SSI provides an accurate and advantageous counting program

        The Deep Single Ledgeback, the Compact D-Bowl Combination, the Corner Cabinet Application; all these sinks and many more zip along the production line at the 110,000 square foot facility of Kindred Industries Ltd in Midland, Ontario. Eventually, these sinks reach the end of the production line. Fully assembled, they are dropped into boxes and packaged efficiently in a smooth series of steps. The boxes are slapped with a barcode sticker, which holds all the information about the specific sink, and with a simple swipe across the barcode read head as the whole package rolls down the line, this sticker is read, the information recorded, and the current sink count tabulated. Then the sink is pushed out the door and shipped away to stores or directly to customers who have already placed their orders.
        The counting process is simple, but accurate, and it is kept that way through a special custom program supplied by Slofstra Software Inc. (SSI), a programming and software company with its office in St. Jacobs, Ontario.
        The barcode system at the end of the production line at Kindred Industries is run by an SSI program, Packbench. As the sinks roll down the line, the information on each sink's label is scanned by the barcode read head and passed to the Packbench program. Each time a new model of sink rolls by, Packbench records the model, and then counts how many of that sink are being produced. Each new model of sink that is produced is recorded on a new line on the Packbench screen.
        Packbench also provides a Shift Configuration table that can be used to record when shifts start and end. So at the end of the shift, or at any time during the shift, the Packbench program can produce a simple report of what kind of sinks and how many of each were produced during the shift, as well as a report of how many sinks are being produced per hour at any time.
        SSI's Packbench program is simple, but advantageous for Kindred Industries. It is important for Kindred to know what shift produced what and how many sinks, for it is a measure of that shift's productivity, and can help Kindred employees to see what factors cause the plant to be the most productive.
        Packbench also helps Kindred save time and money. The sinks can be shipped off as soon as they come off the production line, since their model and number have been recorded automatically. This way, there is no holding space required to keep the sinks while being counted. The system also prevents sinks from being double counted.
        SSI installed Packbench to integrate with Kindred's current ERP system, SYTELINE. At the end of each shift, the foreman prints out the results of the shift, verifies that the data is correct, and then presses the process transaction button in Packbench that sends the data to the SYTELINE program, where Kindred's inventory balances are stored.
        SSI's software was first programmed for Kindred in 1996, when it ran on a minicomputer. However, in preparation for the year 2000, Kindred industries upgraded its system, which included having SSI upgrade the barcode software to a Visual Basic version. Since then, SSI has made several more updates to the software to meet Kindred's changing needs.
        When Packbench was first installed at Kindred years ago, SSI found that the program needed more bullet-proofing that the average office application. Over time, the program has been adapted and improved. Bruce Prevett, of Kindred Industries, comments, "Recently, we bought new equipment, and Henry Slofstra (founder of SSI) has continued tweaking the program over the years."
        Today, SSI continues to support the Packbench program as business conditions change.
        And Kindred industries continues to find SSI's software useful. "As long as we have SYTELINE, we'll be using [SSI's software], and perhaps even beyond that," concludes Bruce Prevett.