Paper supplier calls on Cisco to bridge gap between production machines, facilities
By Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 2/1/2005 12:00:00 AM
Corrugated Supplies, which makes specialty paper and cardboard products used in custom packaging and displays, has a knack for using technology as a competitive weapon. In fact, the Bedford Park, Ill.-based company can charge higher prices than most of its competitors because customers love the level of service that its technology infrastructure provides.
The only problem Corrugated Supplies seems to have with deploying technology is, on occasion, finding vendors unwilling—or unable—to develop systems to support its business strategies. This tendency caused Corrugated to create its own ERP system because no packaged solution could accommodate the complexities of its manufacturing process.
"We convert paper into specific forms with multiple attributes, such as a precise crease here, another crease there, and a particular length and width," explains Dave Pung, director of information services. "The packaged software we looked at put most of those attributes into a comment field. We need a system that manages attributes as part of the normal manufacturing process."
Corrugated Supplies had better luck finding a networking vendor. After just one meeting, it found that Cisco Systemscould support its entire IT infrastructure, which includes a network that carries voice and data traffic between two facilities three blocks apart.
Several vendors vied for Corrugated Supplies' networking business, but Pung says Cisco was the only one capable of completely meeting the company's needs. "Cisco came back with a plan that was exactly what we envisioned," he says.
That vision included an Ethernet network for passing data between production machines. Pung chose Ethernet because its open nature made it easy to build communication links between shop-floor control devices from different vendors. Cisco made this even easier by supplying networking switches that support the Ethernet protocol.
Corrugated's ERP system—which communicates with a central Microsoft SQL database over a Cisco wireless network—is the core component of Corrugated's superior customer service program. In addition to processing orders quickly and precisely, the Web-based application lets customers log in and check order status in real time.
The Cisco wireless bridge that moves both Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and data traffic between the two Corrugated Supplies facilities also has improved customer service, and saved the company money.
"One vendor told me to put in a PBX [public branch exchange] and move to VoIP later," Pung says. "That was going to cost more than $100,000 and force us to run wires twice. I only wanted to run wires once, and with Cisco, that's exactly what we were able to do."
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