PICS Developer Helps Customers Improve Shipping Processes
Most business people would like to know how to ship less expensively, in less time, and with fewer errors and keystrokes. But few people can offer advice on how to successfully accomplish this task.
That is why people like Gary Pasky, PICS Development Manager, can offer so much value. With more than 15 years’ MFG/PRO software experience—more than a decade of which has been focused on PICS clients—Pasky, a gifted programmer, knows the system inside out. He has worked with more than 120 PICS customers on more than 300 projects, many of which were shipping-focused. His greatest talent, however, may be the ability to ask the right questions to get to the heart of his customers’ issues.
“When I start a project, I spend a lot of time working with the PICS business analyst to learn how things really work in the customer's shipping areas,” says Pasky. “And then we discuss how they’d like things to work.” During the discovery process, Pasky asks dozens of questions: How do employees enter orders? How do they pick products? What happens right before something is packed and loaded onto a truck?
Doing It Right the First Time
Just One of Pasky’s Solutions
One PICS customer built truck cabs for a major auto manufacturer. The auto manufacturer required the configured cabs to be loaded on the delivery truck in the order in which their assembly line expected them.
The customer once manually sorted the cabs from a printout, then hunted through their end-item inventory for the appropriate cabs. PICS’ solution—developed by Pasky—allowed users to sort the cabs via the software, and the fork lift driver simply had to search his location for the serialized cab. This modification saved hours of sorting and inventory transactions to find a particular truck’s shipment. |
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He also often takes the process one step further by visiting customer locations with the PICS consulting team. “Each case is unique, and it helps if I can spend a day with the people who actually move product,” he says. “This way I can see where the true pains are.”
Pasky uses what he learns to develop program specifications, then reviews them with PICS consultants. “We spend a lot of time up front on design,” Pasky says. “We want to do it right the first time.”
Pasky states that sometimes the most gratifying part of a project does not come along until the end. For example, he was at a trade show recently when someone he had worked with several years before came to visit. “They came to thank me for something I had done for them three years ago,” he says. “It was nice to know I made a difference.” |
