Telecom Offers a Solution to Paper Overload

Amrik Poonian never dreamed he would be responsible for making factories paperless.

Several years ago, his Lake Forest company, Telecom Solutions Inc., specialized in telecommunications networks. Then in 1992, the company landed a telecommunications contract with McDonnell Douglas Corp., which was building the C-17 military cargo jet.

As he wandered across the factory floor, he noticed that the employees were burdened by paper--paper instructions detailing how to assemble parts, reams of orders requesting new additions, stacks of quality-check forms.

McDonnell Douglas officials told him they yearned for an easier way to help their employees learn different tasks.

“All of a sudden, it seemed obvious,” Poonian said.

Today, Telecom Solutions is praised for bringing digital technology to blue-collar jobs. The company makes SF2000, a software system that shows employees on the assembly floor how to build jets and automobiles.

Workers go to the workstation on the factory floor and, with a simple click, find out what they are doing that day. Each person gets a customized screen that gives specific instructions about the task at hand. Video clips and still photographs showing how to do the job are incorporated into the instructions.

If a company has installed a wireless network in its shop, an employee can even use a laptop to access the same information from a remote location.

Telecom--with $14 million in sales last year and about 80 employees--now works with aerospace clients such as McDonnell Douglas and Boeing Co. and has several military and naval contracts.

This fall, the firm topped the Southern California Fast 50, a list of the region’s fastest-growing technology companies assembled by accounting firm Deloitte & Touche. Telecom’s revenue has grown 7,000% over the last five years.

P.J. Huffstutter covers high technology for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-7830 and at [email protected]