The dream started in 2014, when David Pannell and his father bought out the latter’s partner to obtain Faircloth Machine Shop Inc. The younger Pannell was excited to put his touch on the business and grow the small job shop in Winston-Salem, N.C., which made small batch orders for local companies.
But he quickly realized there was a more pressing need—and daunting task—of updating the company’s outdated organizational system. It was a challenge that he tackled head-on, and eventually sent him on a collision course with ProShop USA Inc.
Previously all of Faircloth’s records were on paper and stored haphazardly in rows of filing cabinets. Pannell remembers having to dig through cabinets for about two hours a day and thinking something had to change. When he reached out for shop management software quotes, though, the high price points were enough to make him gulp and dive back into the filing cabinets.
To avoid exorbitant fees, Pannell began teaching himself how to write software in hopes of creating his own custom solution. As he took over the company from his father, Pannell implemented his new software and saw positive results. It worked well for what the Winston-Salem, N.C.-based shop needed then, but Pannell hadn’t anticipated how much the shop would grow. Originally, Faircloth made small batch orders for local companies, but the future had more in store for the company.
“Back in 2013, we were just a job shop making simple fixtures for essentially one main customer,” he recalls. “In 2015, we picked up some non-critical aerospace work and everything changed.”
Suddenly his customer list exploded. The Faircloth team was willing to work hard, add more shifts and dedicate more resources to new customers. While company officials realized they may be taking in too much, Pannell points out that as far as business problems go, this particular one wasn’t the worst to have. “It happened because we had done a good job and because we’d risen to the challenge of new demands,” he explains.
However, work did begin to suffer. In 2015, jobs would be finished on time and done well, but the logistics between accepting the job and shipping the part were chaotic. “It was a nightmare,” Pannell laments. “I remember coming in to assess some problems we were having on the second shift, looking at a mess of notes, and wondering why everyone didn’t just quit. I know I wanted to.”
Faircloth’s machinists often had no idea how to set up a job nor knew which tools to prepare because that information wasn’t available. Somehow, they always managed to get it done, but if a similar order came in a year later, the data wasn’t easily accessible. As a result, the second job likely would be programmed differently.
“It was like a (children’s) hockey game,” Pannell says. “We dropped the puck in the middle of two guys, they started beating at it with their sticks, and eventually, we got it in the net.”
Realizing the shop had outgrown his own programming skills, Pannell decided to turn to commercial experts. Enter ProShop cloud-based ERP software. Developed by machinists with decades of experience managing shops, ProShop is said to combine ERP, MES and QMS to give users easy access to everything from estimates to tool tracking to scheduling.
The software was installed in 2017 and paired with Faircloth’s 12 CNC machines—a mix of mills and spindle lathes with Y-axis milling. “The software is completely internet-based, so the IT burden is zero. Just fire up a computer and log in,” Pannell says, noting he can even access the shop’s stats from home.
ProShop co-founder Kelsey Heikoop came on-site to train the Faircloth team on the new software. During the training, Pannell questioned the need for creating non-conformance reports (NCR) to address deviations from established production standards.
“He turned to me with a really funny look on his face and said, ‘Because your customer demands you do it?’ And, right then, I felt my stomach drop because I saw how much we were supposed to be doing that we just weren’t,” Pannell confides. “It was a little bit embarrassing when I realized the big gap between my company and a first-class manufacturing company.”
Faircloth implemented the management software in the nick of time. The shop’s primary aerospace customer initially said AS9100 certification wasn’t necessary as long as Faircloth was responsible about compliance, but later changed its policy. Knowing that losing this customer would cost more than $1 million a year in business, Pannell rushed to get certification.
Michael Collins, QMS specialist at ProShop, came to Faircloth to help with the transition. After looking through the data stored in Faircloth’s software, Collins eased Pannell’s mind: The shop was already 95% of the way to total certification requirement fulfillment just by taking advantage of the basic features in ProShop. He helped clean up the documents, gave Pannell some quick pointers and assured he was all set.
When Faircloth passed a subsequent audit, Pannell declared the process was “no big deal.” He knows he can rely on software to remind his team to re approve documents, track orders and do everything that AS9100 certification requires. “As long as we attach our certs to the P.O. and attach the P.O. to a job, everything is traceable and handled,” he says.
A representative from an aerospace customer visited the shop shortly after Faircloth received certification. At the time, Faircloth was still located in a tiny, outdated 8,000-sq.-ft. (743-m) building.
“He walked in and I could tell he wasn’t happy,” Pannell says. The rep walked over to one of the mills, picked up a piece of material and challenged Pannell to prove it was traceable to a job. Pannell showed the rep the heat number on the plastic, found the material vendor in his digital database with the order number, located the attached certification and linked it to a job. The whole procedure took 15 seconds. Still nervous, Pannell asked the rep what he thought. Good news: Faircloth had passed with flying colors.
“To be honest, I wouldn’t be in business today if we’d kept going like we were,” Pannell says. While machines were manned, parts were made and orders were sent out, he notes the shop was flying apart at the seams, running at a pace it couldn’t maintain.
Now the ERP software tracks every facet of information and saves it for the next order, so Faircloth doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel every time it receives a new job. “I can glance up and see what tools the job uses and where they’re sitting right now,” Pannell explains.
Although operations have stabilized, Pannell can’t detail how much time and money the software has saved. That’s because there isn’t any historical data to compare against current metrics. “We were so unorganized that I wasn’t even tracking that data,” he concedes.
In the past, Pannell remembers being frantic to reduce cycle time. Those days are gone. Today, he says, cycle time is often the smallest part of a job—streamlining the rest of the process is where the money lies.
Since adding ProShop’s software, Faircloth has moved into a 24,000-sq.-ft. (2,230-sq-m) shop—three times larger than the previous one—doubled CNC machine inventory and Pannell can actually sleep at night. “It’s the only software I’ve bought in the past 15 years that I haven’t had second thoughts about. I felt like I made the right decision then and have never wavered.”
Connect With Us
