Articles

June 2008
Datacraft Solutions Featured in Metalworking Production and Purchasing Article
According to Stephen Parker, chief executive officer of Datacraft Solutions, makers of Signum, an electronic kanban solution, “Lean thinking and practices have been incorporated into all levels of the manufacturing business operation. Kaizen shop-floor improvement is commonplace. Lean principles have spread throughout the operation, far broader than just the manufacturing operations. The lean methods are in engineering, logistics, customer support, transporting, and suppliers.”

May 2008
Datacraft Solutions Featured in The Machinist Article
The article explains the rapidly changing nature and importance of the demand-driven supply chain and statistical process control in the modern day business environment.

April 2008
Datacraft Solutions Featured in Automation.com Article
Companies, like Datacraft Solutions have a server farm with 100% redundancy and three OC3 lines. Data is 99.999% secure, and users have never experienced down time, thanks to a Multiple UPS Power backup system and 900 kW Diesel Caterpillar generator.

Datacraft Solutions Featured in Automation Media Article
There are dramatic difference about an on-demand digital kanban solution according to Stephen Parker, CEO of Datacraft Solutions who notes that Signum (their core DDSC Saas solution) is hosted on the company's servers and backed by the company's infrastructure, eliminate those cost to the enterprise as well as administrator to maintain the software and hardware. The SaaS (software as a solution) model establishes a DDSC with fixed monthly costs, paying only for what is needed and used. Cost of Ownership in a DDSC environment is easily calculated and contained.

January 2008
Datacraft Solutions featured in Industry 2.0 article
According to Stephen Parker, CEO of North Carolina-based Datacraft Solutions, "The reduction of waste associated with rarely used items in inventory as well as allowing distributors to focus on core competencies and production efforts is vital. No time should be wasted sourcing and procuring infrequently used items. There are very few digital kanban systems, and the old kanban card system has severe restrictions when there is an external supplier in the supply chain. Digital kanban re-orders based only on actual consumption are electronically communicated during each phase of replenishment."

Datacraft Solutions featured in The Machinist article
A discussion on how technology solutions can guard malevolent data tampering and in due course smoothen the data to work impeccably. Here both the principles of security and safety play a significant role and are to be seen as part of a lean manufacturing continued process improvement program.

Datacraft Solutions featured in Business Excellence article
In a recent interview, Ben Ehmcke of Power Partners, Inc. details his experience in technology selection and offers valuable advice to others in a similar situation.

December 2007
Automation.com features Datacraft Solutions' Signum
An application story on Automation.com features Datacraft Solutions' Signum solution as used by Follett Ice.

Datacraft Solutions Featured in World Trade Article in December Issue
An article in December's issue of World Trade on Warehouse Control Systems features quotes from Stephen Parker, CEO of Datacraft Solutions.

November 2007
Datacraft Solutions featured in an article in The Machinist
The article talks about the concept of Value Stream Mapping (VSM)-a tool and technique that helps manufacturers and organizations discover the highlyeffective technology solutions and provides distinct competitive advantage through its implementation.

June 2007
Datacraft Solutions featured in Supply Chain Management & Logistics 2.0
According to Stephen Parker, CEO of North Carolina-based Datacraft Solutions, “The reduction of waste associated with rarely used items in inventory allow distributors to focus on core competencies and production effort is vital. No time should be wasted sourcing and procuring infrequently used items. There are very few digital Kanban systems, and the old Kanban card system has severe restrictions when there is an external supplier in the supply chain. Digital Kanban re-orders based only on actual consumption are electronically communicated during each phase of replenishment.”

October 2006
Datacraft Solutions featured in AccountingSoftware411.com
“The central hallmark of demand driven supply chain is a digital kanban system which achieves savings in several key areas,” according to Stephen Parker, CEO of North Carolina-based Datacraft Solutions.

Datacraft Solutions featured in InTech
The e-kanban system helps Scott Stringer, operations manager at Luvata’s Franklin, Ky., plant, link the customer’s demand with production efforts. The key is “trying to produce what they really need and streamlining the whole communication effort,” he said.

September 2006
Datacraft Solutions featured in Pharmaceutical & Medical Packaging News
“There are three cardinal axioms for getting rid of waste,” says Stephen Parker, chairman and CEO, DataCraft Solutions (Durham, NC). “First, improve product quality with a high degree of manufacturing predictability. Then, cut costs out of manufacturing. Computer-controlled robotics accomplishes these two goals because you are eliminating human error. Then, you have to get the material there in a predictable way, without error-prone forecasting,” says Parker.

Datacraft Solutions featured in Material Management & Distribution
According to Stephen Parker, CEO of Datacraft Solutions and manufacturer of Signum, one of the few digital Kanban technology solutions, “demand-driven supply chain networks provide the most optimum platform. The demand/pull which starts from the customer drives the whole supply chain for the organization.”

Datacraft Solutions featured in Software Magazine
While several push-type back-office systems, including ERPs and general ledger systems, claim to have replenishment kanban elements included, this investigation revealed only one supplier of replenishment-based supply-chain digital kanban: Signum, by North Carolina-based Datacraft Solutions.

August 2006
Datacraft Solutions featured in Software Magazine
Stephen Parker, CEO of Datacraft Solutions, makers of Signum, says, “The ROI is most often achieved within the first few days because of the unique approach to rapid integration to existing systems. Unlike major software installations that can take months or even years to achieve ROI, Signum can integrate in just days or weeks."

Datacraft Solutions featured in Manufacturing.net
The [Luvata] Franklin plant found a solution in a new tool called digital kanban (also known as eKanban) from Datacraft Solutions, Durham, N.C., a demand-driven supply chain technology provider.

June 2006
Datacraft Solutions featured in International Food Safety & Quality Network
... Lean manufacturers today use digital kanban by Datacraft Solutions (www.datacraftsolutions.com) to drive a process to make, move, or buy the appropriate parts. Thus, digital kanban becomes one of the fundamental building blocks of a pull (or consumption based) replenishment system.

February 2006
Datacraft Solutions featured in Febricating & Metalworking
With this [e-kanban] program from Datacraft Solutions, Durham, N.C., [Outokumpu Copper Franklin] knows what they'll need and when, so "we are now only producing what our customers are buying now," says Scott Stringer, Outokumpu operations manager. "There is no more 'we need to build this just in case.'"

Datacraft Solutions featured in Industry 2.0
[The Datacraft Solutions] system replaces paper cards with a web site that instantly communicates the need for materials. Suppliers access this web site with a standard browser and see only the parts assigned to them. Status of the entire replenishment cycle is monitored and both the company and the supplier know the moment a milestone in the supply chain is missed. This instant identification of problems results in reduced part shortages and an improvement in on time delivery.