Miller Welding and Machine Co. (www.millerwelding.com) is a third-generation welding and machining company that specializes in heavy steel industrial fabrication – from 1 lb. to 40,000 lbs.

The company has two facilities in Pennsylvania, a 98,000-squarefoot plant in Sandy Lick, and a 134,000-square-foot plant in Maplevale.

In addition to producing parts, Miller Welding and Machine also is an industrial refurbisher that revives parts to working order.

The company focuses primarily on inventory control to keep its overhead costs in line, and it relies on a software program — from Global Shop Solutions — to do that.

Eric Miller, IT manager for Miller Welding and Machine, said his company, has kept its costs closely in line with the program.

As with most job shops Miller Welding and Machine performs a number of processes in the front office and on the production floor, and it saw that many of those processes are interrelated.

Take for example order entry, raw materials purchasing, production scheduling and finished goods shipping that link the front door with the back door in the shop.

However, most shops tend to focus on the production floor where the parts are actually produced and, often, little consideration is given for the front office.

Enterprise resource planning software, such as the program developed and provided by Global Shop Solutions (www.globalshopsolutions.com), helps job shops to shift their focus to get a wider and more inclusive view. “What job-shop owners are looking to do with ERP software is to increase their margins,” Victor Viser, corporate communications manager for Global Shop Solutions, said.

“As they reduce lead times, often they decrease their margins, but there are a number of ways to engage in activities that can increase profitability,” Viser said.

Cost accounting is one activity that can help job shops to understand their cost of manufacturing, and the profitability of the work they do for each customer. While that might seem like a fairly critical activity, Viser said some companies don’t do cost accounting.

“It’s something that should be done on a daily basis,” he said. A software program with cost accounting applications built into it makes that daily activity easier to perform, and is a vital tool. Viser said his company offers a program called Global Applications Builder that allows small-to-medium job shops to build such applications into its software to meet those requirements.

“In the past you either had a custom package built specifically for your needs, or you had an off-the-shelf product that could not be customized. A welding company — a job shop — can have a customized software program in our Global Applications Builder for what it needs in enterprise resource planning. It’s a cross between buying a custom package and an off-the-shelf product,” Viser said.

Miller Welding and Machine’s use of the software for inventory control is a good example of putting that software to use.

On any given day, Miller Welding has dozens of work orders flowing through to the shop floor.

Prior to implementing Global Shop Solutions, Miller Welding used “backward scheduling” of man and material because the sheer volume was a major headache for management. Now, it can coordinate material use and manpower through the software program.

“Without every aspect of the enterprise running in synchronization through the use of real time data, scheduling of man and material become inherently inaccurate and time consuming,” Miller said.

“This software is a powerful system where you can do everything that is related to the manufacturing process – from accounting to payroll, job tracking, scheduling, and more,” said Miller.

“What Global Shop has done for us is to increase our throughput and efficiencies dramatically. With this software, we’re able to reduce our overhead compared to what had been going on before. For example, we used to have three buyers, now I have one buyer doing three times what those three buyers accomplished in the same amount of time,” Miller said.

Viser noted that Global Shop Solutions is dedicated to ongoing research and development to build new features and applications for its software and to provide customer updates every quarter.

“Our whole suite of modules provides one-system software including advanced production scheduling, inventory management and more. We’re able to integrate the software and upgrades seamlessly into everything we do,” said Viser.