Matthew Elliott DoorCo’s Systems Lead and David Rosser IT Project Analyst, talk to Glass News about some of the IT developments the leading composite door supplier has made in their IT infrastructure, like paperless manufacturing, customer barcoding, simplified onboarding and how they are managing the very real threat of Cyber Security.
The world is operating in a digital age where at the click of a button, we can get pretty much anything. As an industry, we are under significant pressure to be as efficient and productive as possible. Of course, this hasn’t been helped recently with material shortages, but what is important is to best manage what is within your control. DoorCo is committed to constant innovation in our products and our services, and this includes a conscientious approach to manufacturing & supply that benefits all our stakeholders.
Our technology team totals 5 and collectively we manage a fully integrated IT-based manufacturing, warehousing & distribution system that communicates orders, stock levels, capacity and allows us to report on virtually anything. Along the way, we have improved online ordering and communication with customers, increased manufacturing & warehousing capabilities and capacity, enabled better onboarding for new customers, and improved lead times and delivery.
Seamless manufacturing & warehousing
The system is fundamentally an electronic ordering system, but an extremely powerful one that has transformed our business. We are close to being paper-free across our manufacturing from when the customer places an order right through to the product arriving at their facility. The link to our machinery Bean Saw is now live, and links to CNCs are imminent. All departments talk to each other digitally which opens up a host of benefits to both DoorCo and our customers: order tracking at any stage of manufacturing & warehousing, increased production speed and reduced risk through human error. We have also implemented driver tablets for electronic signed POD’s etc.
We will not stand still though and are always reviewing our systems and processes, looking to improve the whole customer experience end to end.
In true DoorCo style, we have taken this a step further by using integrated universal barcoding throughout this system, which can be a customers’ own barcode. The barcode is applied from the point of order and to the packaging at the point of distribution. This means that once the product arrives with the customer, it is simply scanned in through goods-in and continues through the customer’s facility for manufacturing, or if prepped by DoorCo, onwards to join the rest of the customers’ order. This has been developed through our ability to communicate with any external system, whether it’s an industry standard manufacturing system or bespoke and developed in-house.
Onboarding
This level of integration with customers’ own IT systems has enabled us to simplify our onboarding process. One of the most daunting prospects of changing supplier is updating all your systems with the new, comprehensive product lines. Onboarding with DoorCo is easy because we have a dedicated support package delivered by our IT team. We can support the conversations the systems need to have, provide testing platforms and export delivered data sheets in any format that hold technical information, for example, how to manufacture our door styles. Our Asset portal is also an extremely useful tool, where customers can access information and transfer images in any format for their own use.
Flexible service
Another key attribute of our system is the service flexibility it has enabled DoorCo to deliver. We can deliver any volume of slabs or prepped doors, painted or unpainted, glazed or unglazed, to any customer. We’ve moved away from the traditional boundaries of ‘manufacturing’ and ‘distribution’ to a hybrid service that customers of any level can access. So should they need additional prepping, painting or glazing to back up their own manufacturing, or for have special orders they can’t deliver, the support is readily available. This opens up a world of opportunity for composite door sales. Rather than limiting the choice to what they can produce in-house or requiring a large amount of investment to expand their range, our customers can confidently partner with DoorCo to access all our doors, the FLiP cassette system, GLAZiNG, PAiNT and any other components they need. Some customers even work on Just In Time (JIT) delivery service.
The key to all this of course is stock. DoorCo places a huge emphasis on stock. We are also in the unique position that we are independent in both the UK and Korea, so together we can effectively communicate and manage the situation as best we can to ensure good stock levels are maintained.
Communications
Our ability to communicate has extended outside of just manufacturing. Our internal communications extend through accounting and even our newly formed HR department who have implemented employee benefit and comms portals, which both deliver greater communication across the business to boost staff buy in and engagement.
Cyber Security
The flip side of being fully digital is the very real and ongoing threat of Cyber Security. Protecting our business infrastructure and data from attack has led to a total revamp of our IT infrastructure from the ground up, delivered in a manner that allows us to keep developing and upscaling our IT in line with demand. Part of this revamp included us moving to a cloud-based server to eliminate the physical threat of fraud and theft. It has allowed for complete freedom with, for example, remote working.
Managing this to be Cyber Secure has meant that we’ve had to lockdown the system to the Nth degree, including tools like multi-factor authentication and M-Point scanning. We have also made our team culturally aware so they know what to look for when it comes to impersonation and phishing attacks. While we are conscientious in our approach, we are very aware that Cyber security is a big risk and could have a massive impact on the supply chain if any of us came under attack.
All of this means that our customers have choice, efficiency and the right products at the right time in a future-proofed, paper-free environment.
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