QAD Business Process

Cycle Counting - Corrective Action versus correcting transactions

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 12:31:00 GMT

It is very important that companies realize that the true purpose of a cycle count program is to identify the causes of invetnory inaccuracies and then put corrective actions in place. It is not to simply make correcting inventory transactions. I am sure that I have blogged on this topic before, but I think this difference gets lost in some organizations. If the effort isn't made to identify the cause of inaccuracies and put corrective actions in place to prevent future issues, then inventory accuracy will not truly improve. Therefore, though QAD provides the tools to identify items to count, adjusting transactions, and audit reports, much of the heavy lifting of a true cycle count program occur outside the system. Organizations must dedicate the necessary resource(s) to track down the cuase of inaccuracies and then implement corrective actions. Without doing these crucial steps, your cycle count program is reduced to a "count adjustment program", which does nothing to guarantee future inventory accuracy.
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When is a Configurator appropriate?

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 13:23:00 GMT

The QAD Configurator offers clients with rich functionality to configure product based on complex rules. However, before embarking on a configurator implementation, it is important to understand when this tool is valuable, as it doesn't fit in all instances. The following are some key areas to consider before assuming you are a configure to order environment.

1. Do new confiugurations require engineering intelligence (e.g. testing, updated drawings, etc.), before the configuration can be considered approved? If yes, then you are likely to be an engineered to order environment, and a rules-based configurator may not serve to shorten the cycle between customer configuration and shipping and cash. If that is the case, you may not extract full value from a configurator.
2. Are all purchased components required to support configurations defined and sourced? If not, then Purchasing or Sourcing will need to be involved in new configurations, and again, you may not shorten the cycle on delivery new product to Customers.
3. Are there extensive rules as to how configuration options interact? If there are no rules, then non-rules-based, and less complex, Configured Products may be a better solution.
4. How many possible configuration permutations are possible. If the number is not intensive, then defining them all ahead of time may save time and overhead in managing the configurator.

This is just a short list, but it is important to note that such an analysis is important before making this decision. Other areas to consider are (1) value of exposing the Conifgurator to salespersons, customers, etc. (2) ability to empower Customer Service to configure without Engineering involvement.
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QAD - 2000 vs. 2010

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:50:00 GMT

I recently completed an assessment project at a client where Logan Consulting lead a QAD 8.6 implementation back in 2000. A part of the project involved the implementation of a third-party supply chain management package due to the client's need to ensure finite capacity and material planning. This SCM package met the need of scheduling, but has been complex, costly, and caused problems with the lower level material planning, forcing the client to develop offline Access tools.

With the evolution of QAD's tools around planning and scheduling, including the latest (and greatest!) browses in .NET that allow for component checks across master schedule (WO's) and repetitive schedules, we are able to replace ten year old SCM technology and Access add-ons with an easy to implement browse. By upgrading to 2009SE, we can replace significant complexity and cost with a no cost standard browse that is seamlessly integrated with QAD applications since it is a QAD application.

The bottom line is that QAD functionality is not static. What may not have been available 10 years ago is nearly guaranteed to be available now. Therefore, if you are still running 8.6, 9.0 or eB2.1, and especailly if you have numerous bolt-on apps, it is worth your while to spend a week or two taking a second look at your business requirements and comparing them to what QAD can do out of the box in the 2009SE standard bundle. It is likely that you will be able to reduce the complexity of your applicatoin stack which meeting your current business requirements.
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Balancing the Global Supply Chain with QAD’s Enterprise Operations Planning

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:32:00 GMT

In today’s global economy, corporations must find ways to balance supply and demand not only across sites, but across the entire supply chain. QAD’s Enterprise Operations Planning has the functionality to do just this. QAD’s EOP uses actual Forecast, Sales, Production, and Inventory data to calculate a plan to support pre-defined target inventory levels and centralize the production planning and purchasing activities into a global Master Scheduling function.

The Enterprise Operations Plan module has the following utilities and functions:

• Demand import and consolidation from multiple sites and databases
(including external data sources)
• Integration with Resource Planning
• Planning at family and/or end-item levels
• Weeks of Coverage by effective date for Target Inventory Planning
• Source Matrix by effective date for supply and demand relationships between sites
• Allocation of production demands across sites and production lines by percentage
• Production demand transfer to other modules
• Simulation Planning
• KPI reporting

A typical process involves loading transactional data and calculating the Operations Plan. Master Schedulers can then use the Simulated Operations Plan to create an optimal plan and copy it to replace the system calculated plan. Once the Master Scheduler is satisfied with the Operations Plan it is exploded into Firm Planned Orders to drive the supply chain in the long-term timeframe. In the short term, these Firm Planned Orders are released into Advanced Repetitive Schedules, Discrete Work Orders, or Discrete Purchase Orders at the discretion of the Master Scheduler. At this point, the individual sites execute the supply chain activities driven by the centralized master scheduling of manufactured and purchased items.

QAD’s EOP closely resembles the classic APICS model of Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP), providing a means to integrate each element of the process into a single system. It is a perfect fit for high volume, make-to-stock environments looking for a link between long-term planning and short-term execution. Companies that truly use the S&OP process can benefit greatly by incorporating the EOP module within MFG/Pro into their strategic plan. In addition to optimizing target inventory and production levels throughout the supply chain, EOP can be used to project long-term labor, equipment, and cash needs and to develop long-term procurement plans for negotiating with material and logistics suppliers.

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Improve Inventory Accuracy and Accountability with Point of Use Concept

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:56:00 GMT

One of the most frustrating issues facing manufacturing companies is inventory inaccuracy. Inventory accuracy is a critical input to executing a successful supply planning process. A simple yet effect method for improving inventory accuracy is to implement the point of use (POU) inventory concept. POU creates a clear distinction in ownership between the storage warehouse and the production floor. Operations that do not have this separation in place often find it difficult to determine the root cause of inventory problems and instead of a solution, end up with finger pointing and reoccurrences of the problems. While this concept can be used with other manufacturing methods, the QAD Advanced Repetitive Manufacturing module makes utilizing POU a no-brainer.

Once POU is properly implemented and executed it will not be long before the effort starts to pay off. Below are just a few of the benefits that can be realized immediately:
• Clear definition between warehouse/storage inventory and shop floor inventory – no question about who owns what.
• Ability to implement a cycle counting program in the warehouse as none of the inventory is ever “in process.”
• Quickly find the root cause of inventory inaccuracies in the point of use location – hand-off process ensures there is no argument about what moved in and out of the POU location.

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Benefits of Design Standards – With An Eye Toward Growth Through Acquisition

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 13:04:00 GMT

We are working with a real estate services firm that has implemented an ERP backbone in Europe. They have done a thorough job of standardizing and documenting their processes and procedures, knowing that they will be acquiring and absorbing other similar companies in the future to foster growth. As we prepare to help them roll out a U.S. division onto the same ERP backbone and process model, the foresight in defining and implementing a standardized process model, which is actually in use, has drastically reduced the expected time required for subsequent rollouts.
Time savings in the U.S. will be in the upfront design, which is already complete based on a previously implemented model in Europe. Additionally, previously prepared procedure and end user training documentation will be heavily leveraged. Although seemingly a required step in any implementation, preparation of these design standards with an eye toward future rollouts will improve the quality of the design documentation and add future value through implementation cost reductions to future rollouts.

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Need to Develop a Strategic IT Plan

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:22:00 GMT

We recently worked with a company that has grown through acquisitions over the years and now has three distinct companies under one corporate umbrella. It runs each company on a separate QAD database. This company thinks it will continue to use its existing QAD ERP backbone for most core functions. However, one of its divisions is not using QAD financials and therefore struggling to get itself to a position where it can easily consolidate financials under one Chart of Accounts and system.
Management has been hesitant to make this migration because the company has not developed a Strategic IT Plan and has not confirmed a mid to long range systems footprint. Without this footprint and Strategic IT Plan, users and management are hesitant to make tactical decisions that could allow for more efficiencies in the near and long term. Unfortunately, many companies see the effort in developing a Strategic IT Plan as significant and onerous. However, the effort to gain management consensus and document the footprint can be accomplished in a matter of a few weeks for most small and medium sized companies and, as illustrated in the above example, is critical tactical day-to-day decision making.

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A proper SDLC (Software Development Lifecycle) is your friend

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:31:00 GMT

In today’s competitive and high pace work force there is much pressure to cut cost and increase productivity across all industries. We find ourselves struggling however with a constant feeling of stress and work overload. Because of this we tend to focus our aggression towards excuses of lack of resources and increased workload. Is it really though?
In the IT world we also feel a similar downward spiral of pressure to keep the business afloat with the latest technologies and real time data to perform at this pace. While often underappreciated it is none the less a much needed piece of your business.
With the constant need of system enhancements to provide the business with the information to succeed it is easy to get lost in a department of chaos. Much like sound business processes can aid you in efficiently cutting cost and managing best business practices, having strong IT processes will do the same for your IT department.
It really takes us back to the basics…..SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle). It is a methodology used to aid your department in software development and maintenance of your system over time.
It consists of the following:
• Planning
Conceptually what is it you want and what is the feasibility? What is the cost benefit of the enhancement or new functionality being requested?
• Design
Putting the plan in play by laying out the details such as how it affects your architecture and what other components are necessary.
• Implementation
Making the design a reality with development efforts and installation of component pieces
• Testing
Finalizing the work by fine tuning the enhancement to make sure it meets the initial request from your planning and designing efforts
• Acceptance
Installation of the enhancement to your production environment where it will hopefully bring the rest of your business more efficiency and cost savings
• Maintenance
Continuous improvement practices and processes setup to aid the end users in any difficulties with the accepted enhancement. A support team or contact method to resolve any issue that may occur.
A successful SDLC methodology that fits your companies IT needs, mixed with strict policing efforts, and executive management as well as company wide support; will only help aid you in the right direction to making better decisions and keep your systems running smoothly. In addition this process aids well in system enhancement tracking for SOX audits if implemented with the proper documentation at each step of the cycle. Spending a little extra time up front planning will limit a great deal of unnecessary enhancements to your system as well as costly development time.
Let’s face it….the need for real time information to make wise business decisions quickly isn’t going to go away. Therefore neither is the stress and pressure of providing system enhanced methods to get it to the right people. Your department’s effectiveness and efficiency will show in the effectiveness and efficiency of your system. Process and organization is the way to make it happen.

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Production and Master Production Scheduling Workbenches

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:20:00 GMT

During the CAUG and QAD Teamwork meetings this past week, I came away quite excited about the new Master Scheduling and Production Scheduling workbenches that will be released later this year for both SE and EE running the .NET interface. These workbenches will offer intuitive, visual drag and drop features that I believe planners will find very impressive. Additionally, the workbench will incorporate component availability checks, ensuring that the schedule is achievable from both a material and capacity standpoint. Any QAD user that is currently scheduling using offline tools (Excel, Access, etc.), should assess these workbenches as soon as they become available as they should have a positive impact in any planning environment.
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EDI is an ever changing means of B2B communication.

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:27:00 GMT

EDI is an ever changing means of B2B communication. Staying on top of it can often be a challenging task in itself let alone implementing it from scratch. Customers and Suppliers are constantly changing their specifications as their business practices or needs change. With a history of maintaining EDI solutions in the Automotive Industry I can contest to the demand of the time sensitivity to these changes as well.

QAD’s EDI Ecommerce Module has proven to be an exceptional tool to aid in the effective and efficient transmission of EDI documents when implemented properly. In addition to the tools you use a solid error resolution process and document tracking methodology should be leveraged. Transmitting EDI is easy…resolving EDI transaction issues in a timely manner is whole other story. In industries where the timeliness and accuracy of the documents being sent hold such implications as expensive fines, low ratings, or even the possible loss of business partner or customer; a best practice or methodology towards resolutions is important.

There is a large number of “points of error” in an EDI system. You have the VAN, document routing and possible front end translation from a standard format to a neutral format and the application itself which requires a mapping tool or load routine of some sort to get the data into your system. In most cases these pieces all reside on separate servers linked through a web of directory structures using ftp or mounts of some type.

This can all get a bit cumbersome which is why I feel it is important to have a very well laid out flow of your system and it’s breaking points because guess what…..it will break! Knowing where, when, why, and how it broke will only help you in resolving it quicker. There has never been a solid solution around document tracking from the VAN to the application and back. QAD’s Document Tracking within the Ecommerce module does a good job of tracking acknowledgments and might be a good idea to supplement your EDI process. What makes it difficult is that there are a number of different software solutions you could use for each independent piece therefore making it hard to implement the same solution for all businesses?

What I have seen work though is taking the time to layout our entire system in detail. Build a collection of accurate documentation of your system. Define your processes and identify your points of error and possible cause and effects as well as solutions to these. Put together a flow diagram of the whole system as well as subcomponents in more detail. In addition put in the time to build error handling into your automation through each step of the way. Whether it is just email notifications or some custom reporting providing you the exceptions of what failed each day. Not only will this aid you in monitoring your EDI on a daily basis it will aid those in the future you may introduces to you system. Information is key! Knowing where to look is half the battle in resolving most system issue. Why should EDI be any different?

So I think it is safe to say EDI can be a tedious and time consuming task for any company but simplifying your layout, developing a process, and building a means to quicker error resolution will make your EDI department more efficient and effective not to mention improve your ratings.

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