Company adopted Metrics tools for integrated management across all business processes to trade and financial success
Aquarela Printing, a leading in promotional and editorial segments in Brazil, has achieved significant efficiency gains from the use of Metrics integrated management that began to be adopted about four years in order to reduce waste, automate tasks and extract the maximum performance of their installed capacity and professional teams in different business areas.
With automation tools covering all processes - from commercial services, production control to management, the company invested in obtaining performance indicators as a way to anchor business decisions faster and correct.
Among automation benefits, Aquarela emphasize the increasingly intensive use of Metrics Post Calculation, which enables managers an accurate evaluation on the financial results of each job performed and the expected result compared under the estimate.
According to Marcelo Marangoni, Aquarela's management and financial director, a structural failure in most of the printing industry is the temptation to appeal to low estimates, but inconsistent and invariably produced under strong pressure for low prices.
"Mistakes in results evaluation, most often started in the estimate, are a constant cause of damage and companies break up. The identification of these errors for future disposal is almost impossible if the printing are not able to practice the post-calculation", says the executive.
With 51 years of market presence and a current production of 400 tons per month, Aquarela stands out not only by the deliveries volume, but also by pioneering in technological innovation introduction. This is the case, for example, the 3D printing with high realism (a segment that dominates almost no competition in the country) and the large volumes printing with variable data.
Using the Metrics tool, Aquarela was able to implement the raw materials traceability and mainly support the process of implementing the FSC stamp, since Metrics system has features specific to this management.
One of the great advantages of using Metrics platform, throughout Aquarela production chain, is to avoid the occurrence of isolated procedures in an area that will bring about undesired effects - and sometimes even invisible – the result as a whole", says Marangoni.
Aquarela is now one of the better integrated printing on their sales processes, production, administration and management, which allows the company to obtain immediate and accurate financial information, making possible a more efficient management.
"In our model of the previous management, was possible that the employee make a change in supply request, without it being combined with a change in PCP, which generated serious faults or even interrupt the process", explains the director.
With processes alignment and integration, continues Marangoni, any change in production parameter bring on immediately the realignment of others, and causes the alerts sending and permission requirements by all those responsible for involved activities.
This level of integration ensures to Aquarela a strict stock control, allowing minimum stock politics, and a full knowledge of the raw material resources available.
All Aquarela print park is automatized with Metrics JobTrack. Thus, the production orders are forwarded directly from the managers computers and have their progress monitored and a shared online.
For Marcelo Marangoni, another important gain of automation is the reduction of result counting time month to month, which helps the company to anticipate problems and redesign the production in time to recompose results.
In company evaluation, the logic of integration requires a higher level of discipline to the process and requires constant people training for the adoption of uniform practices and a commitment to continuous improvement.
According to Osmar Barbosa, Metrics Information Systems director, the task of supporting the competitiveness strategy for a company like Aquarela involves high levels of responsibility, by the technology provider, and printing business processes knowledge and the client’s specifics. "Aquarela success with their integrated management model is an important credential for Metrics recognition by other companies in the industry," says Barbosa.
