Getting it right (Sydney, NSW, Australia)

“Time tracking software and PCs on the factory floor provides Premier Furniture with ‘live’ and ‘accurate’ factory production and productivity information on times on processes and jobs per staff member and time on overhead jobs and other factory downtime. Analysis of this information enables Premier management to get job assignment and workflow right –which is now driving substantial gains in factory productivity.

2009 was a challenging and difficult year, to say the least. Distribution channels were changing, which impacted our client base and our margin had been squeezed for the third consecutive year. Clearly we needed to continue to improve our factory productivity to get our manufacturing costs down, and we needed to do it quickly.

In late 2009, Empower Software was recommended to us, a factory productivity software and consultancy business, which had 10 years experience in our industry and a solid track record of success in Australia increasing their manufacturing clients’ productivity by 15 to 80%. It sounded exactly what Premier needed…I phoned the owners of Empower and had several very long phone conversations and demonstrations across the web. It was clear they understood my business well and that the software would track everything I needed. It was also clear they were very passionate and confident that their software would work well in my business and achieve the factory productivity gains we were after… It provides staff with a tool to be aware of and drive their own productivity. The software has made a substantial improvement to our factory productivity and our bottom line and we would not be without it”. 

Peter Langford, General Manager