Unlike at most manufacturing companies, you won’t see employees punching time clocks to track their work hours at Universal Precision Products Inc.
That’s because there’s not a time clock anywhere in the 75,000-square-foot facility.
You won’t see shipping clerks or secretaries typing bills of lading in triplicate, because the company doesn’t have typewriters. And you won’t see cost estimators crouched over pulp spreadsheets, because that’s not how things are done here.
In fact, you’d have to look hard to find a paper trail at Universal, because every task — from time and materials reporting to pricing and shipping — is performed at a computer terminal or on a PC or a laptop. The information is databased on internally developed software and made available to customers via the Internet on Universal’s Web site.
That’s nothing new for this 52-year-old firm, says Peter Friez, president. Universal may be a long-established company in a very old industry, but it has always embraced new technologies to stay ahead of the game.
John Munson, vice president, explains that — as with many older Akron firms that were established to serve the rubber industry — Universal was originally a parts supplier for tire manufacturers. In its quest to compete in the new economy, it had to reinvent itself, which necessitated new techniques and technologies to design and build custom machinery for myriad industries.
Today, Universal is an integrated builder and restorer of custom designed production machinery for tire, rubber (belts and hoses), automotive, paper, packaging, steel and inspection industries throughout North America and in countries including China, South Korea, Australia, Belgium and Brazil. Specifically, the pie chart is made up of 31 percent automotive, 19 percent rubber, 17 percent tire, 16 percent paper, 14 percent industrial/other and 3 percent steel.
“Universal provides a virtual turnkey project because we also rebuild and upgrade existing machinery and perform design, engineering, purchasing, fabricating, machining, painting, assembly, piping, panel building, testing and wiring functions,” says sales manager Brad Luyster.
To ensure that the machines it builds are of the highest quality, competitively priced and delivered on time, Universal constantly maintains and improves its design and engineering methods and machining capabilities.
Luyster notes that Universal has installed more than 390 major machines and 1,237 ancillary support machines across the globe. To manage those projects efficiently and cost-effectively, the company has adapted existing technologies to create its own computer software.
“We’ve been extremely progressive when it comes to utilizing computers and technology to manage, estimate and communicate projects with our employees and customers,” Luyster says.
Munson says that in a recent benchmarking survey conducted by the National Tooling and Machine Association, Universal had the greatest usage of ports and terminals per employee of any NTMA member company.
“And you see some companies in our industry only recently putting information on the Internet for customers. We’ve been active on the Internet for about five years,” Luyster says.
John Horrigan, an IS specialist at Universal, says that throughout the facility, dozens of networked PCs and laptops accumulate information minute by minute as employees — from assembly workers to purchasing agents — perform tasks. That information is uploaded daily into the database that Universal developed in-house — a package it customized from Microsoft Office software including Excel, Access and Word.
Until about five years ago, Universal provided its customers with time and materials information generated from its database. These job status updates were communicated by phone and fax, tying up lines and generating extra work.
Once the Internet became more widely accepted, Universal saw an opportunity to reduce costs and increase efficiency by developing a Web-based system through which customers could acquire job status updates.
“We upload all the manufacturing data we have that is pertinent to each individual customer’s job, and customers are given an ID number and a password that authorizes them to access their information through the Internet,” he says.
Munson explains that each machine requires purchase components (cylinders, bearings, motors, belts and pulleys, for example) and functions (fabricated and machined parts such as sandblasting and painting). For each customer order received, Universal’s purchasing department inputs into its database all items that must be purchased to build each machine, and the subcontract tasks required. That information is made available on its Web site, in “Customer-Only Job Status” areas that allow them to see what’s been purchased and what’s been machined.
“They can see what we’ve purchased, what must still be purchased, who it’s been purchased from, when we expect it to arrive and whether or not it’s been received. This shows them that we are staying on task to deliver the machine in a timely manner,” Munson says. “It also assures them that we’re buying items that meet their bill of material, from responsible and known vendors, and that the quantities are correct.”
Not only does this on-time information allow customers to monitor their job status, it apprises them of currently available parts they might need immediately at a different facility to keep production lines up and running. For example, a customer might call from a plant in Arkansas and request that the finished part scheduled for shipment to its China facility the next month be shipped instead to its Arkansas plant that day.
“Customers used to call us in a panic for parts they needed. Now they just check the site to see if we have the same part finished somewhere on another job we’re making for their company,” Munson says.
Friez says that site statistics and customer response validate that the information available through Universal’s Web site is being utilized and appreciated.
And Universal is developing a Web-based capability through which its regular vendors can determine the company’s purchase needs by logging onto a special area on its Internet site.
“We don’t want to be part of a free-for-all where buyers of machine parts list their needs on the Internet and hundreds of vendors provide quotes,” says Munson. “We feel we can reduce our costs by working with vendors we’ve already developed relationships with, providing them with ID numbers and passwords so they can go on our Web site and see what they can quote on.”
Luyster says that, despite the availability of off-the-shelf software and easy access to Internet options, to his knowledge, Universal is the only company in its industry that’s providing such valuable information to customers and vendors using internally developed software and Internet capabilities.
“Technology is jumping by leaps and bounds, and we’re trying to stay up with it, but there’s a lot more we can do,” says Luyster. “We’re trying to go that extra mile to be better than the next guy, and in our industry, we’re way ahead of the game.”
How to reach: Universal Precision Products, (330) 633-6128 or www.uppinc.com