First Look Friday: MISys EXT

by

It's First Look Friday and it's time to take a 'first look' at something that is just off the workbench. I recently attended a demonstration of this new functionality for a software solution that's been around for what seems like "as long as me."

MISys EXT is a new ‘optional module’ that is part of the newest maintenance release to MISys Manufacturing. It provides mobile capabilities to MISys Users by allowing them to perform real-time transactions for most MISys functions on any PC, tablet, smartphone or web-enabled device. The graphic below summarizes MISys Ext functionality.

One of the things I found most impressive in a recent demonstration of MISys EXT was just how simple the interface was, even on an iPhone. Any MISys User who is really familiar with the overall design and feature set of MISys Manufacturing should be able to easily adapt to MISys EXT once they take a little time to identify how the ‘mobile’ interface is designed for simplicity.

To give you a few examples of this simplicity, let’s begin with a simple but necessary task that every MISys Manufacturing facility performs on an almost daily basis… ‘Receiving.’

The first thing that a MISys EXT User is going to do is log-in to the APP with the MISys Manufacturing credentials, because the APP uses the standard User profiles and passwords for authorization. This also means that the various levels of access remains the same in MISys EXT as in MISys Manufacturing, as far as each User is concerned.

MISys EXT makes use of ‘Favorites’ to provide ease of access to the most common, or the intended functions for specific users. For example, if you were using a MISys EXT mobile workstation as a production worksite in which the User was the work location, then you would have assigned only the related tasks for that location. Favorites would list only those related tasks. By the way, you can also see in the example below that a ‘Label Printing’ feature is also available.

On the other hand, you might have a specific User who only performs receiving tasks, so when they log-in to MISys EXT, their favorites might provide them with access only to the receiving and related stock tasks. So, in this example, the User selects an existing Purchase Order against which they are going to receive.

MISys EXT allows you to easily record all of the details of receiving for any Purchase Order or even for materials received not on a Purchase Order; in case you are making one of those 'last minute' or 'special needs' purchases.

And yes, if you are using the Serial and/or Lot tracking features of MISys you can capture that data along with expiration dates as well.

Of course, you can assign barcodes for any item and/or print your barcodes right from your mobile device when it has been linked to a Zebra Link-OS printer. 

You can use your mobile device with either software that turns your device's camera feature into a barcode reader, or you can use an optional Bluetooth barcode reader that will link-up to your mobile.

But MISys EXT goes beyond simple tasks like receiving, it can also handle any aspect of the production cycle. 

For example, in a MISys Production Order (as shown above) there is an option for ‘Shop Floor Control’ using a Routing feature. Routing allows factory managers and shop floor personnel to be aware of the progress of each manufacturing order as it progresses through the entire process, it also allows for the capture of details regarding costs, time and productivity. Until now, most of the capture of this data has been based upon the use of printed routing documents called travelers, in which workers recorded their information as the project progressed. But now, MISys EXT can act as either mobile or kiosk workstations to process routing tasks - like the ‘start’ of any operation.

Shop floor personnel can record the details of the ‘build,’ including quantity completed, time to complete, and are able to even use a ‘timer’ to record the time while performing the work, all in 'real time.' This means that every detail of production will be up-to-date as it occurs. More accurate data is recorded because timers compute the actual time for each work event, not just posted time as 'best remembered' when a worker gets around to posting their times upon completion.

And if all of this wasn’t enough, the new MISys EXT functionality also provides a full range of other MISys ‘Stock Control’ features. Dispense, return, scrap, allocate, reserve, and transfer stock at will with your mobile device when using MISys EXT.

Not to mention, the number one reason to have stock control capabilities in a mobile device... Physical Inventory. With MISys EXT you can not only work a predefined ‘Inventory Batch’ previously set-up, but you can even set-up your own batch on the fly to perform any site count you want.

The reality is, with limited exception, you can pretty well do the vast majority of major day-to-day tasks you would perform in MISys using MISys EXT. This means that you can take your laptop, your tablet, your smart phone, or any other handheld device that supports an HTML5-compatible web-browser anywhere in your local network and do your MISys work using MISys EXT.

For those of you who are already MISys Users and may be interested in knowing what else you need in the way of the ‘techy’ stuff, the Tech Requirements are shown below.

As far as the ‘module’ cost, well Insightful Accountant doesn't talk actual price, but I can say that at present MISys is selling this for the same cost as their existing ‘barcoding’ module. “What a deal , you get about a gazillion times more functionality for the same cost as barcoding.”

For a person who has worked with MISys a lot during my ProAdvisor career, I will say that this is a "big, big deal." As far as I am concerned, I only wish it had been available back when I was actively working with MISys clients.

I have barely scratched the surface of the topics I have covered, and obviously, this is just a ‘first look’ at the feature set that is available with MISys EXT. So, if you are interested in more information about either MISys Manufacturing or their new mobile option, MISys EXT , then make certain to visit the respective webpages. Otherwise have a good rest of your fabulous Friday, and a great weekend.

Editor's Note:

Thanks to Charlie Kimbell, Director of Sales & Marketing at MISys Manufacturing, and especially Darryl Bernstein, a Product Specialist at MISys Manufacturing, for providing not on the demonstration upon which this feature is based but also in providing much of the material used as content within this feature.