Kent-based Jota Advanced Engineering (JAE), the sub-contract precision engineering division of the Jota Group, has found that investment in a PSL Datatrack status board display system (www.psldatatrack.com) has brought a new dimension to its business by providing visual real-time information on its key production functions.

Offering its CNC machining capabilities to the wider motor-racing, aviation, power generation, scientific and medical sectors, as well as internally to the Jota Sport motor racing and Jota Aviation divisions, the firm uses multi-axis turning centres with live tooling and five-axis machining centres to work to very tight tolerances, often with difficult-to-machine materials.

Jota initially invested in PSL Datatrack production control software in 2016, replacing manual systems that consisted of Excel spreadsheets and Word documents — an approach that was both time-consuming and difficult to manage
efficiently.

The investment gave Jota control of its customer quotations, sales and purchase order processing, workshop scheduling, Shop Floor Data Collection (SFDC), deliveries and invoicing procedures.

It provided close management of all of these aspects of the business, removing the need for keeping paperwork or customer archives.

It gave Jota highly accurate information about its business and machining capacity so that it could keep its commitment to customers in terms of product quality, traceability and delivery times; quotation times were reduced by up to 40%.

The next stage for Jota was to be able to see the status of all work passing through the shopfloor in real time.

Putting PSL Datatrack Status Boards on display throughout the factory and in the management offices has ensured that clear visual instructions are available to all departments on any aspect of production, giving even more control over manufacturing processes and achieving Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

The result of the discussion between Jota and PSL Datatrack was a ‘traffic light’ system for the Status Boards on the shopfloor that can be clearly read and easily understood by all operatives, allowing them to identify any possible bottlenecks in production and rectify them.

The screens show the sequence of jobs that are going through the factory at any time — and those that are planned for the following day.

A green light indicates when a specific machine is going into production mode, and an amber light shows that a machine has been set, ready to go into production. The red light highlights work that it is yet to go into production.