Product Feature Fridays - INDUSTRIOS Manufacturing (Part 2)

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In Part 1 of this mini-series on INDUSTRIOS we explored some of the features that sets this software apart from other manufacturing software that integrates with QuickBooks. Among those features were their Customer Relations Manager (CRM) and Sales Functionalities. Many manufacturing systems only take control at the point a manufacturing order is set for production, while customer and sales information is handled inside QuickBooks. But INDUSTRIOS allows manufacturers to skip these preliminaries within QuickBooks and fully supports not only your customers, but your leads within the product.

We also looked at the Inventory, Purchasing and Material Resource Planning (MRP) features of INDUSTRIOS along with functionalities like barcodes, multiple-location, bin/row/shelf, and serial and lot-tracking.

Manufacturing/Production

In today's segment we want to look at the actual Manufacturing aspects of INDUSTRIOS starting with Items. When it comes right down to it, the reason that most QuickBooks users explore the possibility of incorporating an add-on 'manufacturing software package' with QuickBooks (or a larger manufacturing ERP system in lieu of QuickBooks) is because of their actual manufacturing/production requirements.

Most manufacturing businesses require flexibility in the initiation of production orders and scheduling of the various stages of the manufacturing process. INDUSTRIOS handles every aspect of discrete manufacturing effortlessly allowing users to configure production operations to fit the unique environment of any manufacturer and meet their requirements in the most efficient manner.

INDUSTRIOS guides users through every step of the process, from Jobs (production orders) used to schedule and initiate the manufacturing process, generated automatically from sales transactions, to incorporation of the production steps and routing in the Process Plan, as well as instructions specific for each order, as needed.

INDUSTRIOS Manufacturing provides complete control of every aspect of the production process by defining assembly bills-of-materials and routings for work center maximization. Users will easily track the flow of any Job through the product life-cycle in both status snap-shots as well as drill-down into the details including materials used, labor and work center hours, and project completion percentage.

Of course, every manufacturing situation begins and ends with items of some type, because manufacturing is about turning raw materials into finished products. Long before the first order is ever sold, a manufacturing business has configured the fundamentals of their production. They have selected the correct materials, designed the proper stages of production, acquired the necessary tools, determined the appropriate personnel by skills and capabilities, and identified the appropriate quality controls to turn the raw components into their salable finished good(s). In essence it all begins with items of some type.

Items

INDUSTRIOS offers virtually unlimited item configuration from raw materials and components to consumables, finished goods, accessories, and other support type items including freight, outside labor and many others. Users will easily identify and describe their items with multiple description fields, then classify each item for reporting purposes, and determine the best valuation method appropriate to that item. Users can also define planning characteristics.

In a multi-location manufacturing environment, users will select all the appropriate locations for the item so that they can easily view their quantities and cost information by location where perpetual inventory is maintained and tracked. Users will also specify the status, general ledger integration, and stocking constraints for their items in each of their respective locations. These specifications help to drive the material resource planning feature we discussed in Part 1 of this mini-series.

The information associated with each product supplier is captured for every item and includes: where inventory is managed, who is the main vendor contact, the lead time that must be considered in item acquisition and each vendor’s part reference. While it is typical to have suppliers for each item, and perhaps multiple vendors, the real world demands the ability to have unique vendors by stocking location. INDUSTRIOS meets that requirement where many other manufacturing solutions fail. This means that different pricing and lead times can be considered based upon the specific location where the item is needed.

In many production situations a manufacturer purchases items from suppliers that are manufactured by one or more vendors. In other words, an outside supplier is really an assembler of some component used in the manufacturer’s finished product, even though the manufacturer supplies all the materials to that single assembler. This issue is compounded when some of the manufacturer’s supplied materials are sub-components of sub-assemblies from other vendors. All of this leaves the manufacturer needing a way to track all the raw materials they provide to each vendor whether those items are from their own stock or drop shipped from some source vendor.

Users need to ensure that all items are used in the appropriate sub-assemblies and back-flushed from their own stock when they receive the sub-assemblies from the supplier. INDUSTRIOS has the capability to do this while several other systems we reviewed could only accomplish it via a series of inventory adjustments. With INDUSTRIOS it is all a matter of how each component is configured during set-up.

As I mentioned, users also need the ability to drop-ship raw materials to vendors. INDUSTRIOS has streamlined this process which can be found only in a limited number of other software options.

Users will easily know where every item in their inventory is used in terms of their finished products simply from the ‘where used tab’ of any item. No matter what the finished product, this tab will define the specific process where and work location where the part will be utilized.

Production

INDUSTRIOS uses the term 'jobs' in reference to production orders which can be generated directly from sales orders or configured to meet the special requirements of either the product or product conditions.

Unlike QuickBooks 'manufacturing' editions that simply allows users to define a 'bill of materials', INDUSTRIOS makes use of 'Process Plans' that encompass every aspect of each finished product including the materials, the routing and flow of materials, manpower requirements, equipment and even other resources needed to get the product right the first time.

The INDUSTRIOS Process Plan feature gives users not only the ability to handle complex manufacturing functionality, but also disassembly situations and management of by-products. Process Plans also track many other needs for complex manufacturing, ranging from production and fabrication to batch-based processes.

These Process Plans allow users to define the specific sequence of production during the manufacturing process. For example, a specific sequence might occur in tandem or "parallel" with another sequence, or it might have override authority over another stage of production. Users can even configure queue or lag requirements when specific staging requirements must be followed in the timeline.

INDUSTRIOS even provides a unique 'Parameters and Routing Wizard' that allows users to configure tools, equipment and other resources users need at each aspect of production. Best of all, by incorporating all of the factors associated with Process Plans users will be assured that they have the cumulative costs for each finished product they manufacture.

Scheduling is one of the most demanding requirements of any manufacturing environment. If users get the schedule right, then everyone is happy. The customer receives their product on time, and that delights the sales staff because they don’t have to deal with unhappy customers. The shop floor is happy to be working at a steady pace where everything flows together perfectly. The parts department is happy because there are no last-minute orders. Even management is happy because the revenues are an acceptable margin over actual costs.

The INDUSTRIOS automatic but adjustable, production scheduling feature allows users to create realistic schedules based upon all the known production requirements. Lead time, set-up time, production time by phase, transition time between phases, and yes ‘wait time’ when appropriate. Users can easily build-in time reserves or make a scheduling adjustment for re-work or a repeat QC inspection. With the real-time features INDUSTRIOS offers your actual operations flow back into the production schedule to make users aware of situations where they  are behind or ahead of schedule as well as provide users with the opportunity to make fully educated decisions about scheduling adjustments that may be required.

But manufacturing doesn't just stop with a process plan, and the scheduling of orders, it takes real-time monitoring to assure the production elements work according to plan and the manufacturing orders remain on schedule. That's where INDUSTRIOS Shop-floor Control comes into play. This feature provides manufacturers with the ability to track and adjust the production process as it takes place. All essential shop-floor information is brought together and displayed so users can know what is happening in real-time.

Shop floor control incorporates labor tracking to capture manpower, equipment, workstation and production phases on a moment-by-moment basis. INDUSTRIOS gives users the ability to easily drill down into each of these details of what’s happening during every phase of production. And, as I mentioned earlier, these real-time events also flow back into the manufacturing schedule to give users variance notification as well as allow them to make adjustments in production as appropriate.

If you would like more specifics about how the INDUSTRIOS Process Plan is executed on a step-by-step basis, along with more details on Items and Jobs, then be sure to check-out our feature 'Comparing Assemblies Across Software - Part 9'. It's a great way to actually compare INDUSTRIOS features alongside QuickBooks items and assembly functions.

Of course, if INDUSTRIOS sounds like the type of manufacturing software you have been looking to help you take that next step in your production environment then be sure to check out the INDUSTRIOS website.  In the meantime, stay tuned-in for Part 3 of this mini-series as we look at some additional unique aspects of INDUSTRIOS.