IQMS Blog for Manufacturing ERP Expertise

Every day, we spend a lot of time looking around for things in our lives and if you think about it, we waste a lot of time doing this activity. Yes, some of us have routines that we stick to (trust me, I am guilty of that), but there are times the routine just does not work. For example, we try to always put food in a certain place in the cabinets and make sure that our keys are on the hook, etc. But as humans, we have our moments where we fail in this due to something else taking its place or we just get rushed. Unfortunately, many of us are all too familiar with that moment of panic when we realize the keys are not where they belong and so we must play everyone’s favorite game: Hide and Seek. Now take a moment and think about the manufacturers out there who are doing this on a massive scale in their warehouses.  

The Master Scheduler. Production Planner. Lord of the Shop Floor Calendar. By whatever title you call your employees in charge of the production schedule, this position is critical to the success of your plant. Your manufacturing business lives and dies by the effectiveness of your master production schedule, making the role of scheduler an unenviable position. It requires a deft hand and comprehensive knowledge about every work center, job type and operator on the floor, leading some to consider the process of advanced planning and scheduling as more of an art than a science.

From straightforward pallet wrapper applications to complex and robust distribution systems, automation has a foothold in the competitive, modern manufacturing environment. Through applications that integrate seamlessly into your enterprise software solution, manufacturers are soliciting and creating custom programs that make production faster, easier and more accurate.

When consulting with prospective manufacturers, a conversation about their preferred deployment method always arises. There are three common delivery choices available on the market today (on premise, hosted or a hybrid of the two), yet some of our prospects mistakenly answer: Software as a Service (SaaS). Since the question isn't how the customer prefers to license his software, but rather where he wants to store his data, I know that we need to have an in-depth conversation about what SaaS is, and what it is not. Because a hosted solution in the Cloud is not SaaS, even though they are commonly lumped together.

Tonight, manufacturing leaders from around the nation will gather for the 2014 Manufacturing Leadership Summit Awards Gala at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida to recognize and celebrate the brightest, most innovative manufacturers in the nation. IQMS will be in attendance to support four of our customers who are being recognized with Manufacturing Leadership Awards in categories that range from Engineering & Production Technology to Operational Leadership to Sustainability. These awards are bestowed by the Manufacturing Leadership Council, a unit of Frost & Sullivan.