Vertical ERP: IQMS enhances support for process manufacturing
By Manufacturing Business Technology Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 4/30/2008 12:45:00 PM
IQMS, a suppliers of ERP software, has announced enhanced support for the process manufacturing industry with the release of its Master Batch solution. This package is being added to the IQMS EnterpriseIQ ERP suite.
"The manufacture of chemical master batches is considerably complex," explains Randy Flamm, president and founder of IQMS. "With EnterpriseIQ, we provide complete functionality for various formula calculations as well as grading and re-classification of products. This level of control for process manufacturing is not always available in ERP systems and is seldom available in systems that have the capability to handle other types of non-process manufacturing types such as assembly and fabrication. To remain competitive and successful, master batch manufacturers must optimize their complex operations while still maintaining precise accountability and superior quality. EnterpriseIQ is proven best suited to help all types of master batch manufacturers do just that by providing advanced and feature-rich solutions designed specifically for process manufacturing."
Flamm says the Master Batch solution is best suited for companies such as compounding or formula based manufacturers that are focused on heavy mixing and blending operations, and require the ability to handle multiple operations in a single routing. Master Batch is one of over a dozen manufacturing types supported by EnterpriseIQ, a single-source enterprise software solution designed to provide lean and agile functionality especially for manufacturers.
To best support process manufacturing, Flamm says, ERP systems should give manufacturers the flexibility to enter a bills of material (BOM) based on formulas where the components total 100 percent, or where the components can be added based on volume or weight quantities. EnterpriseIQ now supports both methods with the addition of the Master Batch manufacturing type. Other highlights of the Master Batch manufacturing type include:
• Comprehensive BOM functionality that provides co-product/byproduct capability, flexible packaging alternatives, flexible batch sizes, yield/scrap calculation;
• Alternative and substitute formulas, BOMs, and routings;
• Unlimited user defined unit of measures and conversion factors;
• Advanced costing decision support such as 'What-if' costing, plus productivity, utilization, and yield analysis;
• Comprehensive inventory management with tracking of different grades, revisions, and shelf lives;
• Support for private label manufacturing; and
• Repack functionality
