Profile at a Glance: Solid Surface, Inc. was one of the first solid surface fabrication companies to introduce automation into their shop. Currently the company installs 15-18 solid surface and stone kitchen countertops per day, plus approximately 60 vanity tops per month to dealer customers located all over New York State.
The Problem: Although Solid Surface, Inc. was using an electronic estimating program for quoting, there was nothing in place to manage the jobs once they were put into production. As volume increased, more and more resources were being allocated to managing scheduling, production and installation. As a result communication suffered and efficiency decreased.
“The problem was that sometimes people would fax information to us about a job but we never got it,” explains Mitch Makowski, president of Solid Surface, Inc. “Two weeks would go by and now they are on a deadline, but we don’t have their tops ready. It was getting difficult to keep up with the demand.”
The Moraware Solution: Switching to JobTracker made it possible for company managers to stay on top of the many details associated with countertop fabrication and installation and still grow the business. Solid Surface, Inc. also implemented an Internet-based vanity top program whose ordering process is fully automated using JobTracker information as its database.
“It is that communication link that is happening for us now,” says Makowski. “Once you have any kind of volume in your company, you have one person doing scheduling, one doing measuring, one doing sales, etc. When you are small and having one person doing everything communication is not an issue. But when you have 5 or 6 more people involved in every job communication is a real issue. That is what Moraware does, it aids the communications process.”
“JobTracker has really helped with our capacity. There is no way we could handle the volume of jobs that we are doing right now without it.”
“We had the know-how and the expertise to move forward, but our previous estimating software was literally holding us back. We couldn’t stay on top of things the way we needed to. There were too many little flaws in the system. Moraware fixed problem entirely.”
“We started with Moraware about 1 1/2 years ago. It has made a huge difference in the way we do things. We use it for estimating, quoting and inventory management.”
“We have jobs that are 4 1/2 – 5 hours from here. Our measure techs in the field tap into our computer system and add jobs as they complete them. It flags us right here in the office in the JobTracker program. They could measure a job and we could be programming that job for the CNC literally 10 minutes after they are done measuring it.”
