Manufacturer saves time and money with ProNest & MRP Integration

Company overview

TopTier is a leading supplier of palletizers – mission-critical components of automated end-of-line packaging operations for food, beverage, and consumer packaged goods manufacturers. Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, TopTier provides single palletizers as well as systems that are integrated with existing conveyors and other material-handling equipment. TopTier is the preferred palletizing vendor for over 800 consumer packaged goods manufacturers, with sales throughout North America and select countries worldwide.

Challenge: Manually assigning part properties is too time-consuming

TopTier’s manufacturing facility nests 20 to 30 sheets at a time to meet its production requirements. With a wide variety of parts and different materials, importing all the CAD files and manually assigning part properties such as quantity, material type, and thickness could take a nesting programmer half a day. The company was looking for a way to link its nesting software with its MRP system since the MRP system already contained most of the necessary part data.

Solution: ProNest software imports part data from pc/MRP

TopTier contacted pc/MRP, their accounting and inventory software provider, and learned that TopTier’s accounting and inventory software would be able to integrate directly with Hypertherm’s ProNest^® software. As soon as ProNest was installed, TopTier was able to import entire spreadsheets of parts from pc/MRP directly into ProNest. No additional programming was required.

ProNest

ProNest is an industry-leading CAD/CAM part nesting software designed for advanced mechanized cutting. It offers the highest level of cutting expertise and provides a single solution for all profile cutting needs – including plasma, laser, waterjet, and oxyfuel. ProNest’s powerful, high-yield nesting is designed to supercharge cutting operations, enabling fabricators and manufacturers to increase material utilization, boost productivity, lower operating costs, and improve part quality.  

ProNest’s intuitive screens and a wide variety of helpful features make it easy to learn and use. Its faster, fully automated interface can reduce programming time from hours to minutes, while specialized cutting techniques can reduce total cut time by up to 50%.

Unlimited access to technical support, training, and software updates is included with ProNest, ensuring every company gets the most value from their ProNest software.

ProNest ERP/MRP/MES integrations

ProNest supports enterprise resource planning (ERP), manufacturing resource planning (MRP), and manufacturing execution system (MES) integrations and is designed to work with virtually any ERP, MRP, or MES program.

ERP software helps businesses manage and automate core business processes, including finance, human resources, manufacturing, supply chain, and more. ERP software coordinates data flow between these different business processes to streamline operations and create a single source of truth. It eliminates data duplication and improves operations by providing real-time visibility into performance.

MRP solutions are typically more specific to the needs of manufacturers or fabricators and cover areas like quoting, inventory, work orders, and shipping. MRP solutions identify necessary materials, estimate quantities, determine when materials will be required to meet the production schedule, and manage delivery timing – with the goal of meeting customer demands and improving overall productivity.

MES solutions focus on monitoring and controlling production processes on the shop floor, capturing data from various sources – including machines, sensors, and operators – and providing accurate, real-time information about production activities. 

Integrating ProNest with ERP/MRP/MES software can extend efficiencies more broadly across the organization. With nesting work connected to all these other areas of the business, companies can eliminate manual and redundant tasks that exist in the workflow. Jobs can be managed, tracked, and combined more easily, and inventory is better managed for faster turnover – increasing profitability.

There are several integration modules that can be used to enhance ProNest’s capabilities.

• Data Sync provides the communication framework needed to exchange job information (such as parts and plates) in real-time. Once activated, Data Sync allows ProNest users to automatically access ERP/MRP/MES data directly inside the part list or plate list for immediate nesting. Updated data can then be returned to the ERP/MRP/MES system for enhanced collaboration across the organization. Data Sync provides a continuous feedback loop of information, ensuring data accuracy across all applications.

• The Tekla PowerFab Connector ensures consistent and up-to-date information flows between ProNest and PowerFab. This synchronization eliminates data duplication and rework, improves data quality, and increases information sharing across the organization. Operators can easily nest combining runs of parts and plates from PowerFab, ensuring optimal material utilization is achieved in ProNest. As nests are created and processed, results are immediately available in PowerFab, enabling increased efficiency.

• The STRUMIS Connector ensures consistent and up-to-date information flows between ProNest and STRUMIS, eliminating manual tasks and double entry of inventory and other job information and optimizing material utilization. Parts are sent from STRUMIS to ProNest in DXF or DSTV format for optimized nesting layout, ProNest arranges the parts to minimize scrap and maximize material efficiency, and results are immediately available in STRUMIS. This synchronization eliminates data duplication and rework, improves data quality, and increases information sharing across the organization.

• The Work Order Processing module allows the user to process work orders from within the nesting screen. Users can add or create work orders or automatically import work orders from the ERP system in real-time. Orders can be sorted and combined for more efficient nesting and longer continuous runs. All work order information may then be viewed and managed inside of ProNest – including sorting, grouping, combining, and tracking of all work order data – for the most efficient nesting.

• Plate Inventory provides a database to store, track, and utilize all available inventory. Users can add or create plates or connect to the ERP system to automatically import plate inventory. After completing a job, users can save remnants or skeletons to use later. Plate inventory is updated automatically as the plate is consumed and the new remnant is created. Also, users can assign properties to plates for even greater traceability, including heat number, stock number, unit price, and more.

• Production Manager provides a dashboard showing the real-time status of each cutting machine at the facility and details for each nest/job produced. It tracks job progress, alerts users to stoppages, and provides valuable insights into overall cutting performance. Production Manager promotes company-wide visibility and helps improve machine uptime.

ProNest also seamlessly integrates with Abas, Eci JobBOSS, Epicor^®, Global Shop Solutions^®, Oracle^®, Sage™, SAP^®, and more.

Business impact: ProNest cuts over three hours from programming time

TopTier has experienced significant time savings using the ProNest integration to their MRP software.

Learn how ProNest nesting software can help your business increase programming speed, consolidate programming, and improve productivity. Click the button below, fill out the form, and a Hypertherm product expert will contact you.