Shop Floor to Ceiling
Automated Fabrication.
Armstrong Ceilings & Wall Solutions, Austria
Custom Ceilings with a Custom App
Armstrong Metalldecken GmbH, an Austrian subsidiary of Armstrong World Industries, supplies advanced and bespoke metal ceiling and wall systems. With the company growing at a staggering 31% in the last decade, Value Stream Manager Miodrag Mihajlovic decided they needed a custom app to accelerate their production line.
“The sky’s the limit.”
— Miodrag Mihajlovic, Value Stream Manager
Hitting the Wall
Mihajlovic explained, “We needed to manage orders to our customers, manage inventories and supply construction sites with the ceiling and wall systems pre-sorted and ready for installation. After all that, we needed to keep meticulous logs of what went where, so we could provide support when needed. We knew early on that our team could work better with a custom app.”
A Custom App to Streamline Business
SmallCo helped Mihajlovic build a FileMaker custom app to manage production, distribution and follow-on support. “We now know precisely which tasks are completed and which ones are still open, including all the information about the customer, their requirements and relevant historical data,” reports Mihajlovic. “I took our server down for some routine maintenance, and quickly found out how completely we relied on our custom app!”
The app also provides the salespeople on the ground the information they need to provide prompt and informed customer service, and gives management oversight of sales, production and customer support.
Mihajlovic received Armstrong’s Gold Award for Excellence for his leadership in creating their FileMaker custom app.
How the App talks to the Cutter: XML Instructions
Think of XML as a Lingua Franca on the digital production floor…
Bespoke fabrication, spoken directly to the fab machine!
The FileMaker custom app logs and manages the custom dimensions for wall and ceiling products, and then communicates these as comprehensive instructions to the digitally controlled fabricators, which cut and shape products to order.
Automation by custom app has made it possible for Armstrong to offer their products to an ever-growing customer base, from Iceland to the United Arab Emirates. Mihajlovic continues, "We're very happy with our decision to build a custom FileMaker app. Our other manufacturing divisions got wind of our success, and now they’re interested in having their own custom app.”