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Establishing a turning shop in Elkhart, IN, known as the "RV Capital of the World," was an inspired business decision for William "Mike" Hibshman. And then in 1981, Hibshman and business partner Gary Vanderbeek purchased nearby McNeil Screw Machine, consolidated it with Hibshman Screw Machine Products (Hibshman) and moved the company to its current location in Union, MI.

Hibshman employees 28 people, and specializes in turning and light assembly and serves several markets, including the recreational vehicle, oil and gas, automotive, and marine industries. Today, the company owns 36 machines, mostly Brown & Sharpe, Acme-Gridley and Swiss screw machines, housed in its 30,000 sq. ft. facility. Production runs range from 100 to 1,000,000 pieces.

Chad Vanderbeek, President, said he has been around the company since he was a toddler but, in an official capacity, he has worked at Hibshman for 19 years. Despite Hibshman's decades of success as a major screw products manufacturer and supplier, Vanderbeek recognized that the company needed to streamline its functions into one system. He and his team determined that enterprise resource planning (ERP) software was the best way to streamline and, in turn, improve efficiencies throughout the entire organization.

Before investing in an ERP system, Hibshman relied on accounting software to track most of its administrative and production operations. Vanderbeek researched several ERP systems over the course of a year before finding the best fit.

"I looked into a variety of ERP systems for more than a year. I then completed a demo with ProShop ERP and loved it," he said. "Out of all of the ERP systems I investigated, it provided the most benefits for us."

Those benefits stem from a highly intuitive software design that took more than 20 years to perfect. ProShop's paperless and integrated ERP, quality management system (QMS) and manufacturing execution software (MES) improves the efficiency of manufacturing shop processes. The result? Significant labor and cost savings in the shop and office, which means increasing profits without adding personnel or equipment. ProShop features dozens of modules, including: Estimating, Quotes, Parts, Purchasing, Time Clock, Work Orders, Inventory, Messaging, Customer Purchase Orders, Job Costing, Tool Management, Calibration & Preventative Maintenance, Dashboards, Contacts, Scheduling, Users and Reporting.

Hibshman purchased ProShop in the summer of 2022. Prior to this time, Vanderbeek attended classes for three months and had some time away from daily production meetings. "When I finished up my classes and came back to our production meetings, it was chaos," he said. "Nobody understood when parts were due or where parts were in the process. I remember thinking, `This is nuts. Why are we making things so hard on ourselves?' I called ProShop and told them I was ready to take the plunge. They sent over a contract that day and I signed it. The rest is history."

After ProShop orientation and training wrapped up, Hibshman employees dove into building out parts and mastering the software. By February of 2023, the ERP system was live. Improvements were almost immediate.

"The first thing that I noticed was our on-time delivery," said Vanderbeek. "We used to hover around the mid 70% range for on-time delivery. Within two months, that number shot up to higher than 85%. After one year, we were at 93% on-time delivery. We had never done that before. That was the biggest standout benefit. Our current stat is 94.4% on-time delivery."

Another noticeable improvement relates to Hibshman's quality program. The company used to maintain three-ring binders loaded with pages of ISO quality procedures and quality manuals. That information is now accessible in ProShop. Hibshman's quality system requirements are stored in the Standards module, which is configurable for ISO 9001, AS9100, ISO 13485 and others. On average, external audits of companies that use ProShop are completed in half the time typically budgeted. Also, the Requirements Fulfillment Locations (RLF) system, located in the QMS modules, allows direct links to all requirements of any standard within a quality management system (QMS) document. Vanderbeek reviewed all Hibshman quality procedures and made any necessary changes to ensure that they fulfill ProShop requirements.

"In the past, we had quality procedures and manuals that just sat in an office. With the ERP software, everybody has instant access to it. It is all on their links when they log in in the morning. If they have any issues, the information is at their fingertips," said Vanderbeek. He noted that ProShop's QMS is not an add-on module; it is integrated into the ERP system.

"That was one of the main selling points for me," he said. "And I loved that the software had every single module that I needed. Most of the other ERPs I looked at did not include a quality module-that is usually an extra cost. That truly is what drove me to making my buying decision."

The ability to track jobs from start to finish was another selling point. Before implementing ERP, gathering data was difficult for Hibshman. Factors like supplier on-time delivery, scrap rates and others were tracked, but the data was not always reliable. Since implementing the ERP system, the company's numbers are much more accurate.

"One of the things we love is looking at our Dashboards," said Vanderbeek. This feature monitors the overall performance of the company and individual departments. The tools within the module help guide decision making on the shop floor and in the office. ProShop offers 25 different standard Dashboards ranging from customer service to shipping to finance, in addition to native report building in every module. Data within the Dashboards is updated in real time by all employees who use the software.

"Every morning, we have a quick 10-minute production meeting," said Vanderbeek. "I have a list of all our Dashboards. We look at the sales breakdown, late work orders and others, but my favorite Dashboard is Profit Breakdown."

Like every shop, Hibshman ran jobs that were not profitable, but it had trouble pinpointing the contributing factors behind costly projects. Now that Hibshman has a Profit Breakdown Dashboard, employees can clearly see if a job made money or not, and why, Vanderbeek pointed out. The jobs that he and his team scrutinize were not profitable due to factors like incorrect material cost quotes or set-ups that took much longer than anticipated. Before using ERP software, Hibshman was unable to track its set-up times. Now, the team can evaluate production inefficiencies and root out problems.

"When evaluating a job that was not profitable, we have three options: figure out a way to decrease our cost, increase our price or not take on the job again," said Vanderbeek. "With the Profit Breakdown Dashboard, I can watch the negative profit numbers shrink month by month. That is exciting."

The specific software features that dissect and analyze profit margins are found within the Work Orders (WO) module. Here, complete documentation of all current and past jobs are available and job statuses are updated in real time. Any information related to a specific job-such as labor hours, costs and part production status-is tracked within Work Orders. The module has a built-in check list system that can reduce errors and set-up times. Every work order is tracked from the time it hits the shop floor until the part run is complete.

Implementation of the ProShop system has gone smoothly for Hibshman. "I think the consensus is that our employees all love it, especially our guys on the shop floor," said Vanderbeek. "My concern when we started implementation was possible pushback from seasoned employees, but that was the farthest thing from the truth. And our more experienced team members have a lot of tribal knowledge, but they did not have anywhere to put that information. ProShop gives them the ability to take that valuable information and make it accessible to everyone."

During the first week of the system going live, an employee confided in Vanderbeek that, at first, he was worried about transitioning to an ERP system because he was not computer savvy. He was relieved to discover that ProShop was much easier to use than he expected. Intuitiveness is a ProShop calling card because the system was created by manufacturers who dealt with real issues on the shop floor.

Indeed, the creators of ProShop addressed a host of manufacturing challenges while designing the software, including job quote generation, follow up and tracking.

"We rely on our Quotes module quite a bit," said Vanderbeek. "We use three different Dashboards for quotes won or lost in the last 30, 60 and 90 days. We use this module religiously."

Once estimates are finalized, one mouse click generates a quote. Formatting options include a separate line item for any nonrecurring costs in the form of a nonrecurring engineering (NRE) cost or dividing the NRE costs into the unit price of each of the quoted quantities. Quotes with multiple part numbers feature a shopping cart that combines multiple estimates with multiple part numbers. Hibshman tracks the dollar amounts of each quote that is sent out and then tracks the status: submitted, lost or won. The module provides an efficient framework in which to track quotes and follow up on them. Before using ERP, Hibshman did not have a quote tracking system. Keeping track of quotes-and every other facet of its business-has led to major improvements throughout the organization.

"Overall, the ERP software has made running our shop and office much smoother," Vanderbeek said. "Somebody told me once that manufacturing should be boring. If it is not boring, then you are doing something wrong. I find that our manufacturing process is becoming a little more boring. I attribute that to ProShop."

Not only is ProShop making a difference at Hibshman Screw Machine Products now, it is helping to shape the company's future. When Vanderbeek considers manufacturing over the next 10 years, he believes that Hibshman is on the leading edge of what that will look like. ProShop will continue to play a leading role in running an efficient, profitable manufacturing company.

"ProShop gives us the ability to grow as large as we want thanks to the foundation that has been built around the software system," he said.

For more information contact:

Hibshman Screw Machine Products

P.O. Box 128

69351 Union Road

Union, MI 49130

269-641-7525

sales@hibshman.com

ProShop USA, Inc.

11 Bellwether Way, Suite 201

Bellingham, WA 98225

800-990-4046