California Gasket and Rubber

"Our employees are now more cost conscious, more process and procedure aware, because of Global Shop Solutions."

~ Scott Franklin
California Gasket and Rubber
Vice President of Operations

These are busy, busy times for the California Gasket and Rubber Corporation (CGR) of Gardena, California. The world of technological advancement just won’t let them take a break. As new airliners are developed and manufactured, the hoses that must reliably conduit fuel and hydraulics are demanded for both the prototype and finished stages of production. Old airliners are maintained by cash-strapped companies to maximize their lifespan by using a continuous flow of replacement gaskets and hoses in their routine servicing. And so the story goes around the rest of the technological world—where there’s a seal or fluid/gas transport need, there’s a gasket or hose. From 747’s to GTO’s, from military gasmasks to swimming goggles, a California Gasket and Rubber part is probably in it somewhere.

With a couple of large manufacturing divisions to manage, Scott Franklin, vice president of operations for CGR, has always had to corral large quantities of shop data—from purchasing and payroll, to inventory and shipping. When the transition was made to the computerized storage and processing of the information, Franklin first chose to produce a custom software system designed specifically for their needs at that time.

As Franklin remembers it, "We were using a proprietary planning system—we had a programmer and were writing all of our manufacturing and sales software in the Unix environment. Basically, we had computerized all of the manual forms and shop-related functions." But, when this system proved to be far too inflexible for the company’s growth-induced requirements, they looked for an ERP system that could expand with them as their business increased. In early 2002 they discovered the benefits of using Global Shop Solutions manufacturing software in their daily operations.

To Franklin and the management of CGR, the ERP solution provided by Global Shop came not a moment too soon. In addition to the day-to-day manufacturing output of the plant, CGR was developing more and more proprietary "recipes," or formulas, for their rubber materials. This was vital information that not only had to be continuously safeguarded, but at the same time had to be made instantly available to the shop floor.

As Franklin explains, "Our recipes are our secret of success here at California Gasket and Rubber, and the mixtures need to be readily at hand when production begins. Global Shop was able to design a system to securely store this information, to have it quickly retrievable, and, most importantly, have the process function painlessly. From the start, Global Shop was a very flexible system, and that was particularly good for us. It meant we were never completely boxed into Global Shop’s way of doing things, like many other ERP software systems require. Global Shop was determined to help us improve our way of doing business."

Global Shop ushered in innovative business practices that made the entire CGR operation more efficient and, ultimately, more profitable. According to Franklin, "In a lot of ways, having Global Shop has forced our employees to think about the way they do their jobs, and about manufacturing in general. Our employees are now more cost conscious, more process and procedure aware, because of Global Shop."

For CGR management, Global Shop produces a greater range of real-time shop floor data with which they can make rapid and pivotal production decisions. It is a hallmark of Global Shop that system-wide integration of their robust ERP software will produce a higher level of business intelligence than is achievable through basic information storage, or through other ERP software systems that have their data storage and retrieval segregated by departments. "For management, Global Shop made me change the way I think about our production operations and our business, and to think about things I’d never thought of," states Franklin. "For example, the estimating procedure we use through Global Shop, and that we use for everything, accomplishes much more than our old computerized estimating system did—and in a completely different and more efficient way. We live and die in the estimating—it’s the core of our business as a job shop that produces custom products. Our Global Shop software system makes the estimating operation completely accurate and efficient in production. The estimating module of our Global Shop system is of paramount importance to us."

As it is often said, when you are ISO you say what you do, do what you say, and then prove it. When it came time for CGR to go ISO, Global Shop was there at their side, providing the means to collect the all-important documentation needed to make the certification process go that much smoother. In fact, the sheer volume of paperwork and massive amount of time usually spent in ISO qualification means time spent away from actual production operations. Global Shop makes the ISO Cert process, and the subsequent running of ISO jobs, as quick, paperless, and accurate as possible. According to Franklin, "Global Shop helps our employees focus on the documented procedure. Global Shop has been pivotal in letting us know when our procedures have been right on the money when working ISO jobs, and for letting us know if we’ve been off a bit in process."

Another important contribution to the CGR way of doing business is found in purchasing and inventory control. For a multi-division company, where each division is continually a vendor to the other, keeping track of not only inventory, but again the data flow resulting from the orders, is a tall task for any ERP software system. Global Shop passes the test with CGR. "We have two divisions inside of Cal Gasket that operate completely differently from one another—one labor intensive, while the other is material intensive," Franklin adds, "We do a lot of intercompany sales, and for this our Global Shop system is the best we’ve ever seen. We use Global Shop to keep track of the information flow and inventory management. When the Gasket Division treats the Rubber Division as if it were a customer and a vendor, and vice versa, Global Shop makes it all quick and easy to manage. Also, the costing structures of our gasket, rubber, and hose divisions are completely different from each other, and Global Shop works equally well with all areas in dealing with their differences, helping us keep track of what’s going on."

CGR is on the move both here in America and across the globe. In particular, their business is growing strong through increasing Hose Division orders at the OE level from Central and South America. Add to this their exports to Canada and Italy, and you have the formula for successful corporate globalization. For practically every phase of production, Global Shop is a vital part of what makes CGR succeed. Franklin concludes, "Global Shop is so important to everything we do here, it’s hard for me to put to my finger on any one aspect as being more important to us than the other. Each module is so integrally tied together with the others, so functionally efficient in this regard, and it is this quality of the Global Shop system that really helps us most in our day-to-day operations."

Franklin points out that Global Shop has had a very positive impact on their on-time delivery. Global Shop features, such as the On-Time Delivery Reports and the new Executive Dashboard, are helpful in keeping their customers happy. For a company like CGR that has multiple events occurring constantly, Global Shop is the vital business tool that makes order out of chaos. It’s a new way of doing business, and Franklin welcomes the change. "Global Shop has helped our company succeed because it has really forced us to think about what it is we’re doing, rather than just blindly going about the busy work of day-to-day production. With Global Shop, we’re able to sit back and think about what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, and ultimately discover the right way to do it."