That Cross Generational Sound: How Gibson Brands Modernized Guitar Production with TrakSYS

Founded in 1894 by Orville Gibson, Gibson Brands, Inc. has long been a formidable presence in the world of music. With over 127 years of experience and a world-famous, eclectic user base, the Gibson guitar portfolio has grown to include everything from highly coveted small-batch releases to custom works and entry-level guitars.

With a steadily growing customer base and an eye toward continually refining production processes, the team at Gibson's Nashville USA manufacturing facility, where the brand's electric guitars are made, needed a software solution to help reinvent its operations without sacrificing the quality Gibson is known for.

The Gibson team began working alongside Parsec Certified Partner EOSYS to implement TrakSYS. EOSYS's first step was a comprehensive workshop with the Gibson team to map out processes, engage stakeholders at every level of the business, and develop a multi-phase project roadmap.

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TrakSYS was configured for RFID-based tracking of individual guitars, creating detailed e-records for each one, while user-friendly dashboards showed real-time WIP and ERP confirmations. Intuitive operator interfaces with graphs and trends made identifying quality improvement opportunities seamless, and team members gained easy access to comprehensive item specifications.

Fueled by early success with TrakSYS, Gibson implemented an effective, visually insightful system to help teams optimize quality and improved the real-time visibility of performance KPIs.

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The company also refined engineering specifications management, improved the printing of labels and storing of photos taken of each finished guitar before packaging, optimized its manual reporting process, and provided operators with real-time, detailed guitar histories.