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Is your parts data holding you back?

CASE STUDY: Electrika data amalgamation project for JCC Lighting

The efficient management of databases saves both time and money.  Electrika offers a database amalgamation and cleaning service which was recently used by JCC Lighting to overcome ongoing frustrations and achieve efficiency goals.

Due to the ever evolving nature of the technological world, many manufacturers find themselves struggling to effectively manage and maintain parts data libraries.  This is often the situation where businesses have expanded through acquisition - presenting the challenge of amalgamating databases which may be in different file formats, or structured with different attribute descriptions.

One example of such a situation is the recent work carried out by Electrika for JCC Lighting, who called in the software and data management specialists to resolve challenges in accessing parts data for the products in their range.  Whilst the data was comprehensively logged and archived, it was stored in Word documents with variable formats, ensuring that any automated processing of the data was impossible.

Electrika acted as analytical consultants to JCC Lighting, analysing and re-configuring their entire parts database.   This process was broken down into five steps:

  1. Assess the provenance and accuracy of the data.
  2. Generate samples involving small numbers of products from across the JCC range.
  3. Systematically convert these samples into a new, accessible and consistent structure to prove the process robust.
  4. Manually extract the full database, clean and standardise the data
  5. Create a new database with the clean data

The new database allows the parts data to be used in a range of ways, providing commercial benefit to all stakeholders.

Access to the new database is available via the Electrika web-based estimating tool, allowing JCC to provide accurate data to their customers and ensuring that they are choosing the correct product.  Because the formatting is now consistent and accessible it is easy to store, manage and provide data to others as required.

Rodney Simmons, Technical Communications Manager at JCC Lighting added: “Being introduced to Electrika was a real blessing for us. We knew we had a good set of parts data but it just wasn’t organised in a way which made it useful. If we needed to access specific reports or sets of data it was a lengthy, manual process, often prone to errors. Now we can manipulate the data as needed to meet the needs of everyone concerned.”

If you want to know more about Electrika contact them here:

Electrika Ltd 
0161 883 2650 
http://www.electrika.com

 

My broad based technology degree equipped me well for a range of roles including project engineering, training, change management and marketing engineer. My career has included a rich variety of experience in industry sectors including food packaging, automotive, robotic vehicles and materials handling. I have taught electronics and product design in schools as well as implementing new technology for students such as laser cutters and 3D printers.
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