By Jenn Kiminas

Founded in 2002, Vizion Solutions is a leading information technology (IT) solutions and professional services provider headquartered in Independence, Ohio. Vizion provides a variety of IT services, and specializes in Business Intelligence, Application Development, IT strategy and management. Vizion Solutions’ focus is to partner with clients to help them effectively manage their transactional information with a focus on profit improvement solutions. The company is Libra’s IT partner and is responsible for its IT management, delivery, support and new projects.

Vizion Solutions helps connect information to decision makers. Vizion has had opportunity to partner with Libra Industries since 2011 and has assisted in many technology programs. This has also been instrumental in helping Libra Industries with some strategic acquisitions.

Libra Industries is a leading provider of integrated Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS) serving OEMs with complex or technologically sophisticated manufacturing requirements in a broad range of industries. Four world-class manufacturing facilities allow Libra Industries to provide customers with manufacturing flexibility including complete system build, module and subassembly production, as well as simple to complex PCB assembly. With an ongoing commitment to investment in people, quality systems, and the latest manufacturing equipment and processes, Libra Industries is committed to managing clients’ products from initial design and prototype to full production; assisting their clients in their efforts to improve time to market, reduce total systems cost, and increase quality.

Libra wanted to create measurement tools to further improve its service levels, manufacturing performance, and execution and profitability. After much research, Libra invested in several key IT initiatives. This article highlights two of those major initiatives: Shop Floor Control and Vizion360 Impact Analytics. These initiatives have been beneficial to Libra Industries and its customers.

Shop Floor Control Application is a custom program, jointly developed by Libra and Vizion Solutions.  Shop Floor Control tracks all activities on the manufacturing floor using bar code scanning and wireless workstations. This program tracks the status of each production job at each step as well as the serial numbers of each board, including date/time/work center completion information and it can provide a complete audit trail. Shop Floor Control also tracks the time needed to complete each step of the process, defects and all other relevant information. Additionally, it communicates and tracks the schedule for all departments, work centers and keeps track of the progress of each job. Capacity management as well as shipping and warranty tracking also are handled by the program.

This results in numerous key benefits:

• Improved floor productivity and efficiency

• Better cost management

• Improved scheduling

• Improved customer service – on time delivery

• Improved quality

• Warranty tracking

• Ability to find root cause of issues, by product, work center or employee

The second major investment was the purchase and implementation of Vizion360 Impact Analytics. Vizion360 is a Business Intelligence Tool that enables management to act on accurate and easy-to-use metrics. Libra Industries uses this tool in the area of manufacturing performance, inventory management, sales and profitability management. Implemented in 2012, this solution helps Libra get more value from its ERP systems. It was created to give business managers and leaders critical information and metrics to improve business decision making and identify opportunities. Vizion360 tracks all the key manufacturing data and metrics from the Shop Floor Control Application, and has helped Libra improve its inventory management. It also has helped to reduce excess inventory and improve supply chain management.

The Vizion360 Impact Analytics provides numerous benefits to Libra, especially in identifying customer opportunities, reducing costs – inventory and manufacturing – and managing customer service. Additionally, it has helped Libra improve its customer service delivery performance, and improved inventory management, which benefits both Libra and its customers. It also has helped with margin management. Overall, customers have benefitted from competitive pricing and more accurate service levels. Other key benefits include increased productivity, labor cost management (scheduled vs. actual costs), quality metrics, performance schedule (on time and on budget) and cost vs. quote management.

Vizion360 Impact Analytics processes and reorganizes transactional data into a format that makes Libra’s information easy to use and analyze. Using Libra’s Key Performance Indicators (KPI), including profitability, efficiency, sales, bookings, fill rate, margin, margin percentage and others, Vizion360 helps to instantly analyze the factors that drive Libra’s KPIs and show where the organization can be improved to maximize performance.

When Vizion Solutions implemented the performance analytics strategy at Libra Industries, it focused on the data transformation and architecture of a customized data model designed around Libra’s business. Data transformation consists of assembling data, applying filters and business rules to that data, and presenting the synthesized information for analysis. Data transformation requires specialized software and a staff that can perform several skillsets with that software, including data architecture, data modeling, data extraction, report development. Vizion is based out of the Libra Mentor office in order to most effectively harness the power of Libra’s data.

Vizion360 Impact Analytics is easy to run, and features multiple levels of sophistication, depending on individual users and the amount of detail needed. The solution runs on the “data in, information out” platform. The Vizion360 solution effectively extracts the data stored within business systems and transforms it into performance statistics that can be used to measure and manage the business more effectively. Vizion360 features multiple pre-configured modules that are customizable to unique business attributes. These modules include customer-focused (sales, orders, service), supply chain, financial, and customer and product profitability. Vizion360 allows information to interact easily and quickly across a wide variety of Web-based scorecards, interactive dashboards, Excel pivot tables and custom automated reports across all devices, including mobile.

Vizion360 Manufacturing Analytics provides visibility into manufacturing productivity as well as machine and employee utilization so organizations can monitor and manage production, efficiency and quality.

Libra Industries has partnered with Vizion Solutions, LLC to strategize, design, implement these two key applications, as well as several others. These have enabled Libra Industries to be competitive and profitable. These key initiatives were enablers to Libra’s recent growth and acquisition opportunities.

For more information about Libra Industries, contact CEO Rod Howell, CEO, at . To find out more about Vizion Solutions, contact Joe Vocaire, Libra’s CIO/Director of IT, at jvocaire@vizionsolutions.com or visit www.vizionsolutions.com.