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Cornerstone Systems Inc.: Making Manufacturing Services Smarter

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Kevin Pludeman, President

In the manufacturing services space, service providers typically distribute components, assemble units, and provide return/repair services for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Unlike direct manufacturing providers, organizations in the manufacturing services space don’t have a lot of software programs to manage their end-to-end business operations. As and when they receive parts from OEMs, they run a sequence of steps (galvanizing, electroplating, anodizing, or painting), and send those parts back to the OEMs. Executing these procedures using a traditional approach is often tedious and time-consuming. What they need is a robust platform that can not only simplify the end to end processes but also help improve the efficiency and quality while delivering exceptional customer service.

That’s exactly what Cornerstone Systems Inc. brings to the table.

Having been in the manufacturing services industry for over two decades, Cornerstone Systems offers its Visual Shop Management software that breaks the barriers of conventional tools. “We provide the industry’s leading shop floor management software for metal finishing, heat treating, and coatings that improves customers’ business and makes them more efficient—from the office to the shop floor,” states Kevin Pludeman, President of Cornerstone Systems.

Visual Shop is a comprehensive software package for galvanizing, anodizing, electroplating, painting, and other processes-oriented companies. It is integrated with tons of features such as order entry, quotations, scheduling, tracking, shipping, invoicing, reporting, and certifications. All these features help service providers manage the entire business operations efficiently. For instance, with Visual Track feature, service providers can ensure that every step in the process is executed completely and in a proper order. It also collects inspection results, processes parameters, and gives feedback that can help in making informed decisions. With archiving feature, users can store all the documents in PDF format.

We provide the industry’s leading shop management software for metal finishing, heat treating, and coatings that improves customers’ business and makes them more efficient—from the office to the shop floor

All that a user has to do is simply put the stack of papers in the document feeder, press the scan button and the documents are filed and indexed automatically. By deploying Visual Shop, service providers can expect decreased turnaround time, increased quality and improved customer satisfaction.

Cornerstone Systems understands that not all businesses are the same. The company has built the software in such a way that it can be customized to fit different business needs. “We offer a service that’s a hybrid between a custom program, and off-the-shelf program,” says Pludeman. The company provides software support through multiple channels. In addition to phone and email support, there is also an online support portal and ticketing system that streamlines communications between Cornerstone Systems and its customers. There is an easily searchable extensive knowledge base on the CSI Support portal. Also, Visual Shop users can monitor the progress of programming projects through the portal and submit comments or additional questions.

The effectiveness of Cornerstone’s Visual Shop management software can be well illustrated with a case study where one of the customers wanted to deploy a Visual Shop on a single database for the multiple plants they owned. This allows parts, processes, and customers to be shared from one plant to another. This software environment makes it easier to maintain and share essential information within the corporation. The customer plans to add additional plants to their portfolio. By working from one database, the implementation of Visual Shop will be streamlined as plants are added. Cornerstone’s solution helped their customer to improve overall output, standardize work flow, and improve customer satisfaction.

For the road ahead, Cornerstone is focusing on making its software more convenient and faster for its customers. Pludeman adds, “We want people to get the information about orders quickly.” For achieving this, company has plans to automate the features. In addition to this, Cornerstone is adding more features to make their software accessible from any device.

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Company
Cornerstone Systems Inc.

Headquarters
Crystal Lake, IL

Management
Kevin Pludeman, President

Description
Cornerstone Systems offers its Visual Shop Management software that breaks the barriers of conventional tools. Visual Shop is a comprehensive software package for galvanizing, anodizing, electroplating, painting, and other processes-oriented companies. It is integrated with tons of features such as order entry, quotations, scheduling, tracking, shipping, invoicing, reporting, and certifications. All these features help service providers manage the entire business operations efficiently. For instance, with Visual Track feature, service providers can ensure that every step in the process is executed completely and in a proper order. Cornerstone Systems understands that not all businesses are the same. The company has built the software in such a way that it can be customized to fit different business needs