3M’s Decatur Film Plant is a world class manufacturing facility and the hub for 3M’s worldwide film and specialty materials manufacturing.  3M has long been synonymous with innovation.

When Chris Thomas, Quality Systems Manager at 3M’s Decatur Film Plant started looking for a flexible project management solution that could serve as a repository for these innovative ideas and solutions, as well as a place for scientists and project workers to collaborate, he looked far and wide and could not find exactly what he needed. Thomas considered Laboratory Information Management Systems as well as pure project management tools.  The alternatives all lacked several key components which would be critical as 3M looked to open a new laboratory at the plant which would usher in many new projects.

Thomas was introduced to Labcore in 2006 at Pittcon and immediately saw the potential which Labcore offered. It’s flexible workflow combined with strong content management capabilities seemed a natural fit. 3M selected Labcore to allow them to create and track virtually any project structure and all project information in a searchable database. This allowed 3M to collaborate and share information across the organization and increase productivity on projects without adding a painful and time/cost consuming change-management project.

"The Labcore InSight project management tool was an instant hit with users. The result is that our project leads and workers feel this system is for them not just for management to keep tabs on them! It has enabled greater productivity on projects and sharing of information across the organization." Christopher L. Thomas, Quality Systems Manager, 3M Film Manufacturing and Supply Chain Operations, Decatur Film Plant

Quality is the most important priority at 3M. Project information for Six Sigma, laboratory or other special projects, developed around quality programs, is priceless. Labcore’s InSight project management system enabled 3M to leverage this priceless information across the organization so that employees worldwide can learn from it now and well into the future.

The result is that the Labcore InSight system is the primary project management tool for over 500 users across 5 different 3M plants including Decatur, Alabama. The application contains over 1700 projects and thousands of images, reports and documents. 3M continues to provide valuable input and feedback that has enabled the Labcore team to extend and improve InSight.