College Park Industries
Case Study: College Park Industry
Solution: Plex SaaS ERP
Industry: Medical Devices
Country: U.S.A
About the Company
College Park Industries, based in Fraser, Michigan, is a leader in prosthetic foot manufacturing. The company markets the most anatomically correct prosthetic feet available today. College Park Industries was incorporated in 1988 upon completion of the first TruStep Foot prototype, designed and built by David L. Robinson. Nearly 20 years later, College Park is still committed to the research and development of advanced prosthetic products. With products distributed by an extensive global distribution network of independent dealers, College Park's customers include independent orthotic and prosthetic facilities worldwide. End-users of College Park products are lower limb amputees of all ages who maintain
low to high activity levels.
The Situation
The tasks for designing, producing, testing and delivering the prosthetic feet are complex. With five
prosthetic foot product lines, there are hundreds of thousands of possible configurations for a finished
product. TruStep, the company’s signature product, is one of the most complicated to configure, with
about 450,000 potential builds.
College Park Industries quickly realized that in order to serve its diverse patient populations, it needed a
manufacturing system to achieve the highest level of accuracy and efficiency. So it called Plex Systems
to implement Plex Online, an award winning on-demand software for the manufacturing enterprise.
Plex Online combines the capabilities of enterprise resource planning (ERP), manufacturing execution
systems (MES), supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM), shop floor
integration and quality management. Based on a Software as a Service (SaaS) model, Plex Online enables
users to closely track and manage the most critical aspects of business and manufacturing operations –
anytime, anywhere.
The Solution
First, Plex Online helps College Park Industries determine which product configuration best meets the
needs of patients. The process begins when a prosthetist orders a foot. Customer service professionals
gather the information required to determine the correct build. Using Plex Online, they work with enduser
profiles – existing or new ones -- to view the history or start a new order. The software takes the
customer service representatives through a series of screens with questions and answers about the
patient. How much does he weigh? What types of activities is he involved in? Is he going to be content
walking around the grocery store, or is he jumping out of planes and doing flips on a wakeboard?
In addition to capturing patient information, Plex Online provides serial numbers to fulfill regulatory
requirements, sales analysis and warranty information. With 1500 customers, College Park Industries
utilizes Plex Online to sort through complex pricing schemes, including discount structures and
individual customer price lists.
Once all the required questions are answered, the information is run through an Option Configurator to
generate a build sheet, which tells production everything needed to manufacture the foot. College Park
builds, inspects and ships feet and components the same day they are ordered.
Plex Online provides College Park Industries with flexibility and customization to accommodate all
variables required for every prosthetic foot. Customer Service representatives no longer need to
remember all the exceptions and special cases for each patient.
Improved Decision Making
Plex Online also integrated all of College Park Industries’ departments, so they can function within the
same software system and make decisions based on current, accurate information. The company can
monitor sales strategies and customer activity, without waiting for the month-end sheets. They can
access information from international distributors. And Plex Online helps fulfill regulatory requirements
that medical device manufacturers need for traceability and internal controls.
In the truest partnership, Plex Systems has in the past been a sponsor of the O&O Extremity Games,
which was launched by College Park Industries to showcase patient success. The second annual sports
competition helps raise awareness of the ability of amputees. It’s gives athletes -- aged 13 and older --
the opportunity to demonstrate skill, persistence and passion. The O&P Extremity Games hosts eight
judged competitions: skateboarding, rock climbing, wakeboarding, BMX biking, kayaking, surfing,
skydiving and in-line skating.
