As printed circuit board design and assembly increases in complexity, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are turning to turnkey contract manufacturing providers (CMs) with demonstrated processes and equipment for delivering products to a high quality standard in a timely fashion. OEMs engaging CMs as partners typically engage turnkey providers in the early stages of the production cycle, as early as pre-production. From preproduction to assembly, design and assembly requirements, and deadlines, can shift dramatically. In order to meet tight deadlines, members of various departments between OEMs and CMs must collaborate and coordinate their joint efforts with efficiency. Without the right tools inter-departmental and intra-organizational cross-team collaboration can be stressful, and at worst, inefficient.
We’ve compiled a list of 6 enterprise-grade project management tools that are best suited for OEMs and turnkey contract manufacturing providers.
One of the most popular project management tools available, Asana extends beyond typical project management software by making teams more efficient in their communication and processes. Used by the likes of Salesforce, Uber, and Columbia University, Asana’s tasks, projects, and conversation features can be used to let entire teams know who’s doing what, when. Responsibilities, next steps, and due dates are clear so that all departments are up to speed on the status of an assembly project.
Celoxis provides an integrated and collaborative project management platform that turnkey EMS providers can use to manage projects, finances, resources, and business processes. Their user-friendly software is powerful yet flexible, complete with time and expense tracking, budgeting, and work collaboration features. Customer service support is available 24/7, both online and on-premises for those handling sensitive information that must remain onsite.
Basecamp makes collaboration simple by enabling users to organize projects, internal communications, and client work in one place. Using their centralized electronic file storage and management platform, employees’ from turnkey EMS providers and OEMs can collaborate with ease on projects, regardless of their department.
WorkPLAN is project management software built specifically for manufacturing companies, and designed to replicate specific procedures and codes of Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Manufacturing. With WorkPLAN, employees can keep track of budgets, time, manpower, materials, resources, costs, and cash flow. Using their quality management tool, project leaders can narrow in on scheduling and time management, and separately track time and costs associated with quality issues.
LiquidPlanner is a project management software designed to support fast-moving, distributed teams. Their tool is best suited for managing internal resources and resource availability, and allowing users to prioritize projects and tasks. With it, project managers can build more realistic schedules that adapt to day-to-day changes, allowing them to more accurately plan, track, schedule, and manage resources across their portfolio of projects. Their pre-designed dashboards make it easy for managers to keep an eye on a single project, team, or portfolio of projects.
TeamGantt’s project management software allows turnkey EMS providers and OEMs to visualize and communicate production timelines, and more easily engage in collaboration. Their visualizations make it easy to assess, plan and track projects from a glance. Their easy-to-use interface allows for task-level communication, file sharing, and team resourcing. Their automatic version control of documents feature is especially beneficial for engineers passing designs back and forth between teams, enabling them to easily identify the newest document versions. Communication is easy as well – their platform includes direct messaging so that every team member associated with a task can report directly on the task itself.
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Using these tools turnkey contract manufacturing providers are better poised to support OEMs in improving manufacturing performance and innovation, quality control and budget management. With real-time project management, communication and collaboration tools, turnkey contract manufacturers can react to extra revisions, provide expert feedback on custom production and handle the challenges of delivering complex assemblies. U.S. based electronic manufacturing services (EMS) provider Syscom Tech has vast experience using project management tools and talented project management personnel that have afforded it a reputation for delivering quality products on time, with leading responsiveness.
