Manufacturing Extensions

Oftentimes, ERP functionality doesn't fully close a manufacturer's process loops. We provide our clients with custom software extensions to give them the functionality they need. Not only do our clients get fully custom solutions, they avoid buying costly off-the-shelf software. 

We've developed software extensions in over 30 sites across the globe. We have never touched a single line of ERP code and our work has never impacted a client's ERP upgrade path or maintainability.

Read about some of our custom software work. 

• Engineering and Production
• MRP, Planning and Supply Chain
• Order Processing
• Warehousing and Inventory Handling
• Manufacturing and Shop Floor
• Quality Assurance and Quality Control
• Military and Defense
• Finance and Budgeting

Engineering and Production

We help manufacturers integrate, automate and simplify engineering-to-production processes. Examples include: 

• Single-session engineering-to-production interface. With this extension, items can be moved from engineering PLM databases to ERP production systems with ease. With automated data validation and elimination of manual copy, data integrity is preserved. Also, engineering labor can be freed up for more productive purposes.

MRP, Planning and Supply Chain

The Planning Dashboard

The MRP Planning Dashboard provides a company's supply chain and manufacturing personnel with visual snapshots of planned and actual material movements and work center loads. This dashboard enhances an ERP system's capability to analyze material movements and shop loads. 

Color-coding provides immediate, visual alerts of quantity and timing issues. Using drill-down functionality, the user can gain immediate insights into underlying item, order and production details (including BOMs and routings). Advanced filter fields allow the user to narrow inquiries and extract data of particular roles, items and movements.

Learn more or download the planning dashboard.

Supplier RFQs and Shop Scheduling

We help manufacturers close the supply-and-demand loop by interfacing planning and purchasing processes.

• Integration of planning and purchase inquiries. With this extension, supplier RFQs (purchase inquiries) are automatically generated from planned purchase orders. Automated tasks include routines that aggregate multiple items onto the same RFQ and simplifying preferred vendor selection.
• Automatic generation of rework routers. This routine simplifies the generation of rework production orders. Users can copy a pre-defined set of routing operations instead of inserting operations one-at-a-time. This routine speeds up the order process and minimizes the risk of copy errors.
• User-friendly dashboards, reporting and analysis. Additonal analytical functionality gives users the opportunity to run multiple "what if" scenarios. Users can also generate reports to display future shortages and consumption, current stock levels together with replenishment lists.  Users can generate reports for shop floor activity, expected completion dates, including: blocked and split production orders, and "days ahead and behind” metrics,

Order Proecssing

It is very costly to discover data entry errors late in the processing cycle. Our order validation enhancements prevent erroneous sales and purchase orders from being entered and processed.

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Warehousing and Inventory Handling

Our warehouse software extensions augment ERP inventory handling functionality. They also make audit procedures more efficient and reliable.

• Enhanced inventory control. This module automates procedures relating to cycle counting and project-custom item adjustments. Project-to-project transfers simplify WIP movements between and within projects (PCS) in both location- and non-location-controlled environments.  Users can perform historical tracking and inquiries across project inventories. Of equal importance, this module is fully interfaced with finance. Automating data transfer creates efficiencies and eliminates many of the risks associated with manual data extraction.
• Physical counting. This enhancement satisfies audit requirements to prepare, print, enter, and validate counts from physical inventory tags.

Manufacturing and Shop Floor

Our manufacturing software extensions help companies automate and streamline labor allocation. Automation also reduces the non-productive costs associated with administrative record-keeping.

• Shop recording. This application enhances the standard production data entry and reporting of hours and materials. It's functionality includes bar-coded sub-contract receipt transactions, hours-independent “WIP Movements” and non-production-related time-sheet entry.
• Costing: The costing functionality enables overhead and other non-productive costs to be allocated on a percentage basis.

Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC)

Our QA/QC modules extend the functionality of many ERP systems at a significantly lower cost than off-the-self alternatives.

• Quality clause structures. This functionality links quality clauses to project budgets, actual projects, items, item groups and suppliers to enable the printing of quality statements on purchase pnquiries, RFQ's, standard and sub-contracting purchase orders.
• Routing approvals. This functionality automates and streamlines QA/QC control over the creation, approval, and copy of both standard and project-custom routings.
• Approved suppliers. This functionality provides approves supplier list (ASL) features and processes. It also offers functionality to monitor purchase order compliance.
• Approval process enhancements. This QC extension enables the monitoring of shelf-life-sensitive items, miscellaneous supplier information, serial number tracking, among other things.

Military-extensions

Our military and Aerospace & Defence (A&D) extensions allow companies to automate and streamline contract processing without having to acquire costly off-the-shelf software.  

• CLIN-based contract handling. This module extends the handling of military and A&D forms, including contract headers and lines. It also extends WBS structure definition, control and reporting to projects (PCS), sales, purchasing and planning.
• DD250 Printing. This module enables DD250 forms printing with a Mil-Pac interface.
• Progress-billing. This module enhances standard invoicing routines by enabling progress-bill scenarios.