JPANS Co., Ltd.

Description

The company aims to expand its business into the manufacturing sector and offer software solutions to other companies in the jewelry industry that lack specialized software. Given that the previous version was heavily customized for specific needs and not adaptable to other companies, starting from scratch wasn't an option. To ensure rapid delivery and flexibility, a low-code platform with customization capabilities was chosen as the most effective solution.

Technologies Used

Responsibilities

• Conducted research on open-source low-code frameworks
• Adapted existing features to suit the unique needs of the jewelry industry
• Learned about key areas such as accounting, inventory management, cross-border documentation, and manufacturing processes
• Engaged with potential clients to gather requirements
• Provided user training and collected feedback to refine the product
• White-labeled the framework and customized both front-end and back-end functions
• Aligned software with company branding and client expectations

Challenges and Solutions

Challenge: Entering the manufacturing industry, particularly the jewelry sector, with its unique processes. The factory had a small workforce of mostly older employees unfamiliar with software technology who relied on manual processes. Meanwhile, the factory's young owner wanted to implement software to track everything despite instability and constantly changing requirements driven by client demands.

Solution: The team took a hands-on approach by regularly engaging with factory workers to gather accurate requirements. Secured budget to hire dedicated data entry personnel and allowed workers to continue using updated paper forms, which were entered into the software by the data entry team daily. Initially applied business logic through Excel formulas for flexibility while requirements evolved. Once processes stabilized for 2-3 weeks, customized the software to reflect the established workflow.

Achievements

• Successfully implemented a system ensuring no loss of tracking
• All daily manufacturing processes recorded in a cloud-based Excel sheet
• Made historical data available for users to reference in future work orders
• Implemented key functions such as accounting, inventory management, invoicing, and report generation
• Laid strong foundation for the full implementation of the software

Key Learnings

• It's not always necessary to build software from scratch given the power of open-source software and frameworks
• Understanding best practices and core business models allows for quick creation of prototypes using open-source tools
• This approach enables faster feedback and iteration
• Reduced development costs and shorter overall development timeline
• Process becomes more efficient and effective with incremental improvements