Case Study

Stat Medical X-Ray Tubes, Inc.

STAT Medical X-Ray Tubes, Inc., an industrial remanufacturer, turned to Plex for help during a period of dramatic growth in its operations, scope, and requirements. The company was founded in Summerville, South Carolina, and quickly became a leader in the repair, remanufacture, and reload of high-quality X-ray tubes used in dental, medical, and industrial applications.

Results

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This manufacturer moved away from manual processes and transformed into a more efficient organization that quadrupled business in a few short years.

Real-time data lets the manufacturer trace inventory from the warehouse to the shop floor, through processing, and to shipping.

ERP from the Plex Smart Manufacturing Platform helped facilitate ISO 9001:2008 certification.

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After ten years of operation, STAT Medical expanded its equipment and capabilities so that it could service a new product line, and it simultaneously recognized its need for a more effective way of tracking its data in all areas of operation.

Plex ERP applications were key in STAT’s transformation from a small operation relying heavily on manual processes into a more disciplined, efficient organization that ultimately quadrupled its business in a few short years.

On the Road to Improvement

When STAT decided to launch a new product line, management realized it needed to streamline operations to manage the expected growth. Mark Davis joined the company just prior to the product expansion to prepare the company’s day-to-day operations for the growth.

When Davis found that most operations at the company were performed manually and the environment was almost entirely paper-driven, he immediately sought to automate processes and add software that the company would need in order to take advantage of its new business potential.

The challenge was to find one solution, one partner, which met all of the company’s needs.

To add even more urgency to the challenge, STAT had just faced the loss of critical invoicing data that had been PC-based. Davis added off-site hosting to his “wish list” of services and features offered by his ideal vendor.

The Search for One Solution

In the search for an integrated solution, STAT found that the Plex ERP system fit the bill better than any of the other software and service providers it considered.

As an on-demand solution for manufacturers, Plex combines the capabilities of enterprise resource planning (ERP), manufacturing execution systems (MES), quality management, customer relationship management (CRM), shop floor integration, and much more.

In addition, Plex has the ability to manage either a single facility or a global enterprise, utilizing lean principles to enable manufacturers to closely track and manage critical aspects of their operation, anywhere, anytime, via the cloud model.

A Transformation

STAT began its transformation by implementing Plex’s accounting and costing applications, then followed up several months later with applications that helped improve processes related to engineering, inventory, production tracking, quality (check sheets), purchasing, customer order processing, catalog pricing, shipping, and receiving.

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Inventory Reliability

In the area of production tracking, Plex ERP provides a complete trail of critical data about the manufacturer’s products. The system tracks materials used, processes performed, suppliers used, test results, and more. Real-time, accurate and accessible data is available to all users — holding the “absolute truth” about product quality.

The implementation of Plex not only helped improve STAT’s day-to-day productivity and efficiency, it eliminated the need for the company’s leadership to perform tedious manual operations so they could focus on other important business opportunities: the construction of a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility and the pursuit of ISO 9001:2008 certification, which it has since been granted.

Because information from all parts of a business is real-time with Plex ERP, the manufacturer can trace inventory from the warehouse to the shop floor, through processing, and to shipping.

The company no longer experiences shortages, surplus, waste, or any of the other casualties of imprecise inventory management.

Overall Benefits

From STAT’s perspective, the overriding advantage of Plex is that all applications are integrated while each application is truly comprehensive.

“Our CPA loves the financial application, for instance, claiming that it rivals any fully functional accounting software on the market today,” said Davis.

“We realize we are just scratching the surface of what Plex can do for us, and we look forward to exploring more applications that can be tools for us.”

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