Posted by Greg Wade, Director Information Systems at SL Power Electronics

Editor's note: Whether it's in the factory, warehouse or office, manufacturers need to work efficiently to bring their customers what's needed. This week we're focusing on how companies in the manufacturing industry are using Google solutions to work better and stay connected. Our guest blogger is Greg Wade, Director Information Systems at SL Power Electronics, a supplier of high-reliability power conversion products and the largest subsidiary of SL Industries. Watch our manufacturing webinar and see what other organizations that have gone Google have to say.

At SL Industries, we design and manufacture specialty electronics that help our customers increase performance, safety and efficiency. We value these three principles in our internal operations, as well. In fact, we have an executive position devoted to lean operations. We also have a handful of employees, known as “lean champions,” who are committed to finding ways to cut waste and make our processes run smoother.

In 2011, we realized the need to improve efficiency within our own IT environment. We had been running Lotus Notes since 1998, and while it worked well for email, we didn’t have tools to help employees, groups or divisions work with one another. Our biggest obstacle, however, was mobility. Lotus Notes didn't support a complete mobile solution and our Blackberry Enterprise Server was not meeting the needs of our employees who desperately wanted to use other smart phones.

We decided to evaluate Google Apps, Microsoft Office 365 and LotusLive to get us up-to-date. Google Apps scored highest in our evaluation, offering the most mature platform with the most tools, and saving 20 to 45 percent over the other solutions in our cost models. We switched in September of 2011 with the help of Google Apps Reseller, SADA Systems.

Google Apps has made collaboration and efficiency top of mind. Our VP of Operational Excellence created a Google Site so he could collaborate with the “lean champions” throughout the company to communicate scorecards to each factory, providing lean training materials for everyone. This has been an internal breakthrough since now all of our employees can easily locate and digest this information.

The executive team uses Google Docs to manage the executive agenda and track weekly financial metrics, including backlogs, bookings and forecasts, and now everyone is looking at the same data during meetings. Before, we used Microsoft Excel and saved it on a file server, which led to all sorts of problems with version control that left people with out-of-date data.

By moving to the Google tools we really understand how much our previous technology environment was holding us back in our mission to “go lean.” Our old products were outdated and bulky. It took moving to tools such as Google Sites, Google Drive and Google Talk for us to realize that. Our “lean champions” are pretty proud.

Posted by Steve Koets, Global Director of Business Development for Pridgeon and Clay

Editor's note: Whether it's in the factory, warehouse or office, manufacturers need to work efficiently to bring their customers what's needed. This week we're focusing on how companies in the manufacturing industry are using Google solutions to work better and stay connected. Today's guest blogger is Steve Koets, Global Director of Business Development for Pridgeon and Clay. Watch our manufacturing webinar and see what other organizations that have gone Google have to say.

At first glance, our business seems pretty simple: we make metal parts for the automotive sector. However, the processes involved in making those parts is anything but simple. The coordination and logistics to supply parts to a supply chain that make the parts to almost every car manufacturer in the U.S., Mexico, and Europe requires more than 120 metal stamping presses around the world. In addition, we buy, ship, and process raw materials, coordinate delivery of our products, and manage our global sales teams. With all of these moving parts, we needed a business analytic solution that could help us understand all of these processes as it relates to our need to make good business decisions.

Google Earth Pro gives us the visibility into our product, production and sales processes that we need to make sure we’re operating efficiently. With Google Earth Pro, we use layered views to show us where our component parts are selling, what cars our parts end up in (by tracking the part through production and into the actual cars on the roads), and the distribution of those parts in the various markets. Earth Pro helps us distill and understand our millions of data points, making it easier for our teams to analyze and make smart choices on a variety of topics.
Google Earth Pro allows us to manage our financial forecasting by area and helps in our business plan and goal setting. When the automotive market was struggling in 2008, or when the Tsunami hit in 2011, several of our suppliers and customers started to halt production at their factories. Since we had an accurate understanding of our integration of the supply chain and sales via Earth Pro, we were able to adjust our production patterns and weather the loss and change in our business. Earth Pro gave us insight as to the scale of events unfolding in the world and helped us make better decisions.

When selecting new potential plant locations, Google Earth Pro helps us to find the best place to optimize and make the right decisions. For example, we are currently looking to place an additional plant in the future in Mexico. By combining layers with the location of metal suppliers, customers, potential customers, and other market data (such as population density for possible employees), we figured out where we should place our factory to make our procurements, shipping, and business costs more effective. By scaling this practice to all our plants around the world, Google Earth Pro has helped us to be competitive and in the right place at the right time.

Google Earth Pro allows us to touch our data every day, tweak it to fit our needs, and visualize relevant information to help us make informed decisions. And it’s simple – anyone with a browser can use it. On a quick virtual meeting with our business units in Europe, we installed Earth Pro and they were placing their first pushpins in minutes to show the locations of their local facilities and relationships. Now, we have hundreds of thousands of pushpins used globally on all types of data, and hundreds of layers for every aspect of our business. Google Earth helps turn our heavy business lighter – with all of our data at our fingertips.

Posted by Mike Ellerton, Head of Infrastructure at Premier Foods

Editor's note: Whether it's in the factory, warehouse or office, manufacturers need to work efficiently to bring their customers what's needed. This week we're focusing on how companies in the manufacturing industry are using Google technology to work better and stay connected. Today we'll hear from Mike Ellerton, Head of Service and Infrastructure at Premier Foods, the UK’s largest food manufacturer. Watch our manufacturing webinar and see what other organizations that have gone Google have to say.

In a traditional industry like manufacturing, it’s tough for big companies to be innovative. With more than 35 locations and annual revenue of around £1.5 billion, Premier Foods is amongst the UK’s largest food manufacturers. We recognise the need for constant innovation agility and collaboration. Moving to Google Apps did exactly this for us, as you can see from our Story Builder. We upgraded our email system and introduced tools to allow our teams to work better together and break down silos

We’d been on Lotus Notes for more than 12 years and, as Premier Foods changed, it stopped fitting our needs. We evaluated Google Apps, IBM® SmartCloud and Microsoft® Office 365. We found the tools in Google Apps were familiar and enabled employees to easily work together. They also gave us the ability to seamlessly sync everything to mobile devices, a previous pain point. After a short pilot, we launched Google Apps to 4,500 users and enabled 1,000 company-owned Android devices in just two months.

By switching to Google Apps from IBM Lotus Notes, we saved 50 percent on our email operating costs. In an investment heavy industry like manufacturing, any money that can be invested in revenue driving parts of the business like marketing and sales instead of on infrastructure like servers, is a huge benefit. Plus, as a company that has grown through acquisition, the ability to easily add or subtract users as needed allows us to scale our business with very little expense.

By connecting people and information, Google Apps has helped us build a sense of community inside the company that wasn’t there before. We’ve just started using Google+ Hangouts and they’ve already been fantastic for connecting employees across departments and locations. I personally have about 10 Hangouts a week which has cut down my travel dramatically as well as engaging and connecting the individuals that previously switched off during traditional voice conference calls. We’ve even created Hangout “kits” with webcams, headphones and “quiet” flags (to let fellow employees know you’re on a video conference), so people can grab a kit and try it for themselves.

Staying fresh can be a challenge for big food manufacturers, but with the help of Google Apps, Premier Foods is able to do just that. It’s fun to hear people say, “Wow, Premier Foods does video calls? That’s pretty cool.” It validates our focus on using technology that helps us stay one step ahead. And this is just the beginning – as Google continues to innovate, we'll continue to grow with it.

Posted by Jim Nielsen, Manager, Enterprise Technology Architecture and Planning at Shaw Industries

Editor's note: Whether it's in the factory, warehouse or office, manufacturers need to work efficiently to bring their customers what's needed. This week we're focusing on how companies in the manufacturing industry are using Google solutions to work better and stay connected. Today's guest blogger is Jim Nielsen, Manager of Enterprise Technology Architecture and Planning from Shaw Industries. Watch our manufacturing webinar and See what other organizations that have gone Google have to say.

At Shaw Industries, we’re proud to have been a part of Northwest Georgia’s manufacturing heritage for over one hundred and sixty years. Many of our employees have worked with us for thirty or forty years, bringing with them a deep knowledge of the flooring industry, and a dedication to continuing our tradition of excellence.

Though we started in Georgia (and are still based there), our real estate portfolio includes 80 manufacturing sites in seven U.S. states, Mexico and China. We also have 50 distribution centers, as well as 19 showrooms located around the world. We are, in every sense of the word, a global flooring manufacturer and staying connected through communication and collaboration is central to our business.

In 2012, we rolled out Google Apps to over 10,000 employees. In addition to the immediate benefits of email, calendar and contacts, tools like Google+ Hangouts and Google Drive helped us transform complex, manual, and slow processes into a fast-moving and efficient stream of information.

Because these tools make it much easier for our employees to communicate and collaborate wherever they are, Google Apps has helped us “go lean” by eliminating wasteful processes and improving information flow. For example, our plant engineers can keep machines running more efficiently and safely by using Google Drive on any device to access and share our equipment manuals and safety procedures.

The flow of information globally and locally has really improved, as well. The combination of Hangouts, Docs and Google Translate has helped our global teams communicate with plants and suppliers more easily while reducing meeting times by up to 50 percent. Even employees located only 20 minutes apart are choosing to meet over Hangouts, saving travel time and gas. Similarly, our marketing and sales teams also use Google Docs to work more efficiently with third-party agencies on print and broadcast ads, and our departmental finance teams have streamlined their budgeting processes with Google Sheets.

Our associates at Shaw are passionate about their work, their products and our company. Their passion extends to tools like Google. It’s not often that a product is implemented and a year later co-workers are still mentioning what a good idea it was, and how they are still excited to be using it. Google has helped us strengthen this community by allowing us to work together, wherever we are, with whatever devices we’re using. We’re operating on a leaner, stronger foundation thanks in large part to Google.

Posted by Julia Towne, Head of Enterprise Manufacturing

Editor's note: Whether it's in the factory, warehouse or office, manufacturers need to work efficiently to bring their customers what's needed. This week we're focusing on how companies in the manufacturing industry are using Google solutions to work better and stay connected.

Manufacturing has always been shaped by technology, from the earliest days of the Industrial Revolution to the latest robotics on the factory floor. As advances in technology have taken shape, it’s become important for manufacturing companies to manage widespread teams of employees in all corners of the globe and work with vendors and suppliers to serve global customers. There is an added expectation that the industry also needs to keep everyone in sync and effectively and efficiently communicate, collaborate, schedule and track employee and customer activities.

This week we will highlight how a handful of leaders in manufacturing use Google solutions to better focus on their business needs, allowing them to move faster, innovate and collaborate. By relying on new technology, manufacturers are discovering new ways to stay connected across locations, devices and systems. This week you’ll read specific examples from our customers: How one company used Google Apps to cut their meeting times in half; how another used Google Maps to track their best performing sales territory; and how one customer got real-time access to their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) by integrating Google Search Appliance.

Ready to learn more? Check back daily to learn how companies are streamlining processes and “going lean” with Google.

Posted by Tom Muraca, Director of Marketing at Katz Americas

Editor's note: Our guest blogger is Tom Muraca, Director of Marketing at Katz Americas, the largest manufacturer of beverage coasters in North and South America. See what other organizations that have gone Google have to say.

Katz Americas may not be a household name, but when you put a drink down at a tavern or restaurant, our product is probably under your glass. We’re one of the biggest manufacturers of drink coasters in the United States, with over 100 employees across our two facilities in Buffalo, New York and Johnson City, Tennessee.

We weren't always such a large company - we grew quickly through a handful of mergers over the last few years - and when we finally had a chance to come up for air, we realized our technology hadn’t kept up with us. We were stumbling along with a fractured email and collaboration platform built around Microsoft Exchange 2003 and a few file-sharing servers. It was expensive and unreliable, especially for a company without a dedicated IT department. Upgrading our hosted system didn’t make financial sense, and Microsoft Office 365 didn’t win our team over. Google Apps did both, and its stability and security features were especially attractive. We decided to make the switch to Google Apps in September of 2011, and with help from Dito, our Google Apps Reseller, we were up and running by January of 2012.

Google Apps has helped us streamline and modernize our day-to-day work. By using Google Drive, we’ve cut the average time it takes to deliver an estimate and mocks to a customer from one week to just three days. Instead of sending different versions of huge files around by email, we create a single shared folder on Drive and house each proof there. That way, we can easily share, edit and collaborate on our work as a team in less than half the time it took before.

The Gmail and Google Drive mobile apps have changed how we interact with potential customers and sell our product when we’re on the road. Now, I can pull up a design on my phone while I’m speaking to a customer at an industry event or even create a rough prototype on the spot. I can also add their information to my contacts, get a quote started for them immediately, and follow up via email within minutes of finishing our conversation. Google Apps lets us give our customers on-the-spot, personal service, and that gives us a huge advantage over the competition.

Google Apps has been the keystone of our revamped company strategy at a time of significant change. The way I see it, it’s also just the beginning: our employees are constantly finding new features and sharing their favorite use cases, so I can only imagine the benefits we’ll see a year from now. In the meantime, we’ll get back to focusing on our core business - protecting tabletops from condensation and spills with surfboard-shaped coasters (and some normal shaped coasters, too).