Infor VISUAL

Infor VISUAL Enterprise was the first true Windows-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution for custom, assemble-to-order, make-to-order, make-to-stock and mixed mode manufacturers. Its leading-edge technology is designed to manage the total production environment from quoting and estimating to shipping and billing. Infor ERP VISUAL delivers an integrated approach to all core manufacturing requirements, including MRP (material requirements planning), advanced planning and scheduling, manufacturing execution, customer relationship management, quality management, and warehouse management. The value of Infor ERP VISUAL extends beyond manufacturing, offering users easy and effective ways to interact with core desktop tools such as the Microsoft Office suite. With an intuitive, full-color graphic interface and point-and-click capabilities, Infor ERP VISUAL is ideal for companies where users have multiple responsibilities.

Infor ERP VISUAL delivers what all discrete manufacturers need-support for their full business lifecycle, from planning to sourcing to making to delivering.

Bar Coding

The Bar Coding module (also known as Wedge/PC Bar Coding) gives you more control over the labor entry components in your system by providing greater accuracy and immediate real time access to labor information throughout the company. Because all Infor VISUAL modules are fully integrated, any completed transaction involving a work order operation causes all associated values to be immediately adjusted. Integration with the Manufacturing Window allows you to view hours and quantities reported, either by operation or by individual labor ticket.

The Bar Coding module uses a VISUAL workstation attached to a wedge, and requires a bar coding PC station for each wedge bar code input device. Data is entered via a bar code wand or laser gun and the PC keyboard. Entries display directly on the PC screen allowing you to view more extensive information than can be displayed on a simple entry device.

Using the Bar Coding Module, You Can:

• Enter data quickly and accurately using a bar-code wand or laser scanner and the keyboard
• Track labor information instantly
• Collect data using a single collection unit
• Choose between single and multiple job modes, and a time or cost basis for prorating multiple jobs
• Use integrated serial and/or lot number tracking (available as an add-on module)
• Track clock in, start setup, start run, indirect, stop, break, clock out, and more!

Concurrent Scheduling

Ensures the most efficient use of materials and resources, and provides the necessary information to deliver product on time, with two powerful tools–Global Scheduler and Scheduling Window. ERP Express was the first software system to feature concurrent scheduling, which considers both material and capacity constraints when generating shop schedules.

Contact Center

Retains existing customers and acquires new accounts by tracking everything there is to know about prospects and customers. Schedules activities, assists in sending letters and emails, and keeps detailed notes about conversations with contacts. Provides histories, tasks, and other sales data for every contact, at every account. Accesses important back-office data such as accounts receivable, current part inventory, return material authorization (RMA) status, estimates, sales orders, credit status, and shipments for each customer.

Cost Accounting

Captures costs as changes occur, ensuring up-to-date and accurate costs. Lets you choose between actual costs and standard costs. Links purchases directly to existing work orders through the Purchasing or Manufacturing modules, earmarking costs that are specific to jobs.

Data Import Utility

Provides a BOM and part-import interface for 3PL applications, which must generate a properly formatted flat file. Validates all fields, recalculates required quantities, and produces a log of all transactions during the import process.

Dimensional Inventory Tracking

Infor VISUAL Enterprise’s Dimensional Inventory Tracking module provides you with an added level of control over your inventoried parts. Instead of simply seeing the total inventory quantity of the item, you can see the total quantity broken down by its various dimensional sizes. In addition, Dimensional Inventory Tracking allows you to order a specified number of pieces by dimension, then let the system calculate the correct total order quantity by making the necessary conversions.

Dimensional Inventory Tracking interacts with Infor VISUAL Enterprise so that any transaction involving a part causes all associated values to be immediately adjusted. This high level of integration allows you to purchase, receive, enter a material requirement, issue, issue/return, adjust in, and adjust/out simply by specifying the number of pieces of material, the required dimensions, and the warehouse location. Dimensional Inventory Tracking can also perform a physical inventory for you when you simply specify the number of pieces and dimensions of those pieces. Using Dimensional Inventory Tracking, you can:

• Define up to three dimensions and an unlimited number of dimensional records for each part
• Specify Unit of Measure conversions for materials
• Automatically calculate purchase costs
• Issue/return from WIP as well as adjust in/out for drop management
• Partially receive pieces that differ in size than those listed on the originating purchase order
• Track inventory by location of pieces within the plant for managing drops
• Take a full physical inventory simply by specifying the number of pieces and their dimensions

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) is the key component of electronic commerce that many businesses are implementing to control costs, improve quality, increase efficiency, and gain strategic advantage. It allows a computer-to-computer exchange of standardized documents such as purchase orders, shipping notices, and invoices.

Infor VISUAL Enterprise’s EDI module allows the efficient and timely exchange of business documents using electronic communications links. The ýbulk file transferý nature of EDI enables the rapid exchange and processing of inter-company or inter-enterprise business documents at low cost. The standards-based formats at the heart of EDI makes it possible to send and receive even the most complex transaction documents accurately and promptly, either in a human-readable format or to a computer file for processing by other computer applications.

Using EDI, you can:

• Convert inbound EDI documents into customer orders or forecasts for Infor VISUAL Enterprise
• Generate advanced shipping notices and invoices from Infor VISUAL Enterprise to send to your trading partners via EDI
• Manually create any standard transaction to meet the EDI requirements of your trading partners
• Compute net forecast requirements by internal part number, and produce requirement reports in a variety of formats
• Track the accumulated changes for parts by ship-to location, build authorization, and buy authorization

Engineering Change Notice

Establishes controls and manages the process of making changes to documents and drawings, parts, BOMs and routings, work orders, and projects.

Executive Information System

Allows decision makers to view and analyze key factors and performance trends in the areas of sales, purchasing, production, and finance, and to see both summary and detail-level data. Displays summarized data that reflects the overall status of the enterprise. Spotlights areas that need attention before situations become critical and costly by highlighting key performance indicators. Lets decision makers trace problem areas directly to the source

Financials

Reports about the challenges and risks finance managers face today aren’t news to you–you live them every day. You need financial management solutions that reduce costs; shorten process cycle times; deliver timely, actionable financial information; enforce global financial standards and controls; and improve business transparency.

Solve your company’s financial management problems with Infor Financial Management solutions. They’re powerful, configure to your business needs, and implement quickly, without disrupting your operations. So you get rapid payback and quick results. More than 20,000 customers in over 170 countries reach their financial goals with the help of Infor Financial Management solutions, and so can you.

Inventory Control

Provides greater accuracy and immediate access to inventory information throughout the company. Automates part-tracking by adjusting inventory whenever a part transaction occurs. Designates inventory items as purchased, manufactured, stocked, or non-stocked so you can immediately place a purchase order or issue a job order when you need a particular item. Tracks materials and costs on a per-project basis, providing an online, in-depth, time-phased, netting evaluation of the complete supply and demand situation for parts. Provides complete profiles of any part in the system.

Lot and Serial Traceability

Creates trace records for each lot number, serial number, or other grouping of a part, and automatically tracks each part as it flows through your plant. Assigns additional information, including a description, expiration date, and other user-definable fields. Tracks parts from material receipt through product delivery, as well as all intermediate levels. Prompts operators for additional information when receiving and issuing material and reporting labor. Reviews flow of material lots and serialized parts as they move through the manufacturing process.

Management Reporting

Analyzes and manages enterprise and accounting data providing the methodology to build customized queries and forms, define business graphics, and create complex cross-tabular reports. Also helps pinpoint resource contention-otherwise known as bottlenecks-to improve shop floor schedules, increase on-time delivery, and improve profits.

Manufacturing Window

Creates an engineering plan or bill of material (BOM) quickly and easily with a full-color, graphical interface, and then uses the design to automatically create a quote and/or work order. Provides a comprehensive view of the materials and operations involved in the engineering process, including both macro and micro views of your business.

Master Production Schedule (MPS)

The Master Production Schedule (MPS) module translates your business plan, including your forecasted demand, into a production plan using firm planned orders in a true multi-level, optional component scheduling environment. With MPS driving the manufacturing process, you can avoid shortages, costly expediting, last minute rescheduling, and inefficient allocation of resources.

Using the Master Production Schedule (MPS) module, you can:

• Consolidate planned parts within the master production schedule
• Produce master schedules and forecasts for any level in the Bill of Material for any kind of part
• Maintain and manipulate the Master Production Schedule forecasts using the Statistical Sales Forecasting module

Material Requirements Planning (MRP)

Once the production plan is created by MPS, the Material Requirements Planning (MRP) module assists you in managing the balance between supply and demand. The MRP module provides a comprehensive analysis of your material situation, including the suggested action to restore balance. It suggests when to release supply orders (for either purchased or fabricated parts) based on the most up-to-date production and demand information available. MRP helps reduce inventory, increase manufacturing productivity, and ultimately facilitates cash flow.

Using the Material Requirements Planning (MRP) module, you can:

• Integrate forecasts, master schedule items, sales orders, and firm-planned orders for MRP processing
• Choose between various planning policy options including discrete, minimum/maximum order quantity, fixed period, period supply, etc
• Explode all assembly schedules into component requirements and choose between including or excluding firmed, released, unreleased, closed, or canceled requirements
• Review and implement rescheduling recommendations for work orders and purchase orders based on actual production and demand schedules by severity exceptions
• Choose regenerative processing or net change for level-by-level processing
• Peg MRP planned orders to the next and top-level assemblies
• Generate material reports for net by MRP rules or date required, with options for net by availability or after deduction for safety stock requirements

Messages

Transmits important information to appropriate persons, either within or outside the company, using familiar email features. Delivers alerts to user workstations, pagers, cellular phones, printers, and fax machines. Defines important events within the manufacturing process, creating and transmitting messages to key personnel. Allows employees to focus on other business without needing to constantly check in, while ensuring they’ll be informed of-and can act on-critical information.

Order Management

Manages a large volume of customer orders and meets varied fulfillment objectives. Helps users manage customer order allocation and new product deployment planning throughout the supply chain. Also optimizes fulfillment, reduces order processing cycle times, provides cost-effective sourcing of inventory to customer orders, and increases revenue through substitution, cross-selling, and value-added services.

Part Traceability

The Part Traceability module was designed for manufacturers who require more stringent control over product tracking. Part Traceability provides this control by creating a trace record (known as a Trace Profile) for each lot number, serial number, or other grouping of a part and automatically tracks each part as it flows through your plant. Additional information including a description, expiration date, and user-definable fields can also be assigned.

Within Infor VISUAL Enterprise, Part Traceability tracks the part from receipt of materials from the vendor through to delivery of the product to the customer as well as all intermediate levels. As jobs move through the plant, operators are prompted for additional information when receiving and issuing material and reporting labor. Inquiry capabilities allow you to review the flow of material lots and serialized parts as they move through the manufacturing process.

Using the Part Traceability Module, You Can:

• Customize part traceability requirements and specify special tracking requirements by part
• Assign lot numbers for purchased materials at receipt, or for finished products coming from the shop floor
• Track raw material lot numbers
• Use the description, expiration date, and ten user-defined fields to track information for each lot
• Assign serial numbers to finished products and components used within a Bill of Material
• Trace a customer shipment back to the raw material lot that was used to produce the finished part
• Perform on-line inquiries by part for lot numbers and serial numbers received or shipped and inventory balances by lot numbers and serial numbers

Product Data Management

Infor offers optional Product Data Management (PDM) modules to optimize your ability to efficiently design and engineer your product. The following modules help you achieve greater operating efficiency thereby reducing your costs while improving the overall quality of your product.

The Statistical Process Control (SPC) module provides comprehensive quality control throughout the entire manufacturing process.

The Master Product Configurator is a sophisticated engineering tool for manufacturers of complex, highly configurable products with numerous standard and available options.

The Engineering Change Control (ECN) module provides a control and tracking system for changes made to the standard Bill of Material and routings.

The two Computer Aided Design (CAD) modules, DesignLink Integrator and DesignLink Locator, provide a dynamic communication path between engineering and manufacturing.

Purchasing

Coordinates material purchases by providing online decision support that simplifies record keeping. Helps control inventory, enhance cash flow, and shorten delivery times. Handles all types of purchases, including inventoried items, supply items, outside service operations pertaining to a manufacturing order, and subcontracted items that require delivery of components to a vendor. Accommodates drop shipments at locations other than the primary ship-to address, such as warehouses or customer locations. Provides standard form reports such as purchase orders, acknowledgments, and order lists for purchasing personnel, as well as analytical accounts’ payable-related reports-including purchase order lists and accrual reports.

Quality Control

Makes quality assurance an intrinsic part of your workflow. Establishes, tracks, and manages every engineering activity and supply chain expectation, while supporting business growth and profitability goals. Creates critical manufacturing specifications for products, processes, equipment, and measuring devices, and improves enterprise team collaboration with vendors, customers, and employees. Get tools to automate associated design, pre-production, production, and post-production activities; expertly manage business performance; and easily collect, control, and analyze quality system data.

Quoting and Estimating

Creates professional and comprehensive quotations, determines realistic delivery dates based on material and resource availability, and turns quotes into sales orders. Users can create quotes quickly and easily by copying them from another quote, an existing work order, or a BOM, and then modifying the new quote to match customer specifications. Plus, users can estimate costs for material, labor, burden, and outside services, and, once a contract is awarded, automatically create sales and work orders from quotes.

Return Material Authorization

Manages documents that control the return of parts previously sold and shipped to a customer. Contains an ID status and other identification regarding who is returning the material, and for what purpose.

Shop Floor Control

Seamlessly integrates all ERP Express’s features, including inventory control, material and labor tracking and reporting, purchasing, and scheduling. Provides complete control over production operations, eliminating redundant data entry and ensuring consistency and accuracy throughout the shop floor.

Technical Estimating

The Technical Estimating module is a powerful tool for costing jobs. In addition to calculating hours to costs, it also computes setup and run time. Adding time to an operation is as simple as clicking a button. User-defined or standard templates facilitate the estimating process, while user-assigned prompts simplify and customize the presentation to users. A wide range of table selections and math computations provide for even the most complex calculations. Additionally, Technical Estimating supplies Feeds and Speed data, thus eliminating the old method of browsing through hundreds of pages with reference manuals at hand.

Through its seamless integration with Infor VISUAL Enterprise, Technical Estimating eliminates the need to enter transactions manually or deal with messy file format and conversion issues. The Technical Estimating module is a must for anyone requiring fast, uniform, and reliable estimating results.

Using Technical Estimating, You Can:

• Produce uniform, realistic estimates quickly and efficiently.
• Compute setup and run time when creating estimates.
• Access the on-line catalog of Feeds and Speed data.
• Use Feeds and Speed data or Parametric data to determine an accurate setup and run time for a job.
• Create quick estimates using a predefined template for milling, drilling, broaching, or turning machining processes.
• Define your own templates and customize the user interface for your shop.
• Transfer data to Infor VISUAL Enterprise with the click of a button.

Throughput

Measures productivity considering the contribution of a job or product toward company profit, calculated as price of goods sold minus cost to produce. Increases profit by working a schedule that will increase throughput, using measurements not commonly found in ERP and MES systems. Accesses a variety of reports and inquiries: actual or expected throughput reports; and utilization, contention, and material constraint inquiries. Displays “what if” scenarios to help determine whether a request is feasible.

Workflow

Passes information from one person or department to another through an automated process cycle, integrating policies and procedures with information flow according to predefined conditions or rules. Provides master, predefined, and user-defined workflow templates, ensuring a logical, repeatable flow of data. Releases defined workflows into the ERP Express system, where they operate behind the scenes. Notifies users of tasks and activities that require action. Routes information, such as customer orders, purchase orders, or engineering changes, to internal and external participants in the business process, incorporating approval functions along the way. Allows users to conveniently track and monitor the status of documents.