Innovative Data Systems supplies a number of different computer software programs and other technology to the pallet and sawmill industry.
The company’s product offerings include a program to produce drawings of pallets and other bar code-based programs to track data throughout a pallet shop or sawmill.
The Pallet Track ® Click Draw™ program from Innovative Data Systems was designed mainly for customers that wanted the ability to produce drawings to scale quickly and easily without the need for technical data about pallet structural capability. The program also can be used to help pallet suppliers determine their costs for a specific pallet. The software can produce quote proposals for customers, adjust and compare for changes in component price, and calculate profit margins on a certain pallet.
“It’s a real simple, inexpensive drawing program,” said Alan Miceli, president of Innovative Data Systems. Pallet Track ®Click Draw™ can be used to make drawings of custom pallets, skids and other transport packaging, such as pallet tops.
The user keys in the pallet dimensions, number of components and deck board and stringer dimensions. “Click on draw, and you’re done,” said Alan. “There’s your drawing. It’s as simple as that.” The program can quickly adjust for variables, such as adding notches for strapping, chamfers, trimmed corners and wings.
The program produces two-dimensional drawings that can be printed on 8×11 paper on an ordinary desktop printer. Drawings are made to scale in inches. Future upgrades will allow drawings made to metric measurements. The program is currently limited to stringer-type pallets, but Innovative Data Systems is in the process of developing a new software module for drawing block-style pallets.
The program stores all the pertinent information on the customer and vendor so a quote proposal can be generated. It also keeps track of the drawings and quotes so they can be recalled months later, for example.
Innovative Data Systems has about 175 customers in the U.S., Canada and Mexico that are using the drawing program.
Innovative Data Systems offers a 100% money-back guarantee with Pallet Track ®Click Draw™. Purchasers are entitled to a complete refund if they are not satisfied with the program. “No one has ever asked for a refund,” said Alan.
A common mistake in ordering pallets, Alan noted, is that customers sometimes mix up the dimensions of the pallet size. With drawings from Pallet Track ®Click Draw™, a purchasing agent “sees…what he is ordering.” It can help prevent those situations that arise when a purchasing agent mistakenly orders the wrong pallet size.
The company’s Pallet Track ®Automated Systems software program is designed for use with automated pallet repair line systems. The bar code-based program was the first software developed by Innovative Data Systems for the pallet industry over 10 years ago.
Most pallet recycling businesses paid employees who repaired or built pallets according to a piece rate, Alan observed. When pallet recyclers began using an assembly line-like process for operating repairs, they lost accountability over individual workers. The reason was because all pallets wound up in a central area at the end of a conveyor system where they were sorted and then stacked. “All their pallets were being mixed together,” Alan noted.
“Pallet Track ®Automated Systems was born out of this need,” said Alan. The program restores accountability and enables pallet recyclers to continue paying a piece rate for pallets produced by an individual worker.
Although different methods were developed by industry for workers to mark their respective pallets, they didn’t solve all the problems, Alan noted.
Some pallet recyclers turned to compensating repair workers as a team, which has its own set of drawbacks, according to Alan. In a team approach, good workers lose their incentive to excel so they tend to slow down. “Once you put the accountability back, the ability to count individual production, now your piece rate goes back, and good workers are rewarded and bad workers are penalized.”
The software can help another problem related to piece rate compensation plans: poor pallet quality. Pallet quality may suffer in the hands of workers who are intent on producing more to earn more.
Pallet Track ®Automated Systems enables pallet recyclers to control pallet quality because a repair worker’s ‘signature’ is on each pallet in the form of the bar code label. The contents of the bar code label identifies the worker who repaired the pallet, the date and time. “So you don’t suffer a loss of quality control,” Alan concluded. “That turned out to be a win-win for putting in an automated pallet repair line.”
The program can be integrated with automated pallet recycling equipment – stackers, for example. When integrated with stackers, a bar code reader scans the label on each pallet, identifies the grade of the pallet and signals the stacker’s programmable logic control; the pallet is transferred automatically to the stacker for corresponding grade. The technology eliminates the need for a worker to be stationed in the stacking area, individually inspecting and grading each pallet, and manually pushing the pallet into the infeed of the appropriate stacker.
Pallet recycling companies that invest several hundred thousand dollars for a sophisticated automated pallet repair line actually may experience a decrease in production if they do not implement a tracking system, too, Alan asserted.
In his experience with customers, they have experienced about a 30% increase in production when their automated pallet line was integrated with Pallet Track ®Automated Systems. “For that reason alone,” he added, “Pallet Track ®Automated Systems has been successful.”
Two other important considerations: Pallet Track Automated Systems works with equipment from any supplier, and it can be implemented without bar codes – for ‘nailing on the fly’ repair lines, for example.
Innovative Data Systems also offers two wireless systems to help manage pallet plant and sawmill operations: one is the Pallet Track ®Wireless Sawmill and the other is the Pallet Track ®Wireless Pallet Mill. “The wireless system enables you to track everything from standing timber to sawdust and everything in between,” said Alan, including cants, railties, lumber and finished pallets. The wireless systems use hand-held terminals to scan bar code labels.
“Compensation, inventory, quality, accountability – that is what we do,” said Alan. “We put accountability on your employees, your vendors, your customers, on all the products that you sell, all the products that you purchase, and all the products that you convert within your facility.”
The wireless systems record data in real time, noted Alan, which can be important in tracking yield from saws and waste factors and making corresponding, timely adjustments to plant machinery and systems in order to maximize yield and production.
Innovative Data Systems also has introduced kiosk computer controls that can be integrated with any Pallet Track ®Automated Systems. The kiosks have industrial grade components and are made to be stationed and used throughout the plant floor in the actual production area. It utilizes a touch-screen control panel with no keyboard or computer ‘mouse.’ The kiosks can be integrated with Innovative Data Systems software. A kiosk can be used in a receiving area, for example, to receive incoming pallets; after the pallets are received, the vendor can go to the office, and the system will generate a check. A kiosk could be placed by saws to track component production, board feet incentives and yield.
The kiosks take our wireless system one step further,” said Alan. “We put it in a box that people can use very easily…It simplifies data input for more accurate results.”
Innovative Data Systems recently developed Pallet Track ®Mill Manager so that management can keep tabs on exactly what is happening throughout their facility. Mill Manager is a unique type of MRP system designed for the pallet manufacturer. The system begins with issuing purchase orders for raw materials, generates work orders, and tracks customer orders throughout the manufacturing phase.
“Your customer can call to inquire about their order, and you can view it on any computer workstation and reply accurately that components are being cut, it is in the final production stage, it has been shipped, or simply is scheduled for production,” said Alan. “You can select any customer, and the system will display all of their orders and identify the status or production stage of each order.”
Once a work order has been completed, the dispatcher scans it and a shipper is automatically printed. “There are no address mistakes, no product mistakes, and no computer skills necessary,” said Alan. The system then stores the shipped order data to compare with a signed shipper when it returns. Again, a clerk simply scans the signed shipper, and it cross-references the data to identify that the order has been delivered and is ready for invoicing. Data can be imported directly into most accounting systems for automatic invoicing. More importantly, the system identifies any shipper that has not been returned. Thus, lost paperwork will not result in lost billing.
“Pallet Track ®Mill Manager further simplifies the data collection process of all our other products,” said Alan. “You can scan work orders using our kiosks, wireless systems or Palm-based systems. All the products work together and independently, so the systems can grow along with your business needs.”
Innovative Data Systems also supplies bar code printers and labels and can provide complete ‘turn key’ systems.
Alan has a contract with a label manufacturer. As his volume of business with the supplier grows, he gets a price reduction for labels, and he passes along the reduction to his customers, he said. “We’re kind of like a family,” he added. “Label prices have spiked in recent months, but we have been able to keep our pricing stable.”
“Although we’re not in the label business…they are available to anyone else with a different system who needs a good price on labels.”
Another product the company has developed is a hand punch clock system. “It developed out of the need from pallet companies with two or three shifts where supervisors may not be present all the time,” said Alan.
Instead of inserting a punch card into the clock, the employee places his hand on a scanner. The system identifies a worker by his hand dimensions. It eliminates the need for punch cards and also stops ‘buddy punching’ – when an employee punches in for a co-worker who may not be present.
The company’s newest product is the Pallet Track V-Track System, a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) based vehicle tracking system. This service is designed to help companies track and police the operations of truck drivers. The tracking unit is hidden in a truck or other vehicle, and the GPS system tracks the vehicle’s location every three seconds and records it. Innovative Data Systems provides its customer with detailed reports showing where the vehicle traveled, the time of each stop and how long the truck stopped at each location, the number of miles driven and maximum speed.
Innovative Data Systems products work together. “They talk to each other,” said Alan. They use the same type of database and can be used in conjunction with Palm pilots, wireless terminals and kiosks. For example, a drawing produced in Click Draw can be viewed on a production kiosk used for tracking pallet production.
For more information, contact Innovative Data Systems at (631) 244-0069 or visit the Web site at www.pallettrack.com.
