The Challenge
For Connecticut-based manufacturer Nortek, challenges with increased orders from a major client were compounded by the lack of real-time data at key manufacturing points — causing priority jobs to stall because they didn't look urgent in the system.
Our Solution
Developed a custom scheduling and tracking system that gives managers and line workers real-time visibility into job status, priority, and progress — and later extended to give customers direct visibility into their own jobs.
Results
Improved on-time delivery rates and gave production managers the tools to proactively identify and address scheduling conflicts. A process that used to take hours — publishing and sharing schedules with customers — is now finished in minutes.
The Challenge
Nortek Inc. faced the complex challenge of managing manufacturing deadlines across multiple product lines while dealing with a significant increase in orders from a major client. Their existing systems couldn't handle the complexity of their scheduling requirements, leading to missed deadlines and inefficient resource allocation.
A critical symptom: parts for priority jobs weren't available when needed because those jobs didn't appear urgent at earlier stages in the process. Without real-time feedback at key manufacturing points, the team had no way to identify and address these bottlenecks proactively.
Our Approach
We conducted an in-depth analysis of their manufacturing processes, identifying bottlenecks and opportunities for optimization. Our team worked alongside their production managers to understand the real-world constraints that any solution would need to account for.
The Solution
We built a custom scheduling and tracking system that considers multiple variables — machine availability, material supply, workforce capacity, and customer priorities — to optimize production sequences and surface priority information where it matters most.
The system was later extended to give Nortek's customers direct visibility into their own job status, transforming what had been a manual, hours-long scheduling communication process into an automated, real-time feed.
Results
The system provided Nortek with the visibility and control they needed to consistently meet their manufacturing deadlines. Customer satisfaction improved significantly through the addition of direct job visibility, and the time spent manually communicating schedules was virtually eliminated.
In Their Own Words
"This system has greatly improved visibility to our highest priority jobs ensuring that we meet our customer commitments on time. We've since expanded the system to allow our customers direct visibility to their jobs which has greatly increased customer satisfaction and visibility. The system even allows us to automatically publish schedules and share with our customers, a process that used to take hours, is now finished in minutes. A real win for us!"— Larry Mazza, General Manager, Nortek Inc.
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