Realtrac Version 9 - Ending Support

September 1, 2015

Dear Valued REALTRAC Customer:

We have made the difficult decision to discontinue support of the Realtrac 9 Operating System on March 1, 2016.  We understand that this version has been a valuable tool for our clients, and we did not make this decision without serious consideration of our customers.  

Since launching Realtrac 9 in 2008, technology and computers have continuously improved, and as Microsoft has released newer operating systems, we have developed “workarounds” to allow the Realtrac 9 system to function in modern computing environments. With Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8, we have had to force users to disable many built-in security systems that allow the Realtrac 9 system to operate.

In addition, Realtrac 9 software uses several third-party components; however, many of our software partners are no longer in business. Therefore, we are no longer able to provide support for these components, nor can we continue to develop fixes as the technology around us evolves.

Realtrac 10 has been on the marketplace for over a year, with enthusiastic customer response.   This completely integrated, state-of-the-art ERP system allows for a quick and easy transition for our Version 9 customers while utilizing 21^st century technologies. A sampling of some of the new features and functions include:

• Quality Module
• State-of-the-art Shop Floor Data Collection with Touchscreen Technology
• Streamlined and Dynamic Data Entry/Searching Technologies
• Expanded Job and Estimating Screens
• Improved Routing and Scheduling
• Multi-item Quoting and Invoicing

Next Steps

Request a Demo Today!

Upgrade to Realtrac 10

Customers who have maintained an active Realtrac 9 Service Contract and schedule conversion to Realtrac 10 before December 31, 2015, will be offered a FREE upgrade.   Your Service Contract Renewal will not increase upon conversion.  

Customers who are not currently under Service Contract, but would like to upgrade, are encouraged to take advantage of special incentives to reinstate their Service Contract and upgrade to Realtrac 10.

To receive more information on version 10, or to schedule an appointment, please contact Jeremy Klosowski at (734) 793-3816 or jeremy@realtrac.com

·       Receive Support for Realtrac 9 until March 1, 2016

Customers who have paid their Realtrac 9 Service Contract in full, but choose not to upgrade to Realtrac 10, will continue to receive support until March 1, 2016.  A prorated amount of the Service Contract Renewal will returned to you in the form of an account credit or refund. 

If you have any questions, please contact your Realtrac Sales Representative or phone the main office at (734) 793-3811.

Sincerely,

Jeremy Klosowski

Director of Sales and Marketing

Realtrac Releases NEW “Inspector Role” Feature in Realtrac 10 ERP

At Realtrac HQ, we are consistently developing new features and functions in our Shop Management System to help our customers become increasingly efficient and profitable. In fact, we have a major release of the Realtrac 10 client coming in. It’s easily the biggest, most comprehensive update we’ve ever had, so there’s a lot to talk about.

While we’re ecstatic about our newly redesigned invoicing interface—and many other new features—in this article we want to focus on our new feature: “Inspector Role”. With our increased focus on quality, this feature allows customers additional Inspector functions that can be captured on any part while tracking the costs.

The “Inspector Role” has been introduced for our customers who are currently in, or who are planning for, a quality system certification. This is a powerful tool to simplify some of the requirements. This feature adds traceability for customers who require “First Article” inspection, and it doesn’t require them to add an operation. This allows for verification of the inspection of a particular operation. Realtrac is: Real Time-Real Quick-Real Profits. The Realtrac software continues to be the simplest way to run your company, and this added feature helps keep your cost of quality down—while keeping profits up!

After the update, when you go to set up or change an employee, you’ll notice a new role titled INSPECTOR. You can assign this to anyone with the SHOP FLOOR role. When the INSPECTOR role is added, the shop floor employees will have some extra options when they log into an operation.

The employee, now with their INSPECTOR role, can choose to login normally—as though they are running the job, but they may also choose to login as if they are doing:

• First Piece Inspection
• Final Piece Inspection
• In Process Inspection
• Sorting
• Receiving

When this user logs in via one of the special new logon types, that employee will show up with their name in a special gold color in the real-time Employee Status window. This indicates to everyone on the shop floor that this employee is doing a quality inspection on this specific job and operation. With a quick glance at our real-time interface, a supervisor or fellow employee across the shop can get an immediate update.

In the screenshot above, we see that the employee, “Inspector,” is logged in and performing a quality inspection.

We’ve improved every job costing report to break out the costs for all of these special logon types. This provides a key insight into one of the costs of quality for your shop.

In the sample Job Cost Summary report above, we see we’re running OP 10. Our SAW process took 37.78 hours and cost us $1689.75.

The first piece inspection that took place for OP 10 took 3/10^th of an hour, and cost $17.40 for the labor and the employee’s test workstation.

We are confident that this simple feature, which is easy to implement and easy to use, can provide some key insights into your costs.

As always, we rely on our customer’s requests and insights for future developments and added functionality. Please reach out to your Realtrac sales rep for more information about this new release, and let them know what Realtrac can do to help make your shop more profitable!

Realtrac Performance ERP and Bluewater Investments & Management Consulting Firm Partner Announce Integrated Shop Software and Certified QMS System for Realtrac Customers

Realtrac is proud to partner with Michael Henderson as we assist our customers working towards multiple quality certifications. Michael helps companies become certified or compliant with all necessary certifications. By walking through each step, customers understand the entire process with a 100% success rate. Michael provides:

·      On-site training

·      Consulting

·      Management reviews

·      Internal audit training

·      Assistance with identifying management reps

He also provides additional audit training, and assists with identifying internal quality staff. Michael consults with customers across North America, incorporating QMS (Quality Management Systems) with their Realtrac systems. Customers are unique in terms of their certification needs. Time and costs are based upon the types of certifications needed, as well as the quantity of processes each organization has.

Michael Henderson received a B.S. in Quality Engineering from the University of Michigan, and is currently consulting for Bluewater Investments & Management, where he acts as president. A strong advocate for (QMS) quality management systems, he involves his clients in core QMS principles, including but not limited to:

·      Management Representative

·      Management Review

·      Supply Chain Management

·      Root Cause Analysis

·      Quality Manual Development

·      Procedure Writing and Implementation

·      Internal Auditing and Training

·      1 Piece Flow

·      Training for Top Management

·      Support for third-party audits

His professional interests, focus, and certifications are AS9100, ISO-9001, TS-16949, NQA-1, ISO14001, and ISO-17025. His current projects include consulting for NASA’s space suit facility, and assisting with ISO-14001 implementation, in addition to helping multiple organizations with zero QMS systems become certified. He also serves as Defense Chairman for IAQG/AAQG, and is a member of the G-14 committee. Michael was recently honored with the AAQG outstanding award for his contributions to writing the AS9100 standard.

Please contact Jeremy Klosowski at 734-793-3816, or by email at Jeremy@realtrac.com, for more information on how to start your quality certifications.

Embracing Change with Realtrac Creates an MMS Top Show Award Winner!

What’s the best business decision you ever made? Sometimes as a small business owner, we

can get too set in our ways and become very blinkered in the way we view expansion. Despite

my kicking and screaming on many occasions, I knew that we had to make some enormous

strides in the way we operated our business in the growing world of technology. 24 years ago I

made my best business decision: I spent 6-percent of that year’s sales, and 100 percent of the profits and drove my company into the 21st century.

Fast forward to 2014. Because of that decision: I now have an 8-thousand-percent increase

in profits, four more companies in my portfolio with Delta Research being awarded as a “MMS

Top Shop 2014”. By embracing change, this is how I did it…

In 1989, I made the decision to purchase a manufacturing ERP system to help guide my business.

At the time, my company was a 10-person manufacturing supplier for the automotive industry.

After much research, I chose the REALTRAC Performance ERP system. I reached out to REALTRAC and learned the power of the job shop software from our sales representative, Don Colley. (Don is still with REALTRAC today). The return on this investment was realized in just 90 days.

To stay in business, profits must be earned. The REALTRAC ERP program helped guide us to

increased revenue with higher profits. REALTRAC improved our operational efficiency, reduced

costs, increased productivity and showed us where our opportunities for growth existed.

Efficiency comes from doing more of what’s most profitable in your business and less of

what’s least profitable. This analysis of our company was enlightening and gave us immediate

clarity in our direction.

Every customer is demanding. They all want a “Quality product, On time, Every time”. I run my

companies with this being the premise. We are built upon truth, integrity and honesty. We

take great pride in our quality. REALTRAC is a fast, real time system that helped us develop

our true employee and machine costing which in turn allowed us to estimate and quote more

effectively and efficiently.

With the machine loading software, we were able to track and manage jobs flowing through

our shop, which made us more operationally sound. It also gave us the confidence to win

more sales, buy more equipment and hire more staff. Our company continued on this path and

over the past 24 years the only thing that has not changed in our company was our software

system, REALTRAC.

This is a testament to its performance as it has stood the test of time. But companies need

to stay fresh and owners strategies and plans must address new technologies, equipment and

opportunities as they emerge or risk being left behind. It is becoming ever more apparent

in the manufacturing industry that businesses must have a job shop tracking system. Shops

without these tracking systems cannot receive industry certifications such as ISO or AS and

risk losing business to competitors that do or simply will go out of business. Realtrac’s Shop

Management System is the perfect solution for a quick and easy to use software platform to

offer manufacturers Real-Time visibility into all of their operations.

The Realtrac Shop Management System was built in the early 1980s by a machine shop owner

and was designed exclusively for machine shops, job shops and make to order manufacturers.

The Realtrac software development team still resides in the heart of a machine shop where

additions and adaptations are being designed and tested daily. This allows Realtrac to be

continuously evolving within the industry while delivering software that is faster, even more

powerful and easier to use. “Easy is quick, quick is profitable”! Whether you’re a start-up shop

or have a mature business model, Realtrac will help you.

The Realtrac team has created a platform that allows our business to run the software

instead of allowing it to run us. They have created a completely integrated, state-of-the-art

manufacturing ERP system that allows companies a quick and easy transition while reducing

the stress related to their daily business.

"REALTRAC assists with our entire operation, from management to inventories to
implementation. It also plays a significant role in improving our business efficiencies by
reducing our costs and optimizing our business’s performance. I firmly believe that with
REALTRAC at the helm, your company will soar to new heights and may earn a Top Shop Award in the near future as well."

Bob Sakuta. Owner, Delta Family of Companies, MMS Top Shop Award 2014, “Machining Technology”

“Top Shops” is a comprehensive benchmarking program for machine shops of all types and

sizes. Using data from surveys completed by a number of machining businesses, Top Shops

identifies optimal shopfloor practices as well as operational and business metrics that define

world-class competitiveness in discrete parts manufacturing. Companies ranging from small

job shops to large captive operations can see how they compare against the country’s

leading machining businesses, which enables them to make sound decisions to emulate those

identified as top-performing operations. Not only does the benchmarking data serve as a

baseline “report card” of sorts for them, but it eliminates the need for shop executives to rely

on gut feelings as a method of identifying and prioritizing improvement efforts.

To learn more about ‘What it takes to be a Top Shop’: http://www.mmsonline.com/zones/topshops

To learn more about ‘Realtrac Shop Management System’: http://realtrac.com/

To learn more about ‘Delta Research Corporation’: http://www.delrecorp.com/