Key Features

Identifying every entity that can exist in inventory.

The core of the system. It identifies entities from raw materials and assemblies to finished goods, spare parts, consumables, and tooling. This includes items that never physically exist, such as phantom assemblies and kits, services. These as well as other non-inventory items such as freight charges, can be assigned part numbers to aid processing.

Minimising inventory levels and improving flow.

List of the constituent parts of the products with their quantities or proportions. This enables the system to analyse and manage the relationship between customer demand and the supply of materials and product. The comprehensive logging system maintains a full audit trail of changes, including updates to engineering revision status.

Sequence of operations to create the assembly or product.

Defines the sequence of operations carried out on a part to create the assembly or product, including alternate operations and routings. Each operation is carried out at a work centre that can represent a repetitive activity, machine, or other production resource. Operations on work centres can be carried out in-house or under sub-contract purchase orders.

Accumulated material, labour, outwork, and overhead components.

Detailed information on the cost of inputs and their consumption through bills of materials. Includes the cost of production through work centre rates and process route times. Comprehensive product costing is also available as well as product yield and by-product recovery.

Cost logging can be automatically maintained, with graphical display for easy identification of trends.

Performance measurement and reporting

• Automatic generation of non-conformance reports, quarantine control, quality data recording, and both supplier and dispatch performance analysis.
• Component and assembly serial number assignment and tracking facilities follow from goods inwards through manufacturing and invoicing to end-user.
• Full multi-level batch traceability combined with shelf-life control is provided, ensuring confidence in the quality of supplied product.
• KPI’s can be collected and displayed graphically, while workflow messaging provides early warning of problems.
• Certificates of conformance can be generated directly from batch quality data results including customer details.

Engineering data can be maintained and associated with parts.

Provides drawing, document, or tooling control. Also used for attaching additional text and graphics to part information when documents are printed.

A wide range of external document types can be linked to all internal master records, and most transactional records. Users can link, access, and print additional data such as Computer Aided Design (CAD) drawings, quality plans, customer letters, pictures, or web pages.

Integrated contact management facilities.

Includes multiple addresses and contacts per business, event tracking, reporting, and scheduling. Mail merge capabilities allow for letters and emails to be sent individually or in a bulk.

Customer and supplier records can be generated automatically from contact management records, complete with bi-directional links. Sales and purchase information can be used directly to target CRM and SRM campaigns.

Unique part numbers, descriptions, price breaks, and currencies.

General sales and purchase parts information. Optional parts definitions include optional cross-reference data (where individual ordering details are required for specific customers or suppliers).

Customer part definitions can also include related contract information. Time phased promotional pricing regimes are also supported.

Features to aid administration and access to sales information.

Rapid, accurate pricing and available-to-sell information from enquiry through to invoicing. Instant conversion of quotes into orders, and easy order duplication. Sales product configuration embeds product knowledge into the sales process, automating the crucial sales-to-engineering interface. Along with options such as automatic sales commission assignment and processing, these features bring a truly lean sales front-end within reach.

Simple processing and instant access to information.

Projected supply and demand information and alternative supply options and purchase history, all make routine administration fast and reliable. Purchase orders can be created back-to-back with sales order demand, or in batch mode from MRP results. Multiple-supplier requests for quotation can be generated, and then converted to purchase orders.

Sub-contract assembly and operation processing are both accommodated, with outwork kitting and shortage control, and multiple delivery and supplier addressing. Goods can be automatically allocated to demand items on receipt to support lean picking environments.; Additionally, quality data recording, quarantine, goods return and non-conformance features aid total quality management.

Conversion management of materials into goods for resale.

Directs the flow of materials, components, and assemblies. Provides manufacturing and capacity information as well as enabling the recording of shopfloor progress and times.

Material supply for production is managed through allocation and kitting processes, with comprehensive variance, shortage, yield, and by-product controls. Alternatively, materials can be backflushed on product receipt, for greater flexibility and leaner processing.

Work orders can be created back-to-back with sales order demand, or in batch mode from material requirement planning results. Process times can be recorded manually, or assigned from times logged through a comprehensive barcode work tracking interface.

Provides control for manufacturing and service activities.

Simplifies administration by using a single job document to effectively replace a sales order, top-level item definition, bill of materials, process route and work order. Works effectively for ad-hoc sales of undefined manufactured items, service work, or whole projects. Job line items can be for parts, ad-hoc items, or operations, and can hold individual cost, price, margin and estimating notes for each line.

Comprehensive inventory and work-in-process valuation.

Demand planning features and material requirements for the automated management of inventory movements for order processing.

Stock control interface, stock location and batch maintenance features to maintain optimum inventory levels. Includes management of ad-hoc stock movements, such as general issues and returns and adjustments.

Backed by inventory movement audit facilities, costed movement reports, stock change analysis, automated perpetual inventory selection, and off-line results entry with financial variance reporting.

Auto-generated and maintained on product / product family basis.

Provides the option of importing from customer schedules or proprietary forecasting tools. Sales history data can be exported for use by these same tools. Production plans are optionally updated on product shipment to further automate maintenance, while sales desk available-to-sell analysis can include planned product family availability, in addition to ordered supply.

Integrated, three-ledger, multi-currency accounting (optional).

Powerful management tools available, including an integrated asset register, subsidiary accounts consolidation, bank cashflow analysis, exchange trading forecasts and comprehensive audit trail facilities.

Features extensive review and reporting facilities and multi-level drill-down through to all account related data. In addition, credit control memos manage payment approval, and store notes and links to external correspondence. Complex sales tax regimes are also accommodated.

The accounts receivable ledger provides full integration with sales invoicing and purchase history.  Both ledgers feature flexible payment allocation and automated exchange trading adjustments.

Includes simple bank account reconciliation and BACS export. A wide range of standard and reports and standard financial statements can be supplemented by custom reports and spreadsheet exports.