Hampson Custom Software has 18 years combined experience designing and implementing custom software solutions.
We would like to share some of our experiences solving problems for different people in different industries.
A local auto parts distributor came to us with a problem. They were losing hours each day manually flipping through filed invoices. They needed to store an original of the triplicate invoice, as the packing and shipping departments added hand-written notes while working on the invoice.
Our solution was to use their existing MFP copiers as an input device to a commercially available document management system. We built a plug-in for the DMS that would OCR only the invoice number, then look up the rest of the invoice information from their purpose-built billing system
Sometimes the invoice had sustained damage over the course of its travels, so we also built a Quality Control Verification tool so that an operator could manually correct OCR misreads due to poor print quality or invoice damange.
To meet their search requirements, we built a web-based interface to the DMS search that returns both a PDF and the original TIFF for perusal. Six months after implementation, they had scanned over 300 000 invoices, and their searches are now instantaneous.
A recent project involved shop floor scrap reporting for an automotive parts manufacturer. They were having problems getting important scrap production numbers in a timely manner. The scrap information was manually filled into pareado sheets, then compiled by the supervisor, then entered into their legacy system in batches. Two of the biggest problems with their existing system were the length of time it took for the information to become available to their operations team, and the number of people who were involved in getting the data sorted and input.
We decided to implement Optical Mark Recognition technology to help solve ther problems. We worked with them to redesign their scrap reporting sheets, now using fill-in bubbles for numeric data entry. This gave us the ability to read the hand-entered data without having to rely on the unpredictable results from currently available hand-writing recognition technology. We built a solution for them that allowed them to use many MFP copier machines across two different plants as the input devices. Supervisors then confirm the sheets, and the scrap and production data are sent directly to their AS/400 based legacy system.
Paper tracking was another large requirement of this solution, to help them meet their Sarbanes-Oxley requirements. The system prints out each sheet with a unique identifying number and a barcode, so the supervisor can instantly know if there are sheets missing. This has lead to much more accurate reporting of scrap and production, as each sheet is accounted for, and no data is missed.
Once they saw how much control they were getting from their scrap system, they decided to expand on the production side to include scheduling tools. From the production department, supervisors get the required production numbers for each part, and schedule operators on shifts a week ahead. With the rapid update of real production numbers, supervisors are able to adjust their shift schedules on the fly, reacting more quickly to the ever-changing conditions in a manufacturing department.