The latest is AlphaCIM from Alphacam which has been added to The Real Door Company‘s existing Alphacam progamming system which came with the company’s first Weeke BHC550 CNC router installed in August 2003.
“We were quickly drawn to the capabilities of Alphacam’s software and, with an existing post processor already available – confirming the company’s experience of the Weeke machine – we felt confident that an Alphacam system would work ‘straight out of the box’,” said production director Will Herrmann.
But increasing turnover has forced the company to think again as it found it difficult to control the business using existing manually-based systems.
“We needed a system with the potential to capture all the knowledge built up in the company, as well as to integrate commercial data like costs, quotes, order processing, labour rates, material usage and margins,” said Mr Hermann.
The AlphaCIM solution offered simiple interfacing to the existing CAD/CAM. Installed earlier this year, the AlphaCIM, supported by bar code shop floor data collection terminals, provides data on all on-site production activities.
“We can instantly determine the progress of each job, the material used, the status of quotes, analyse costs and get projections of our order coverages pipline – everything,” said Mr Herrmann.
The company has around 2,000 door components on the system and more than 1,000 items in stock at any time, so the system is central to business operations.
