How Plex Improves Efficiency for A&K Finishing

Video Transcription

Matthew: A&K Finishing paints interior automotive parts. You're familiar with A&K products if you drive BMW, Tesla, Ford, GM, FCA. We also do consumer electronics. We've done work with Bose and furniture companies like Steelcase and Haworth. 

Scott: The difference in a lot of our processes, we're fully automated in robotic painting. We utilize multiple different paint lines compared to a single paint line that most people have so it gives us a lot of flexibility in the industry for different types of coatings and what we can do on a daily basis.

Matthew: Prior to Plex, we were managing our business entirely through Excel sheets and Microsoft Word documents. 

Scott: All of our managers spent 80% of their time entering data into individual systems. So while that information worked for one department, it didn't work for another department so they spent hours converting the same information over and over to look at it different ways. 

Matthew: We knew that as we were dealing with more OEMs and Tier 1s, that we needed to not only be more organized but we needed to be more efficient in the jobs that we did. We needed to be able to spend more time doing continuous improvement. We needed to spend more time working to lower our costs and to provide a better product to our customers. The system we had didn't do any of those things.

Scott: We decided on Plex. I think the major selling point was the workflows and the checks and balances in the system, integrated inventory control. The whole system operated under one software well for all points of business in the facility. 

Matthew: Plex fit into our company by being the centralized location that all of our information for recording production and managing the data that we had. With Plex, I get to spend time out here on the floor. I get to understand the operations better, the processes. I'm basically freed up to be able to manage my department as opposed to being in a corner somewhere just rifling through information and that's really what we should be doing as managers and as a corporation is driving continuous improvement and understanding our operation. Plex gives us the ability.

Plex fits with the A&K culture. We both strive to continuously improve our operations. That's a big part of why we have Plex, why we went after Plex is to make us better. Everything that we do around here, that's really what gets me excited to come to work every day. We solve problems and to help this business get better and help us get stronger but it's also to enrich the lives of the people that work for us. 

Scott: Now when I think of culture, I think of Plex. You know, Plex is our culture and it's our growth tool for our company.