IQMS Blog for Manufacturing ERP Expertise

2014 has flown by! I can hardly believe that it is the middle of April. The major league baseball season is underway, Easter egg hunts were enjoyed by many last weekend and the weather has been calling it in at a consistent 75 degrees. With the first four months of this year passing by so quickly, I know it will be November before I can blink an eye. Looking ahead, what does the rest of 2014 appear like for the greater manufacturing industry, the IQMS company as a whole and my manufacturing department? Let's begin with the global picture and work our way down to a more micro level:

Loosely defined, the Internet of Things (IoT, for short) is the concept of connecting everything imaginable to a network so that information can be quickly and easily shared through network connections with everything else. Today, there are more devices connected to the Internet than there are people in the world, resulting in a vast collection of data that can be analyzed, communicated and acted upon.

Several years ago, I said that automation and specialized systems were a requirement for companies seeking product differentiation and profitability. Today, that statement has grown and automated systems for manufacturing companies have become the required daily vitamin for both simple and complex companies to survive. 

Welcome to 2014, the future is now. There are so many amazing new technologies that are coming out, as well as companies that are pushing infrastructure to support them, that we should be seeing some incredible products hitting the market in the coming year.

IQMS has taken on several new exciting projects this year. As we kick off 2014, I'd like to preview the upcoming web shopping cart product IQMS is calling WebDirect B2C. This new product release will join our WebDirect line of offerings that includes our employee, customer and vendor portals. Many of our customers have seen or are already using the WebDirect B2B portal.

Let’s start by outlining that B2B stands for business-to-business and B2C stands for business-to-consumer. The name is somewhat descriptive of the difference between the two products, however there are some distinct differences in functionality. The B2B product is typically used for relationships where purchases by your customer can be made on account, on PO and/or for blanket purchases over multiple scheduled releases. In this case, you’ve already entered the user credentials and opened up access to the business user to enter the B2B portal prior to the user purchasing anything from the site and considerations such as customer-specific price breaks can be taken into account.

I was fortunate enough to attend the recent Oracle OpenWorld event.  The conference was held in downtown San Francisco at the Moscone center and if reported numbers are accurate, approximately 60,000 guests converged for four days of presentations, technology sessions and information booths all related in some way to Oracle.  Being able to hear firsthand what industry leaders are working on and envisioning for the future of technology was exciting, thought provoking, and a little bit scary (in an Asimovian, psycho historical way).  I wanted to share some of the take-aways that I remember from the event and so I will boil four days down to two blogs.  This is "Part One."

IQMS' Manufacturing Execution System (MES) product offering has recently expanded with the introduction of the PMIU88. This stands for Process Monitoring Interface Unit and 88 is a reference to the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) hardware inside the box. If you're still asking: "What does that mean?", I can't blame you, but please give me a minute and I'll explain what can be achieved with the new PMIU88.

Wireless technologies have matured considerably over the last decade and have proven very useful in the workplace. They remove the need to be tethered to a specific location and allow users the ability to wander around the manufacturing shop floor while keeping access to critical information close at hand or provide connectivity to remote locations that may have been inaccessible through traditional means. With the obvious benefits of using a wireless infrastructure, why continue using wired hardware?

Today we continue our latest blog series offering a peek into the daily lives of IQMS’ directors. From human resources to testing and training to development, meet the key department leaders who are molding our company’s future and continually advancing the EnterpriseIQ ERP and MES software.

Today we continue our latest blog series offering a peek into the daily lives of IQMS’ directors. From human resources to testing and training to development, meet the key department leaders who are molding our company’s future and continually advancing the EnterpriseIQ ERP and MES software.