IQMS Blog for Manufacturing ERP Expertise

IQMS User Group has officially begun!  From November 9th through the 11th, IQMS staff, partners, and EnterpriseIQ manufacturing ERP users will converge on Las Vegas to discuss industry trends, software development and ideas for enhancement.

We've all read how a popular automaker has been under fire recently for their quality problems.  I can just imagine how devastating it must be to find out that a product  you've been shipping for years is subject to a recall for a quality defect.  The first step in damage control would be to completely understand the underlying cause of the problem.  Many times the fault lies in one of the raw materials used to manufacture the product.  In that case, strong lot tracing functionality can be the difference between recalling millions vs. recalling thousands or less. In order for lot traceability to be cost effective it should be built into the normal workflow of the manufacturing process. 

Now, more than ever, manufacturing companies are reviewing their budgets to identify areas where cuts can be made.  All too often, employee training is among the expenses that fall "below the red line".  However, those that consider training an investment, rather than an expense, realize that now is the time to develop employees and prepare for growth and better times to come.  This is especially true when cuts have included personnel layoffs where remaining employees need the tools and knowledge necessary to efficiently do their job and take on new tasks as well. 

There's no argument that fully integrated manufacturing ERP system is the way to go.  It is very interesting that so many of the top ERP systems advertise that functionality such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI),  Warehouse Management (WMS), Manufacturing Execution System (MES), Preventative Maintenance (PM), Quality Statistical Process Control (SPC), to name a few, are "integrated" into their ERP system.  When you get under the covers you might find that "integration" means another company's products running on a different database with periodic batch transfer or no data sharing at all.  They then fall back on the "Best of Breed" argument that allows them to point to a different solution that can "integrate" to theirs with hardly any work; after all they support Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) which allows any system to be integrated to our system.  Not so fast.