Automation Hero January 2020 – Lily Zhang from INNOVATEST

Lily Zhang, Director of Manufacturing at INNOVATEST has, through automation, lowered inventory levels and saved both time and money for the company. That’s why she’s our Automation Hero in January.

Name: Lily Zhang
Title: Director of Manufacturing
Company: INNOVATEST

Congratulations on winning the award, Lily! Please can you tell us a little about yourself, INNOVATEST and what your role is?
Thanks! INNOVATEST is a global supplier of test instruments. The company was founded in the 19th century and has since produced and sold industrial products. Today, the product range consists mainly of various testing instruments for hardness, but also optical measuring instruments and portable test instruments for quality assurance. Our products are used by manufacturing industries throughout the world, especially in the aerospace and automotive industries.

What “red flags” made you realise that you needed to invest in automation?
We have always invested in automation across the business, so when we realised that our inventory management processes were no longer sufficient to keep our stock at sufficiently low levels, we agreed that it was time to invest in a more sophisticated system.

How has your work changed since you implemented EazyStock?
We have much better information available and this has led to inventory control and purchasing becoming a more efficient, daily routine. The time we save can be devoted to more strategy and improvements in processes and inventory management.

How has automation with EazyStock helped INNOVATEST?
In addition to all the time we save, our stock levels have dropped significantly, our turnover rate has increased and we have much better control of our stock. All of this has led to freeing up more cash, rather than it being absorbed by stock on dusty shelves.

What other types of automation tools do you use today?
With our Microsoft Dynamics business system, we automate parts of the logistics chain and we use Solid Works PDM to manage product and R&D data.

What do you think about the future of automation?
We believe in having a stable core system, such as the business system, which you can then integrate with other specialised solutions for the type of automation you want to do. This gives more flexibility and the system can continue to develop with the business. The possibilities are endless and will keep growing!

Thank you Lily and congratulations again!

Would you like to nominate a colleague, customer or partner for next month’s Automation Hero? Fill out the contact form here.