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Industrial Work-in-Process Tracking Software |
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Industrial Work-in-Process Tracking Software |
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BellHawk Systems' goal is to enable operations managers and their staff to efficiently run their operations by providing the real-time information they need at an affordable cost.
BellHawk Systems goes beyond "software as a service" to provide the software, services, data collection equipment, and specialized supplies to enable the initial deployment of these systems as well as training and on-going support in the use of these operations management systems.
In doing this, we recognize that many of our clients have little or no IT support within their plant beyond the maintenance of the basic IT infrastructure, which is often outsourced.
At the same time we recognize that, for many of our clients, minimizing the initial cost and ongoing support costs for these operations management systems is of paramount importance.
As such, we form a team with our clients in which our clients can take a "do it yourself" approach when they have the resources available and BellHawk Systems provides the rest of the services on an "as needed" basis.
In some cases, our clients have implemented BellHawk based operations tracking systems with little or no assistance from BellHawk Systems' staff and then provide ongoing support to users internally. At the other end of the spectrum, BellHawk Systems acts as a specialized "outsource" IT resource providing all the services needed for initial systems deployment as well as on-going support and training.
The BellHawk software works "out-of-the-box" and its operational rules be configured by its users to meet most of the inventory and production tracking requirements of each organization. But, where needed, BellHawk Systems can customize the software to meet the specific needs of each organization.
At the same time, we recognize that setting up the BellHawk knowledge-base and interface parameters to meet the specific data collection needs of an organization, as well as to make a myriad of other deployment decisions, can be an overwhelming challenge for an operations management team that is already running "flat-out" to get products out of the door on-time.
As such, BellHawk Systems can have a consultant come to the client's plant, gather the needed data and then work with the BellHawk technical team to setup the Operations Management system to meet the individual needs of the client. The BellHawk consultant can then train the managers and staff as well as the production workers as to how to use the system and be available to come on-site when needed to resolve any operational problems that may arise.
We recognize that our services are expensive, averaging about $150/Hour. But when compared to hiring someone with the necessary skills to support an operations management system (even if you can find them) at a loaded cost of over $100,000 per year (or over $75 per effective worked hour), it can be much less expensive to use the outsource services provided by BellHawk Systems on an hourly rates basis, as needed, as clients only pay for just the hours that they have pre-approved and use.
But, where a client is already paying for an IT support person to be on their staff then it may may economic sense for that IT person to do most of the work. As such we provide extensive documentation, training videos, and other materials to enable IT specialists to implement and support a BellHawk operations management system without needing extensive support.
We strive to make BellHawk an open-architecture platform in which clients can control what data is collected, print barcode labels in their own formats, create their own reports and Excel exports, and create their own interfaces to other systems. At the same time, we recognize that these take time and specialized skills to implement, which may be in short supply for our clients. As such, BellHawk can provide all of these implementation services on an as-needed basis.
In implementing these operations management systems, we recognize that requirements change over time. Also we recognize that it is not possible to write a set of specifications for the complete system and then to "build" a system to meet these requirements because, by the time the system is implemented, the requirements will have changed.
Instead BellHawk Systems uses an "Agile" implementation methodology in which a standard BellHawk system is deployed in one area of the plant and then configured and customized, if needed, to meet the needs of that operational area. Then the system is extended to the next area and so forth until all required areas of operations are covered by the operations management system.
Please click here to learn more about BellHawk Systems Agile Implementation Process.
