Infor VISUAL 10 was released in December 2020, and quite a few features were added. There are many resources that go into great detail about the new functionality, including release notes, but here are the highlights we think are most important to know. If you want more details, go to the Visual South VISUAL upgrade page here.
I like to take big, complicated topics and break them down to their simplest form. This gives me the clarity to evaluate new ideas, propose changes, identify problems, and such. For example, this is how I explain what Visual South does: “We work with SMB manufacturers to help them become the best company they can be. The tools we use to do that are ERP, consulting, and change management (usually involving processes and procedures).”
A modern ERP system is an amazing thing to behold. A materials manager can look at a screen and know what to buy, and when. This can be achieved with confidence, without a spreadsheet and without a meeting. Someone in order entry can check on a realistic promise date for a product that hasn’t begun to be built yet. Again, there’s no spreadsheet and no meeting needed to accomplish this.
For manufacturing companies, it’s critical to understand your production costs. If you know your costs, you’ll have better control over your profitability and make better business decisions. I’ve had conversations where companies thought certain customer orders were critical to their business, but after understanding their costs better, they decided to turn those orders away because they were NOT profitable.
To help you determine what your cost of production actually is (versus what you think it is), here are the four primary factors to consider:
There is an old saying in purchasing: You get yelled at for having too much inventory; you get fired for not having what you need. I think this perfectly describes the situation the purchasing department finds themselves in when they don’t have good data on what to buy. They do what any of us do when we must make a decision without having enough information – we guess. It may be an educated guess, but it is a guess nonetheless.
The answer to the question of “Do your need ERP software development services?” is typically “no,” but that’s based on having a capable and purpose-built ERP application, such as Infor CloudSuite Industrial ERP. There is a caveat: Sometimes you may need to extend the application using the native toolset to address business-specific requirements.
Shop floor operators need to know what to make and when to make it. That sounds simple enough, and it can be with the proper tools. The process really starts upstream with a finely tuned ERP application that is using MRP, Forecasting, and Advanced Planning and Scheduling to properly plan what work orders are needed to meet demand.
I have been in the ERP industry for close to 25 years, both as an implementation consultant and a salesperson. For my customers who have been using ERP for decades, as well as those looking for their first ERP, one of the most common discussion points is customization versus configuration. Let’s take a look at each approach, and I will tell you why we recommend one over the other.
Electronic payment systems are just what they sound like: a way to send or receive funds online. Depending on your business, you can execute financial transactions electronically through a variety of ways:
Manufacturing a quality product is at the top of the list for every manufacturer in order to obtain and keep customers. There are quality control measures that a lot of manufacturers use to control their quality, and a few of them are listed below:
