Software Enables Rotomolders to Streamline Scheduling, Machine Planning, Revenue Operations

RotoEdge Pro Version 1.8 now enables rotational molders to review the progress of any order at any time, view the rate and detailed statistics of scrapped production, and prioritize production scheduling by machine. Developed by rotomolder SmaK Plastics, the software also includes expanded international capabilities that enable manufacturers to schedule production across multiple time zones, and the ability to request real-time orders of parts to assembly.

These new features will help rotational molding companies increase productivity up to 40% per machine and improve revenue by reducing scrap (or product mistakes) up to 25%.

“Rotomolders have told us, ‘The time is now to move from spreadsheets, sticky notes, endless meeting and manual processes to streamlined production scheduling, tracking and control.’ RotoEdge Pro Version 1.8 puts plantwide insight and revenue-building data at an operation’s fingertips, from the touchscreen at the machine to the plant manager’s desktop,” says Jon Smalley, Smak Plastics CEO. “Measurement is money. If you can measure your machine, team and worksite productivity in real-time, then you can make the right decisions that increase output, eliminate scrap and give customers the best product on time and with a solid margin.”

Mistakes Are Costly

Operating a rotational molding machine with multiple arms and molds can require time-consuming manual scheduling and order tracking. Most manufacturers have multiple machines and multiple plants.

Until now, rotomolders relied on complex spreadsheets, whiteboards and manual updates to track and manage customer orders, machine and even personnel training and production. Once the manual schedule is completed, the information is handed off to machine operators with the hope they will complete the tasks as planned. That rarely goes according to plan, machine operators were not in the planning, now they can be part of the success with RotoEdge Pro.

Plant operators have had to constantly check inventory and “walk the plant” floor to double-check product counts. Over time, these operations misplaced customer orders, lost valuable production time and had to hire dedicated personnel for data entry. ERP and accounting software applications were not created to manage the rotomolding cross-manufacturing tasks or productivity measurement. There was not an easy-to-use, quickly-implemented software production system built specifically for their manufacturing challenges — until RotoEdge Pro.

RotoEdge Pro software was developed by a rotational molding company to solve the problem related to Rotational molding and the chaos around the machines. The company says RotoEdge Pro is the first and only professional rotomolding-specific scheduling and production control application that solves complex manufacturing challenges.

Now, with RotoEdge Pro, operations managers can track machine productivity, available capacity, nonconforming or scrap product, trends and order status, as well as employee performance, all in real-time. RotoEdge Pro is a web-based application that runs securely in Amazon Web Services (AWS), offering real-time machine scheduling, future production planning, order tracking, labor planning and better inventory control, which enables rotomolding plant management to make fast, data-oriented, revenue-generating decisions.

Advanced Rotomolding Scheduling and International Support

Rotational molding companies can now know instantly when to schedule or add new machine processes or employees, and plan production weeks and months in advance across multiple locations and product lines. RotoEdge Pro Version 1.8 production and management software includes new features such as:

• BOM Printing Change: When submitting a Pull-BOM in the Assembly section, users will be presented with a PDF containing parts and components of assembly items.
• International Time Zone support added to Label Printing: Time codes can now be printed on labels using time zones outside the United States.
• Machine Scheduling improvements: Improved scheduling of unscheduled orders.
• CSV support added to Order Imports: Users can now use both Excel and CSV formats.
• Close orders using the auto close feature or using the order Import: Users can now effectively manage and close previously imported orders and manually created orders in two different ways or using both working together.