Bednark finds data driven insights for resource planning and CapEx decisions from Guidewheel
Bednark partners with industry leading Designers, Architects and Brands to create exciting, transformational consumer experiences. Their clients choose them because they push the limits of what is possible. They are a vertically-integrated design and fabrication company that specializes in retail environments, experiential marketing, and architectural millwork. Based in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Bednark is a custom fabricator with manufacturing capabilities in wood, plastic, metal, print, and integrated lighting.
Raphael Sorcio, Executive Director of Strategy at Bednark spoke with the Guidwheel team on July 11th to share how he and his team are benefiting from using Guidewheel. Some of the insights from that conversation are shared here in case they are useful to others.
Raphael joined Bednark after working as an art director in film and TV. When he first came on board about five years ago as a Project Manager, Bednark had about 50 people. Now the team has almost tripled in size and occupies 65,000 square feet in Brooklyn’s Navy Yard.
Raphael also shared how Guidewheel’s FactoryOps platform—currently installed on 13 critical machines—helps Bednark push the boundaries of corporate flexibility between adaptability and efficiency.
From day one, Guidewheel’s features to enable run time monitoring for production efficiency are giving Bednark two key advantages:
The ability to manage scarce human resources in a thoughtful, data-driven way.
Trusted data to inform and optimize CapEx decisions as the company grows.
First, Raphael shares an example of how Guidewheel helps his team make the most of scarce human resources:
"One thing is how we're maximizing our time in the drafting office and identifying where halts are. What I really want to know is if we have an eight hour shift and the machine is down for an hour and a half, what's creating that bottleneck? Is it that we're waiting for cut files? And if that's the case, do I need to put more resources on producing cut files? Is it because the cut files haven't been programmed? Then I need to put more resources there. So even though we're looking at the machine run time, it's about people resource management.”
This ability to identify where scarce human resources can have the most impact, especially in a tight labor market, is important for many manufacturers. When we asked Raphael if he anticipates labor will continue to be a challenge across manufacturing, his response was immediate:
"Yes. The labor market… is ridiculous. The way that I'm driving all of my conversations now that Guidewheel has launched, starts with our machine utilization time before we reconfigure our time slots for personnel. I'm looking at Guidewheel to see how often the machines are running. As a result, we've already implemented a change where we've shifted [one department] to come in an hour earlier. This way, the run time that we observed more closely aligns with our other departments’ operations. So my answer to your question is yes, we're going to continue seeing labor shortages and challenges, but the only solution isn’t just to hire people, it's reconfiguring your workflows based on operational data in order to maximize the resources that you have."
Next, Raphael adds that in addition to driving insights around machine run time and efficiency of human resources, he has also been using Guidewheel to improve CapEx decision making and help Bednark grow and scale with the right decisions around which machines to sell or buy: “Previously if we were making a capital improvement, it was based on word of mouth. So for example, there isn't enough time on the sliding table saws, so trying to decide do we need to buy another one? Or if another machine isn't running as often as it should in order to take up 80 feet of floor space, is that really the right machine? Now, instead of making those decisions based on word of mouth, I'm looking at real data. With Guidewheel I can tell we actually have been using that machine for 30 hours out of this week, 30 hours extrapolated over 52 weeks, means it's generating X amount of revenue. Therefore it's more than paying for itself. I'm able to make decisions about where our financial resources should go into buying more machinery or selling certain machinery with that data to guide me.”
Raphael also shared context for why the ability to make data-driven decisions and stay agile is so important to him and Bednark. Bednark has gone through a large transformation in the type of work they do, and has had to be extremely agile to be able to make that shift and stay strong in our rapidly changing world. During the pandemic, for example, pivoted to a new vertical that grew to about 50 percent of their revenue. Raphael reflected, “They say adaptability is on one side of the spectrum, and efficiency is on the other side of the spectrum. Efficiency is rigidity and structure and adaptability is shooting from the hip. What we try and do every day is we try to blend that line, and get these to touch as closely as possible. It makes every day really challenging. But when we're able to do it, it's incredibly rewarding.”
Raphael expressed how motivated he and his team are in this work, “Our purpose is to empower design. Without designers we have no purpose. We don't exist, but the human condition of wanting to be in beautiful environments is an opportunity for us.”
Towards this purpose, he and the Bednark team see FactoryOps visibility and having trusted data to manage scarce human resources and make the right CapEx decisions as a valuable advantage as they continue to grow, stay agile, and empower design.
Guidewheel helps manufacturers stay adaptable and efficient in a world full of change.
Our thanks to Raphael Sorcio from Bednark for participating in this highlight. If you and your team would like to showcase how you are using Guidewheel to drive business results—or don’t yet use Guidewheel, but would like to!—send us a note at info@guidewheel.com.