow us to extract meaningful insights from all of our operational data and discover where we can most readily improve our custom metal fabrication.
In the past, we’ve relied on operator input for information about job timing, but this left possibilities for human error and downstream effects on scheduling. With modern machine monitoring, our systems provide precise data about utilization rates and idle time analysis.
This is important for our customers because it speeds up production time without sacrificing quality.
The manufacturing industry is also seeing the emergence of advanced simulation tools that predict cutting and run times, leading to far more accurate production forecasting.
The data these solutions provide allows us to maximize uptime and minimize unexpected delays across our capabilities, from precision CNC machining to metal fabrication services.
What could be next in manufacturing?
AI, of course, has dominated the headlines. And while nearly all of these systems incorporate some form of AI, there’s been no single paradigm-shifting breakthrough in manufacturing.
However, we know exciting innovations await, and we can’t wait to see them.
At ReNEW Manufacturing Solutions, we remain committed to staying at the forefront of technological advancement. We understand efficiency gains are critical to success, and our adoption of new software solutions is one of our competitive advantages.
In all of our modern manufacturing capabilities, we leverage these technologies to constantly gain efficiency and lower costs for our customers.
Request a quote today to see how these technologies drive our efficient manufacturing.