EPS

To ensure that manufacturing companies have easy access to cost and profitability information at all levels of the corporation, EPS has developed an industry-leading cost management software solution - the EPS Cost Management Suite.

EPS Cost Management Suite is a comprehensive, multi-module, turn-key solution that empowers manufacturing companies with vital information to manage costs and improve profitability.

EPS Cost Management Suite’s Transportation Cost Management, Product Cost Management and Real-Time Costing modules provide maximum flexibility to support customer specific business needs and requirements. The modules provide tangible benefits enterprise-wide through an integrated approach to corporate level transportation costing, plant level product costing and process level real-time costing.

EPS Cost Management Suite is a highly flexible solution. The entire suite can be implemented in one project, or the modules can be implemented in separate projects.

EPS - Transportation Cost Management

Transportation Cost Management helps transportation and supply chain managers to gain control of the transportation costs. The solution makes it possible to budget freight costs, monitor the effects of transportation decisions, and track cost variances.

Transportation Cost Management, a module of the EPS Cost Management Suite, works in conjunction with sales order processing systems to analyze transportation costs. Transportation Cost Management is based on an innovative accounting concept developed specifically for distribution and manufacturing companies. The solution responds to customer needs for systematic cost planning and control to combat etc. escalating fuel costs.

Transportation Cost Management administers the mix of factors that drive planning and control decisions, and it provides precise measurements of how specific components of the transportation cost mix affect the overall budget and forecast.

To effectively control transportation costs, Transportation Cost Management examines key cost drivers including: destination mix, source plants and warehouses, transportation routes, modes of transport, carriers, freight rate, fuel surcharges, and exchange rates, among others.

With transportation budget analysis, users can see factors that contributed to cost overruns verses budget, or historical costs.

Transportation Cost Management helps users identify and explain factors that are at variance with expected levels as a first step to reduce transportation spending and increase effectiveness.

Transportation Cost Management significantly improves the accuracy of budgets and forecasts for distribution costs. The interactive budgeting tool automatically generates initial budgets and forecasts by using past shipping patterns. It also facilitates multiple revisions to reflect corporate shipping preferences.

Transportation Cost Management has reporting capabilities that gives users flexible means of optimizing the transportation mix.

Users can balance the factors that determine warehouse, mode and carrier management. These factors can be managed to improve yields and freight rates, find more effective modes, and manage customer expectations.

Features and Benefits:

• Easy-to-navigate user interface
• Supports multiple currencies and languages
• Generates annual distribution plans
• Calculates variances for operating results
• Identifies unplanned or omitted activities
• Measures the effects of management decisions about the choice of plants, modes, carriers, and warehouses
• Creates ýred-flagý cost reporting of customers, modes, and carriers
• Identifies business process and logistical issues that result in increased costs

EPS – Product Cost Management

Product Cost Management is a powerful solution that empowers plant management, production and accounting staff to focus on cost management, profitability and efficiency like never before.

Product Cost Management can be implemented as a stand-alone module or in conjunction with one or both of the other two powerful modules in the EPS Cost Management Suite. You decide based on your current and future needs and objectives.

Product Cost Management can be implemented in just two to four months per plant. The turn-key nature of our solution allows you to easily bring additional plants on-line after the initial implementation without assistance from EPS, if you prefer.

Product Cost Management utilizes web service interfaces, providing for simple integration with other systems. It will quickly become an indispensable tool in managing your mills and production facilities in the most cost-effective and efficient manner possible.

Product Cost Management Benefits:

• Supports harmonized plant-level costing, ensuring that product costs can be compared across several plants
• Supports other vital activities, such as production planning & scheduling, purchasing, cash-flow management & the monthly closing process
• Supports profit-to-promise optimization
• Easier reporting of inventory value & inventory reconcilement

Product Cost Management Features & Functionality:

• Standard product costing
• Bill of material, recipe & specification management
• Periodic actual costing
• Short-term cost & consumption forecasting based on production schedule
• Long-term cost & consumption forecasting based on production plan or sales forecast
• Inventory valuation & reconciliation
• Multi-language & multi-currency for international companies
• Supports company-specific terminology
• Web based application for easy deployment & access throughout the company
• Windows .NET application for good performance & easy integration

EPS – Real-Time Costing

Real-Time Costing empowers process-level staff to be the first line of defense against inefficient, costly production practices and decisions, ensuring a more profitable and cost-effective operation. Real-Time Costing accomplishes this important objective by providing machine operators and production managers with immediate feedback on how their decisions impact the cost of production.

Real-Time Costing can be implemented as a stand-alone module or in conjunction with one or both of the other two powerful modules in the EPS Cost Management Suite.

You decide based on your objectives. Regardless, Real-Time Costing can be implemented in just four to eight weeks per production process, providing payback as quickly as one to three months. Thanks to the turn-key nature of our solution, you can easily bring additional process lines on-line after the initial implementation without assistance from EPS, if you prefer.

Real-Time Costing is easily integrated with other production or process systems by utilizing plug-and-play web services interfaces. It will quickly become an integral tool in managing your mills and production facilities in the most efficient and profitable manner possible.

Real-Time Costing Benefits:

• Realized raw material & energy cost savings
• Identification of unprofitable products
• Enhanced quality assurance & consistency
• Detection of previously unidentified costs
• Increased awareness among the production staff about how production decisions impact the cost of production
• Supports continuous cost reduction efforts
• Increased accuracy in standard product cost & recipes
• Improved calibration & reliability of flow meters

Real-Time Costing Features & Functionality:

• User-friendly, informative screens developed for production staff to be used on the manufacturing floor
• Embedded graphical reporting engine for management analysis
• User configurable calculations for recycled losses (broke)
• User configurable calculations for consumptions during production breaks
• User configurable rules for validation of actual vs. standard costs & consumptions
• Ability to set time-offsets for material consumptions per process tag
• Generic process data interface using web service technology
• Generic production data interface using web service technology
• Generic quality data interface using web service technology
• Real-time costs & consumptions are available through a web service interface & can be utilized by other applications
• Multi-language & multi-currency for international companies
• Supports company-specific terminology
• Web based application for easy deployment & access throughout the company
• Windows .NET application for good performance & easy integration