MachSix

Supporting Sustainable and Scalable Pull Strategies

Designed to work hand-in-hand with the Invistics pull-based Lean methodology, the MachSix software suite helps clients effectively balance relationships among cycle times, throughput and inventory to achieve better customer service levels, while giving you a continuous view into the extended supply chain as well as plant floor dynamics.

The suite was developed based on proven Lean manufacturing principles and key Six Sigma components. MachSix modules take into account supply and demand variability and enables a true flow path-based approach to manufacturing – one that aligns your processes around a value stream and supports sustainable performance improvement initiatives.

MachSix does not replace your existing ERP system, instead it can accept and analyze data from more than 250 systems within your operations ensuring synchronization between planning and execution and providing you with real-time views of plant floor health. The modules can be deployed on-premise or be accessed as a hosted solution.

Tighter Manufacturing Operations; Better Financial Performance

Inventory optimization done in a vacuum is easy. But inventory optimization done in the context of overall manufacturing performance optimization that takes into account maintaining or increasing customer service levels, meeting fluctuating customer demand, managing hundreds or thousands of SKUs and unplanned manufacturing downtime, is very complex. MachSix helps companies achieve this. By accommodating multiple variables and removing complexity arising from these trade-offs, companies using the MachSix software can achieve balance today while seeking ways to continually raise all performance levels, with existing capacity. And, in the process, working capital will be utilized more efficiently resulting in a higher return on assets and by extension, profitability.

Seamless Integration With ERP Systems

The Invistics MachSix software complements existing ERP systems by providing more accurate data and a real-time view into plant floor health. Integration efforts have been successfully completed for a wide variety of enterprise software systems including SAP, Oracle, JD Edwards, Mapics, Prism, Epicor, Infor ERP BPCS and Baan.

Regardless of whether your challenge is to optimize inventory, cycle time, throughput or customer service, our methodology coupled with the MachSix software suite can help you develop a strategy and implement a pilot in under 30 days so you can begin reaping the tactical benefits almost immediately. This in turn lays a strategic foundation for long-term sustained results.

Flow Path Health

Flow Path Health provides real-time visibility into order-to-fulfillment. It allows users to easily gain visibility into the health of current inventory levels and customer, process and purchase orders through charts and graphs.

The ability to continually monitor current production and orders enables users to immediately address problems as they occur. Use of the module requires just five minutes of training before shop floor personnel begins benefiting from the insights.

Inventory Advisor

The Inventory Advisor is designed to reduce stock-outs and cut working capital by optimizing inventory levels for Lean. It takes into consideration variability in products, processes and demand as it calculates optimal inventory and re-order quantity.

This module feeds optimized inventory levels and re-order quantities back to other information systems for better decision-making and order management and generates scenarios for ongoing improvements.

Lean Insights

This module establishes key metrics for an organization looking to motivate Lean behaviors. Performance metrics such as cycle time (aka ‘flow time’), customer service level and throughput are just some of the data points measured. Lean Insights easily analyzes data from multiple systems in your manufacturing facility and motivates Lean behaviors on the shop floor by organizing data to measure true flow-based performance.

The Lean Insights module is designed to be used by employees on the shop floor after just five minutes of training.

Lot Sizer

By finding the sweet spot between inventory costs, changeover costs, and available capacity, Lot Sizer recommends a set of optimal lot sizes, batch sizes, campaign sizes, and/or order quantities that will minimize the overall costs in your plant or supply chain. These results can then be fed back into your information systems to enable better planning and scheduling.

Balance Capacity and Reduce Setup Time

Does your manufacturing facility run products on shared equipment? Are you using static lot, batch, and/or campaign sizes with Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) or manual rule-of-thumbs? Are you looking to understand your operations true capacity to get through the product wheel? If these challenges sound familiar, you may have a lot size optimization problem, and we can help.

Lot Sizer Software Module

Invisitcs’ Lot Sizer software uses advanced operational research mathematics to calculate the sweet spot between changeover costs, inventory costs, and customer service in order to provide the optimal lot sizes for your production. Leveraging the Invistics methodology which blends proven Lean principles adapted to high-mix environments with key components of Six Sigma, Lot Sizer recommends a set of optimal lot sizes, batch sizes, campaign sizes, and/or order quantities that will minimize the overall costs in your plant or supply chain. These results can then be fed back into your information systems to enable better planning and scheduling.

The Lot Sizer software was funded by the National Science Foundation, based on years of research in collaboration with professors from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Georgia Institute of Technology, and others. It is a “bolt-on” module that can feed directly into a variety of ERP systems such as SAP, JD Edwards, Oracle, and so on, with a minimal investment in IT resources.

Pull Manager

Beyond simple Kanban, Pull Manager enables users to implement, sustain and scale to a true pull-based manufacturing supply chain that supports Lean in all manufacturing environments. Users can quickly balance supply and demand, replenishing inventory at the plant level or across the global supply chain through the module’s charts and tables.