Trademark Plastics, Inc. Relies on EnterpriseIQ ERP Software
to Support Growth

Executive Summary
Overview of Trademark Plastics, Inc., its business and how EnterpriseIQ ERP system has become the data infrastructure to support the company's growth.

Founded in 1989, Trademark Plastics, Inc. is a progressive, world-class custom plastic injection molding company headquartered in Riverside, California. Primarily serving the specific needs of the medical and electronics industries customers, Trademark utilizes a strategic quality assurance process to ensure its products are contaminate-free. A leader in quality processes, Trademark is one of the first injection molders to receive the ISO 9001:2000 certification in southern California. Trademark has been recognized for its work in supplying medical device manufacturer Alaris that received the Medical Design Excellent award in 2003.

A forward-thinking company, Trademark leverages business opportunities where possible and recently relocated to one of the California's Enterprise Zones to take advantage of property and labor pool opportunities. Trademark cross trains managers to ensure operations runs smoothly during peak times. This also creates a culture of understanding within the company's departmental functions.

Since attaining its ISO 9001:2000 Certification in March 2002, Trademark's Quality System continues to be in complete compliance with the requirements of the International Organization for Standardization. In addition, the company utilizes multiple aspects of the Medical Device Manufacturer GMP policy for quality manufacturing processes. Trademark encourages employees to participate in professional quality associations and some staff members have belonged to the Inland Chapter of the American Society for Quality since 1989.

In its Certified Class 10,000 clean room, Trademark operates 14 all electric machines, from 60 to 200-ton, and in its Certified Class 100,000 clean room the company operates 11 machines, 35 to 200-ton. Trademark's general molding room operates 17 machines, from 55 to 500-ton. Trademark also offers a wide array of secondary services including assembly, serialized bar coding, packaging and sealing.

With a focus on timely delivery, flexibility and world-class products, Trademark has been on a growth path since the company was founded.

Early on, the company recognized the need for data integration and saw this as central to its long-term success. Trademark turned to IQMS and EnterpriseIQ nearly fourteen years ago to establish a data infrastructure that would improve operational efficiencies and support future growth.

For Trademark, EnterpriseIQ provided both a front end and back end integration solution. Other software the company considered could only handle back end data such as monitoring but the information remained insular and had little or no benefit for planning or warehouse tracking.

Starting on the EnterpriseIQ DOS version in 1991, Trademark has followed the system's upgrade path and in 1999 switched to Windows. Today, Trademark has 10 users, 42 machines connected to the RealTime module, two wireless scanners connected to Warehouse Management, and also uses the Preventative Maintenance and Payroll modules.

Taking advantage of IQMS' free upgrade policy, Trademark has received all upgrades IQ has provided over the past fourteen years for free, including the switchover from DOS to Windows-based Oracle. For Trademark, IQ is a business partner who handles the heavy lifting, leveraging best practices and customer feedback from all EnterpriseIQ users to continually improve the system.

For Trademark, EnterpriseIQ paid for itself in about nine months, and the investment continues to pay dividends.

Real Information, Real Results

For manufacturers like Trademark Plastics, EnterpriseIQ's RealTime management system provides a true executable solution for implementing lean strategies. RealTime gives manufacturers the substantial capacity to reduce waste and optimize production with verifiable results.

Using RealTime, Trademark managers and shop floor supervisors can see exactly how any of the 42 machines are performing at any point in time.

On a job-by-job basis, Trademark reaps significant benefits from this exacting information. The company uses RealTime to

• Monitor total cycle time for each job and employ historical data by job and by machine to maximize the scheduling of future jobs.
• Monitor rejects by part and by machine to optimize machine efficiency.
• Determine quantity of parts to be produced and cross check this information with cycle time to develop an accurate job completion schedule.
• Determine scrap output by machine and by shift to detect deviations in output.
• Generate inspections and notify employees in advance of tool or materials change requirements.
• Make quick adjustments to problem cycles that exceed standard deviations set for each machine. RealTime identifies these deviations using color-coding with red for out of cycle and green for lean.
• Generate end of shift reports, machine utilization and other tailored reports to give various departments more streamlined information.