My name is Cody Gray. I'm the quality engineer here at Art Brass Imagnetics. I've been with Art Brass for almost ten years, and I just started at the Imaginetics facility a little less than a year ago. I'm a process specialist. I know how to complete every process at every one of our companies, inside and out. We do anodized, chem treat, sealed anodized, primers, top coats, and fluorescent penetrant. Inspection.
Honestly, I wasn't excited about it because I just implemented a system here that we were using in Seattle. Once I saw what the system looked like, I was super excited about getting rid of paperwork and just the simplicity of the system itself. It reduces how complex it is to have paperwork and travelers running throughout the shop. This is just a lot easier to track. Everything about is better than what we're using right now. So I was excited once I actually figured it out.
Seeing the traceability between all the jobs and seeing how everything flows through the shop. Working with Calvin, it's been great putting in all the specs and all the info that we needed and realizing how it's tracked, logged, and how we're able to just go right back to everything instead of searching through all of our stuff that we have now. Once, I saw how it is properly used and the way it's tracked through the system. It changed everything. 110%, 110 timer percent.
It's good to have someone very knowledgeable on the system showing you how to go through it before you're just kind of going through it on your own. They know how to use it. For us, I'd be going into it blind and just trying to figure it out. And having him there, showing me where to go and how to do it while I have all the info in my head stored away. It was just a great connection, you know? It's a lot simpler than I expected it to be.
The system that we use now, you have to write everything, all the instructions. For this system, you just put in the inputs that you need, and it's already there, ready to go. So it's a lot better. It's a lot easier to use than what we're currently using.
The learning it, inputting all the systems. I've been working on our previous system for years and inputting everything, so I got worried about that—all the time I've spent on the other one and how I'm going to have to do it here. But seeing the way that this system is put together, it's a one-time thing. It's not each process multiple times, it applies across the board, which is fantastic.
All the constant inputs of all the spec information—times, temps. It's all our old system's all hand-typed. This one's not. It's a drop-down menu, pretty much. And you put it in like the temperatures and the time. That's it. But with what we had before, you have to take everything and build everything on your own.
Yeah, the learning curve, as always. Everyone's kind of scared to change ERP systems, especially since we just implemented one from Seattle here, like a little less than a year ago. People weren't too excited about it, but now that everyone's seen it, they're a lot happier with what this is like compared to what we're using right now. It's exciting. Just once we started putting everything in and seeing how it's going to look, I got excited. I mean, you can see me and Calvin—we're getting super stoked about it being ready. Like, I'm super excited to finally release it, get it on the floor because it's so much better than having the paperwork scattered about everywhere.
I can't tell you how many times we've lost a traveler, and once that's lost, you can't just remake it. It's all hand inputs, so it's gone forever. You have to restart the whole job. Seeing that that's not going to be a possibility anymore. You can't skip a process. They won't allow you. You can see where that job's at at all times—it's awesome.
No, I did not. I thought a month was tight. That's really tight to really implement any system, I felt like. So, even with a small number of processes that we do here, I thought it was going to be a tight squeeze. But it's gone by really fast, and I'm impressed by it. That's why I'm getting so excited.
Yeah, yeah, after these past couple of weeks—definitely. For the number of processes we have. I think a month is plenty of time. More than enough. I don't think so. It's gone fantastic. I did not expect it to go as good as it's gone so far.
With a deployment team. Have them here to show you the ropes. I mean, them knowing it through and through is the best way to learn it from them. They’re great to be around. We've had nothing but fun. Honestly, it hasn't been feeling like we're working on—like we're having a good time. It's an awesome process. I love it. Give your guys a raise.
So we came here last week. Just starting the deployment from scratch, essentially. We showed up. We started to go ahead and dive into how they do their processes here and dive into specs. And Cody's been a great asset. He's been able to give me the information pretty quickly and efficiently. And it's been substantial in terms of having the progress excel at the rate we need it to.
So the biggest thing I've noticed with this deployment so far is just the information Cody's been giving me has made the deployment process smooth and swift. You know, everybody here is super excited for the software. So whenever we ask questions, they have no problem sitting down with me and getting me the information that I need to build out the stuff in Steelhead.
Well, the spec build out needs to be correct for sure. Specs need to be set in stone. Process is going to be set in stone. Other things small like data points that may be gathered, those can be tweaked pretty easily. But as long as the core processes and the way those are driven are built out, you pretty much are all set, essentially.
So my name is Maritssa Landin. I'm a planner and also an inspector. I was nervous, but I'm so excited. I was able to work with one of the guys doing all this, and it was like, it looks like it's going to be faster. We're going to get more stuff out on the floor, less paperwork.
So with E2, which I thought it was faster than Fusion than what we had with Imagnetics back then. So I've been with Imagnetic—or I was—for four years then Danny bought it. So I went to ABAF Imag and he got the E2, which is way faster than Fusion but now. I looked into your guys's system—it's way faster. Fusion would take forever to load. Like when you put a part number, you want to put the F codes and stuff. You have to do so many extra steps. So we got E2 and it got better compared to what we were using. And now they introduced us to this new system. It's faster, way faster.
Normally receiving does like the material, the job number, the part number and the picture. All we have to do is double check. They put the right quantity, the PO, the job number and we have to. Now we have to do our part where we put either it's going to penetrant, chem line. We put all those F codes. Yesterday we planned like two jobs. We got them all out on the floor. We did more procedures. We had one the day before yesterday and it was just chem treat. This time it's going through the whole shop and it looks like it's going to go pretty good.
I honestly feel like it's more easier than what we're doing now. And our system, it’s way much faster. Stuff will get in and out the door than what we're doing with E2. I learn best by somebody sitting there and showing me how to do it. And then once they show me one, two or three times, I should be okay.
No Fusion was way harder. You had to do so many different steps. You had to pretty much use two different screens. Put all the specs in one order and do the other one in the other screen. It would take forever to load, and E2—it was better, but not as better as what we're going to start doing now. Yeah. So I'm excited. I'm so excited with the new system we're getting.
My name is Melisa Landin and I'm a receiver. I was excited for it because I heard it was going to be easier than what we were doing. No. The training was fast and easy. Well, he just kind of showed me how to do it. And then it took him, like, two times to really show me how to do it. And then I was able to get it down.
With the new system it's way easier because with the system that we were doing before, I had to take the pictures, pass it through a camera and then print it. And normally the pictures take forever to print and sometimes it doesn't work, so it just gets me like more behind. And with this one, it's like, first take a picture and move on. Yeah, I think everything is super easy use.
That's okay. Yeah. That's okay. That was the first time you entered an order by yourself? Yes. And you walked through it with Calvin how many times previously? Like, two times. Is it easy? That was pretty easy. That's going to stop our timer when we pull it out of the tank. We’ll drop it in.
Yeah, for me, it was yesterday. They did one with the other guy. I like it. It's gonna eliminate the paperwork we have to do. And just follow the scanner. Yeah, I do. It's pretty simple. Changes—always nervous. But no, I don't think so. I didn't really have an impression. I was excited for some—to eliminate the paperwork, but. Yeah. It's exciting. As in, like I said, eliminating the paperwork frees up time that we could do other things, be more productive.
My name is Cody Gray. Quality Engineer, works for Art Brass and Imagenetics. And we're powered by Steelhead.