"Before NoMuda VisualFactory, it used to take me five to six months to create work instructions for a new product. Now it takes just one month. For a product with similarities, it takes a week and a half to two weeks. Vast improvements in time."

After spending hours creating work instructions using traditional tools, Production Engineer Marten Thieman started his search for a system to make ZMicro’s processes more efficient. Starting the project with six potential providers, NoMuda VisualFactory impressed ZMicro and became their Manufacturing Execution System of choice.

“The floor technicians really enjoy VisualFactory as it lays out very linearly what they have to do and gives a lot more precision to what they are doing.”

“It also makes it a lot easier for me laying out the process, as VisualFactory is very structured in the ability to compartmentalize via tasks, different functions, sub-assemblies, and such items.”

“You can create all of the different variations of subs, link them in and let the intelligence of the VisualFactory configurator dictate which processes will be shown based on that configuration.”

"You can get very in-depth with VisualFactory, which I like. You can also be very casual with VisualFactory, which I also like. It depends on what you’re building, as you can really conform VisualFactory to the need at that time"

Operations Manager Matt Hanson admits that their processes were very manual and paper-driven before VisualFactory.

“VisualFactory has really helped us become more reactive to changes. In the past, it was quite cumbersome to make changes to some of the work that Marten had produced using paper. I find that when something changes now it is much quicker and more in control than it was in the past.”

"With VisualFactory I have the ability, from my desk, to drill down into work history. One of the requirements on every purchase order is that we keep our history for a certain amount of years available for a customer to request at any time."

“With VisualFactory we can do that remotely, through a customer service workstation or I can do it from my office. Having that record available to go into a lot, right to the person or even a serial number is greatly beneficial.”

Manufacturing Engineer Ernest Tostado is also reaping the rewards of NoMuda VisualFactory, as he particularly enjoys the ease of use for his assemblers.

“In terms of the process laid out, you can take pretty much anybody and show them how to assemble, how to test and even ship a unit.”

"If there was an error that is caught by an assembler, then I can quickly implement an exchange or a part call out to correct it. It can really become an all-inclusive package for a manufacturing floor."

ZMicro has a storage product that used to take them an hour to build. Through VisualFactory, they have cut the build time down to between 15 and 20 minutes.

The second product that VisualFactory took on was their best-selling product, the ZMicro Universal Display Platform. With VisualFactory they have improved their assembly and testing process by 25 minutes.

ZMicro are currently 95% paperless and are looking to become completely paperless by moving all their products to NoMuda VisualFactory.

Matt is also looking forward to digging deeper into the NoMuda VisualFactory reporting tool.

“One of the things I look forward to is mining the metrics and data within VisualFactory in a way that we can report in real-time. Having real-time data on dashboards where the floor can see what their takt time is and how they are doing for that given day, that’s where I see the
future.”

To learn more about ZMicro, you can visit their website here.