Two Years In: The Daily Operational Impact of Cogiscan at Creation Technologies

The real test of any manufacturing technology is how it holds up over time and folds into daily operations.

For Creation Technologies, Cogiscan’s Material Control solution was implemented to tackle very real operational challenges. They were looking to improve inventory inaccuracies, material shortages, and manual kitting processes that created pressure for planning and production teams.

Two years in, we wanted to explore what Creation Technologies has since experienced. We thought to go back to ask: where has the system made the biggest difference in daily operations? And what value is still being felt on the shop floor? All in hopes to better understand how our system made a real difference.

As a high-mix, low-volume electronics manufacturer with multiple locations, Creation Technologies was facing several challenges that put pressure on its production operations.

With limited visibility into inventory and without knowing exactly what materials were being used, consumed and when, and not having that information reconciled across all systems used on the production floor including their Oracle ERP, Creation Technologies often experienced unexpected material shortages, excess inventory, and production delays. This challenge became a priority to address, as it created stress for both planning and production while also increasing line downtime.

Operators were required to manually locate and pull components for each production order, making the process labor-intensive and inefficient. This challenge was particularly significant in a high-mix, low-volume manufacturing environment, where production jobs change frequently. To reduce the labor required for these activities and improve overall production flow, Creation Technologies identified this as another key area for improvement.

The first solution implemented was Cogiscan’s Material Control system, designed to streamline material data and provide real-time visibility into what was happening on the shop floor. Through the Cogiscan Open Interface, Creation Technologies was also able to integrate with their Oracle ERP, enabling more accurate inventory management by automatically transferring material consumption data directly into the ERP whenever materials were consumed during production.

They also started using Cogiscan’s TTC Go mobile application. With this application, Creation Technologies’ kitting operations are far more streamlined, allowing operators to spend more time on the shop floor and less time in the warehouse searching for materials to kit upcoming production orders.

Two years after the implementation, Creation Technologies continues to see the benefits of Cogiscan’s Material Control platform and have directly addressed their major challenges related to material kitting and inventory accuracy.

When it comes to inventory management, the difference between the before and the after remains significant to their daily operations. Inventory shortages have been reduced, giving Creation Technologies stronger planning confidence and real-time visibility through the integration with their Oracle ERP system.

When asked to provide specific examples illustrating the improvements in inventory management, Creation Technologies found it difficult to point to any particular event. The reason is simple: production interruptions caused by inventory shortages have become difficult to identify because potential issues are now addressed during the planning phase—before they can impact production. What was once a recurring challenge with inventory accuracy has largely been resolved, resulting in a more proactive, predictable, and reliable production process.

For Creation Technologies, the greatest value of the Cogiscan installation has been inventory accuracy, fewer material surprises, and better control of materials before issues can reach the production floor.

Another major challenge Creation Technologies wanted to address was the amount of manual work required for kitting and job preparation. Operators used to spend significant time gathering materials for upcoming production orders and repeatedly performing manual tasks.

Since implementing TTC Go, Creation Technologies digitized their kitting activities allowing operators to quickly search for required components using the software and efficiently identify components shared across multiple kits. This improvement continues to help them pull the correct quantities required for each kit and streamline the overall kitting process.

Beyond inventory accuracy and more efficient kitting, the Cogiscan installation has delivered other operational gains for Creation Technologies, helping reduce material-related downtime, and improve SMT equipment utilization to keep production running more smoothly.

In addition, Creation Technologies has observed increased labor efficiency using automated X-ray counting as well as the automated material reconciliation process. This increased efficiency has become an appreciated part of daily operations for the Creation Technologies team. In fact, if the Cogiscan system disappeared, the automation of the kit reconciliation process is one of the features that would be missed the most by the team.

Two years later, the strongest proof of value is that the Cogiscan system has become part of how Creation Technologies runs day to day. What began as a project to address inventory accuracy, material shortages, and manual kitting has turned into a sustained operational advantage with fewer surprises, stronger planning, smoother production flow, and more confidence on the shop floor. For Creation Technologies, these results contribute to a more efficient and resilient manufacturing operation.