Organization Name: Industrial Mold & Machine
Industry: Manufacturing Industry
Name of Founder/CEO: Dave Kuhary
Description of how social media is used for business performance:
So far, my studies have taught me that social media can be used to engage employees and customers throughout business activities. It also is used to develop and enhance an organization’s product. Continuing forward, social media is utilized as a tool for better communication and convenience within a supply chain. As I have worked in a small time family-owned metal manufacturing company, I know first hand the steps that are involved to getting an order ready and shipping it out. Each member plays a huge part in this process, which involves a lot of hard work and dedication.
Industrial Mold and Machine is a molding company based out of Twinsburg, Ohio. It’s CEO, Dave Kuhary started it in 1988 in his kitchen, eventually envisioning a company that offers different molding services to small-time companies who couldn’t afford these technologies. As the company flourished over the years, Dave realized the importance of advancing technology and made efforts to keep the company on track.
To solve its long time problem of lack of communication and collaboration on the company floor, IMM introduced a social platform called Socialtext. A program that makes it easy to secure important information with fellow employees and customers within a social community. The tool is structured to show applicable content relating to the business, links to relevant company resources, active members and much more. It also allows you to add external applications such as weather and stocks. Essentially, any company can customize the program to their personal liking.
“Socialtext is basically a tool we use to communicate information across the company efficiently. The browser-based platform is a facebook-like format and it operates in a similar way. The employees are organized into various groups that we customize for our specific purposes. Members may belong to more than one group for communicating information specific to that group while access to certain groups for certain members may be restricted. It is very easy to use and is formatted to make transfer of information flow smoothly.” -Matt Zielinski (Employee Within Information Technology Department)
IMM embedded the use of Socialtext via wireless tablets, placing them directly on the manufacturing floor. The application was customized for IMM’s specific needs, and eventually was commonly used by every employee, increasing its popularity. Within the first year of using the program, the results were nothing but positive. The company’s productivity increased 20% and labour costs had decreased by 40%. To fulfill orders, employees are able to connect to the sector which completes orders, request a photo and then pass that photo along to the customer. From this, customers are able to grasp a real-time sense on the progress of their order.
Lessons for Others:
With the use of Socialtext, Industrial Mold & Machine is able to have a more stable supply chain management. It allows planning and coordinating of material flow from the source to the user more effortlessly; rather than wasting time managing the goods one by one. The use of this application has benefited this company by both reducing costs and enhancing services, giving them a higher value and importance. Employees can work more effectively and efficiently with one another using this amazing system of sharing information.
Submitted By: Kelly Hawker, University of Waterloo
To contact the author of this entry please email at: kellyhawker8@gmail.com
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Web References:
Dave Kuhary – Mold Making Technology
Industrial Mold & Machine – Facebook Page
Company History – Youtube Video
Interview with Socialtext CEO, Eugene Lee – Youtube Video
Socialtext Overview – Youtube Video