CE Machine Company, Inc.

Faster & more efficient order processing.

Background

CE Machine Company, Inc. is a high-quality manufacturer of original equipment manufacturer (OEM) parts. 

• More than 400 customers in the aerospace and defense industries.  
• Based in Wichita, Kansas and has 50 employees.

Challenge

As a smaller company dealing with a large base of customers and many thousands of discrete products, CE Machine places critical importance on efficient order processing.  The company was satisfied with its ERP system, which manages fulfillment once orders are received, but keeping track of the flurry of paperwork at the beginning of the order and then at final order completion was proving to be a challenge.

“We needed a system that could automate all of these paper-based processes and fill in the gaps that aren’t covered by the ERP system,” said Keith Eck, information technology manager of CE Machine.  “Each of our customers has its own unique way of placing and receiving orders, which makes our manual processes even more inefficient.”

CE Machine sought a system that would 

• electronically capture and store all the order entry and fulfillment paperwork, 
• automate all of the workflows involved in order processing, 
• be easily managed and easily adaptable to changes and growth in the business.

Solution

To meet these requirements, Imaging Office Systems (IOS) recommended a system that electronically stores, organizes, and manages virtually any kind of business content, provide systems integration and implementation services, and ongoing support.    

• Currently, CE Machine is scanning more than 20,000 pages of customer order information into the document repository every month, a number that is rapidly growing as the company continues to convert paper documents.   
• Documents range from initial customer orders and engineering drawings in TIFF or PDF to certificates of conformance – identifying the materials and processes used to make the part – that are required for every part the company sells.  

IOS also provided easy-to-use workflow tools that CE Machine has used to create workflows that automatically route documents for final approval and generate the approved documents needed to complete and ship the order.

The Bottom Line

Even with a high processing workload - an average of 700 jobs going through the shop every month – CE Machine staff no longer have to spend time searching through piles of paper and hunting down the ones they need.  By automating many formerly time-consuming manual processes, IOS has enabled the order processing staff to work faster and more efficiently.  

• Search tools allow the staff to perform a search based on the documents’ attributes and instantly retrieve them so orders are completed much faster.
• Customers benefit through faster and more responsive service.
• Storing important documents in a secure repository has added a measure of security and control that did not exist before.