IN-HOUSE CASE · MANUFACTURING
From paper slips to barcodes.
How a laser-cutting department in heavy-industry manufacturing raised output by 12% and cut product misidentification by 22% by replacing paper tracking slips with barcode scanning in Microsoft Dynamics NAV.
In-house case
- Setting
- Metal parts for wind, heavy lifting, oil and gas, and construction, Aarhus
- My role
- Process operator & quality controller; led the laser-cutting team of six (employed)
- Period
- 2018 – 2020
- Team
- Worked with 50+ colleagues across bending, milling, welding, logistics and design
- Tools
- Microsoft Dynamics NAV, barcode scanning
What changed
- +12%
department production output
- −22%
product misidentification
- −17%
order-processing backlog over a year
- 7%
improvement in the product return rate
Figures as recorded in my role at the time.
01
The situation
Parts were tracked through the department with paper slips. Products were misidentified, and the department carried a backlog of orders waiting to be processed.
02
What I changed
- Moved the department from paper tracking slips to barcode scanning in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, so each part carries an identity the system can read.
- Planned item separation day to day inside the cutting department, so finished parts moved on in order.
- Ran quality control against each product’s specifications and fixed the causes of returns.
03
What changed
Department output rose by 12% and product misidentification fell by 22%. The order-processing backlog dropped by 17% over a year, and the product return rate improved by 7%.
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