Industrial Tube Manufacturing CASE STUDY: Going paperless

Industrial Tube Manufacturing asked Company-X to build a system that used accounting data to optimize factory production.

New Zealand has a history of doing things ourselves. And that Kiwi can-do attitude is evident at Industrial Tube Manufacturing - New Zealand’s leading manufacturer of quality, locally-made steel and stainless precision tube.

In an era when manufacturing is going offshore, and products are being imported to New Zealand, Industrial Tube Manufacturing has kept its steely resolve. It has continued to manufacture quality, compliant hygienic and carbon tubes, cut to precision and the required manufacturing standards.

At Industrial Tube Manufacturing, it’s not just its people who deliver, it’s its products. From roll cage tubes to carbon aluminised tubes, pre-galvanised tubes to hygienic tubes, Industrial Tube Manufacturing steel and stainless product showcase the breadth and depth of our manufacturing expertise.

The Industrial Tube Manufacturing factory turns raw steel into made to order precision-cut standard lengths of tubing.

The Industrial Tube office ran on accounting software that handled customer orders, sales volume and billing.

Between the two systems was a chasm of manual processing and production planning that cost time, resources, and scheduling headaches.

Industrial Tube Manufacturing realised savings and efficiencies could be made by using accounting system data to calculate and optimize factory production.

Company-X identified the high-level system requirements and key projects to implement before starting a series of iterative projects to build production management capability around the existing software.

The result was a comprehensive production management tool that integrated seamlessly with the existing accounting system to deliver improvements across the business.

Improvements included production and waste planning, cutting accuracy, staff productivity, administrative hours, delivery dates and customer service.

As Company-X’s longest-running software project, the Industrial Tube Manufacturing system is a testament to the power of iterative development.

Company-X continues to introduce additional features to support business needs as they arise.

“Tubemanager has been really valuable to us as part of the lean manufacturing process. It will help remove the need for physical job cards and introduce a paperless manufacturing system.”

Industrial Tube Manufacturing assistant general manager Ian Foster