From enabling the identification and tracking of non-value adding activities inherent in your current operational processes, to the automation of manual processes, SYSPRO's powerful functionality provides you with the tools to implement your LEAN initiatives. Its integrated nature and ease-of-use facilitates the effortless extraction of financial and operational information required for Value Stream Mapping (VSM).

SYSPRO's Inventory module is a synchronized hub providing a consolidated view of all stock locations and those activities that impact inventory optimization and customer service levels, as well as the end-to-end elements of costs and lead times. Features such as Pareto and obsolescence analysis can assist in identifying those products that are suitable for VSM focus, while SYSPRO modules such as Engineering Change Control, Bills of Material, Work-in Progress and Factory Scheduling facilitate the evaluation of targets for kaizen programs, such as reduction in design and manufacturing costs, cycle times, queues and setups.

SYSPRO's powerful inspection, serial tracking and lot traceability functionality aid in the identification and tracking of the source of defects, thereby enabling the implementation of kaizen initiatives towards the principle of 'Quality at the source'.

The queries and reports in Work in Progress enable you to quickly assess the statuses, inventories and costs associated with work in progress, and provide metrics on utilization, efficiency, scrap and rework, while customer and supplier delivery performance metrics are provided by the Sales Order and Purchase Order and Inventory Optimization modules.

SYSPRO's Inventory and Bills of Material modules enable the modelling of the LEAN techniques of batch size and setup reduction on costs, lead time and inventory. SYSPRO's Factory Scheduling provides graphical tools to assist you in optimizing scheduling and sequencing processes, to reduce setup and overall lead time, and improve manufacturing flexibility and sale-to-customer flow. This, along with the inventory optimization and production planning features, enables you to refine the pace of production to match the pace of sales. Furthermore, features such as sales order/job/purchase-order linking facilitate the electronic implementation of true pull supply- chain processes where appropriate.

Document Flow Manager and SYSPRO e.net Solutions enable you, not only to automate resource and time-intensive processes such as order processing, but also to handle increased volumes from global customers. By providing the capability for 24/7 order taking and acknowledgment, they improve lead time, and free up staff to perform other value-adding tasks. Furthermore, SYSPRO's XML-aware solutions enable version-independent integration with best-of-breed shop floor monitoring and control systems.

The system's sophisticated reporting and analytics tools enable user-defined reports and queries, while SYSPRO Workflow Services enable the creation of efficient workflows to implement business rules and standardize business processes. Electronic Signatures and automation tools enable the automatic raising of alerts, triggers and events based on user-defined criteria, thereby aiding prompt problem solving and process improvement.

SYSPRO's flexible integrated features and best-practice focus give you single-point visibility and control, providing support for the implementation of your LEAN initiatives.

SYSPRO's extensive features foster the centralized management and control of the product design process, while its comprehensive security, customization and multi-lingual capabilities enable you to provide tailored access to external collaborative partners around the globe.

Import facilities and SYSPRO e.net Solutions facilitate improved electronic collaboration with your customers for the creation of customer-specified designs, while the Contact Management system provides a central area for the recording and querying of all communications regarding collaborative activities.

Multi-level bills of material for designs modeled on CAD systems can be imported into SYSPRO, thereby reducing double-entry and the margin for error, as well providing a solid basis on which to calculate costs and lead times for quoting to the customer. In addition, other product-related data such as technical drawings can be imported and linked to the relevant products in SYSPRO, while photographs, video clips and other multimedia files can be linked and viewed on-demand.

SYSPRO's powerful engineering change control (ECC) features enable the creation of user-defined workflows to control the product development process and ensure electronic sign-off. Bill of material component and routing changes, as well as the impact on existing transactional data are controlled through paperless approval and authorization mechanisms, including ECC event triggers, as defined by your organization.

To comply with emissions regulations, such as the Kyoto Protocol and the US Clean Air Act, you must have the capability to record, track and measure your compliance initiatives and report on demand.

SYSPRO enables you to improve your capability to demonstrate compliance in your core processes, as well as implement a variety of control measures for stringent record-keeping to suit the level of vigilance required. SYSPRO's flexible features and integrated nature ensure rapid access to centralized compliance information across your business.

SYSPRO's multi-warehouse capability enables the separation, identification and tracking of compliant, non-compliant and quarantined materials. The customization features enable the configuration of screen highlighting of compliance deviations, as well as the automated notification of relevant personnel. Custom forms facilitate the definition of user-defined characteristics-such as the concentration of hazardous substances-against key data, such as products, materials, lots and serials, while the multimedia capability enables the linking of technical documentation, graphics and videos.

SYSPRO's Quality Management, Lot Traceability, Serial Tracking and Return Merchandise systems facilitate process control, quality tracking and traceability of raw materials and products, and the rapid extraction of information for efficient product recalls. Product versions are strictly controlled through the Engineering Change Control's workflow-based system, while informed selection of material and component suppliers is facilitated through performance scorecards and inspection data analysis.

Electronic signatures in SYSPRO provide rigorous transaction-level security, tracking and auditability, as well as the facility to trigger notifications and other actions, such as transferring data to 3rd-party applications and databases. On-demand compliance reporting is facilitated across the system by electronic signatures and SYSPRO Reporting Services, while SYSPRO Workflow services enable the consistent and rapid deployment of compliance processes.

Constant innovation is one of the key factors to remaining competitive and on-going research and development to design new and better products is integral to the industry. Your ability to design new products and modify existing designs, as well as improve time-to-market is critical to remaining competitive and profitable.

SYSPRO provides tools to streamline and track the introduction of new product designs and amendments to existing designs, along with relevant costings. SYSPRO's Engineering Change Control (ECC) enables you to apply strict control over your design-to-market processes by providing an integrated rules-based electronic workflow system with full version control, security and auditable history.

ECC gives you the tools to record and track new and modified product design and process changes, assess the impact of these changes on costs and associated data, and control the change routing and approval processes. ECC's queries, audit trail, history and archive facilities, give you quick on-line access to details of prior product versions, as well as the option of reverting to the production of a prior product version if required. In addition, the facility to attach copies of product design drawings to version and release levels provides access to visual details of revisions.

The Where-used Query facility enables you to identify all items affected by the raising of an Engineering Change order for all routes identified as being under Engineering Change Control. In addition, SYSPRO provides a 'replace component where-used' facility that enables the quick replacement of one item with a valid substitute item, thereby streamlining design changes.

SYSPRO's ECC, Bill of Materials, Work-in-Progress and Factory Documentation modules enable you to implement controls to ensure that your products are manufactured under consistent processes, to the correct designs and specifications. Single-level, multi-level, co and by-product bills are all catered for and flexible bill definitions accommodate complex component and sub-assembly requirements.

SYSPRO's Quality Management System (QMS) enables product quality control by allowing the configuration of multiple measurement metrics, as well as inspection points per inventory item, such as length, chemical composition and hardness. This configuration, which includes the allowable tolerances for each metric and inspection frequency, is configurable as required; for example, full, partial, periodic and random quantity sampling is supported.

Exceptions to inspection rules are configurable per customer, supplier, operation and work center with quality inspection points at Work in Progress Inspection, Purchase Order Receipting, Sales Order Inspection and Inventory Inspection. These quality control checkpoints allow the collection of actual physical product data, to facilitate statistical process control, as well as provide an opportunity for simple material review in the event of a non-conformance, with the possible outcome of inventory reclassification or scrapping. Logs of all quality checks performed are held, including the details of the operators performing the check.

The advanced functionality provides the ability to escalate a quality issue or force quality actions to route into a material review board. The review board then has the facility to sanction the inventory action, such as approval or scrapping, and to record the relevant session details. Additional employee certification requirements for each product by checkpoint and operation are configurable and during all quality-related operations and reviews, this certification is recorded and used to determine if the operation at hand may continue.

Where a full QMS system is not required, quality checks may be implemented using the standard inspection facilities in the Work in Progress and Purchase Order modules. Purchased items can be flagged as requiring inspection so that during receipting, detailed records of counts, inspection, scrap, rejects and returns are recorded. Units in inspection are visible, but unavailable for use until accepted into stock. Similarly, SYSPRO's Work in Progress inspection gives you the tools to inspect manufactured product quality and, depending on the results, select to receipt, scrap or rework quantities.

SYSPRO's Quotations module enables detailed estimates based on all aspects of the project, with the added benefits of hierarchical analysis of costs and margins per head and section.

The estimating functionality enables the specification of materials, labor and overheads involved in carrying out the specified work, thereby providing a complete view of costs and lead times for project-based work.

The power of this system becomes evident when multiple levels/phases are required. You can create an estimate for each level within the project which, in turn, can be supported by an estimate. This process can be extended to fourteen levels, which are then rolled up to complete the top level costing.

Additionally, the system enables you to quickly model the cost- and lead-time impacts of using alternatives, such as different suppliers, routings and materials. In this way, SYSPRO's Estimating functionality assists you in assessing the viability of bidding for fixed-price contracts and enables you to accurately price contracts for quotes.

Your ability to harness e-Commerce technologies effectively has enormous potential to transform your business and enhance commercial success and growth.

Your customers and suppliers may look increasingly to closer collaboration, to cut production timetables and minimize disruption to their supply chain. This could involve working via their electronic order and supply chain systems to enable streamlining of operations and to reduce margin for error. Multi-organization research and design teams may need to work collaboratively and to achieve this, you must have efficient, secure systems that can deliver and receive information.

SYSPRO facilitates streamlined, secure electronic data interchange and collaborative commerce through features such Document Flow Manager, e.net Solutions, EDI, Office Automation and Messaging, SYSPRO Workflow Services and various Business-to-Business purchase and sales import and export functions. In addition, SYSPRO's Web Applications are out-the-box solutions which you can run on the Internet/Intranet and easily customize to suit end-user requirements.

Quick response times and accuracy in fulfilling orders are critical to your reputation in a diverse and demanding global market. Automated 24/7 customer order placement and acknowledgment is facilitated via SYSPRO's Document Flow Manager and email. In addition, SYSPRO's e.net Solutions enables the rapid development of applications for mobile devices, so that your sales force can check stock and place orders directly into SYSPRO while out visiting customers, thereby improving order turnaround time.

SYSPRO's e.net Solutions can be extended to integrate SYSPRO with other applications, such as shipping companies' tracking systems to determine the shipping status of customer orders. In addition, e.net Solutions facilitates the integration of SYSPRO with scanning and Smart technologies, thereby streamlining picking and packing processes, as well as inventory stock takes.

If your customers include Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) you can import and easily reconcile vendor EDI releases using SYSPRO's Blanket Sales Order module.

SYSPRO enables you to streamline and automate the processes and actions involved in authorizing and tracking customer returns, warranty claims and complaints. This in turn facilitates targeted improvement programs to help you reduce the time and costs associated with such events and improve product quality.

SYSPRO's Return Merchandise (RMA) enables you to rapidly process customer returns and the resulting corrective actions such as receipting, exchanges, cross-shipments, repairs, scrap and credits, as well as charges for returns and restocking activities. Action codes, notes and user-configured returns classifications facilitate comprehensive analysis and reporting.

Instant on-screen access to customer history enables the fast and accurate selection of the relevant transactions, as well as the verification of warranty dates, product revision levels, prices and quantities. The power of SYSPRO's returns automation is further enhanced by its seamless integration with the system's serial tracking, lot traceability and engineering change control capabilities. Furthermore, SYSPRO's Office Automation facilitates the automation of actions based on RMA events, such as the broadcast of product recalls based on specific products or RMA classification codes, or the notification of account managers for specific customers.

SYSPRO's Workflow Services enables you to facilitate returns and complaints processing in a consistent coherent flow for all users, further reducing the time and effort associated with these activities.

To execute your production plans and achieve a high level of manufacturing agility, you need visibility to current and future demands, resource availability, schedules and material plans, as well as user-friendly tools that enable you to respond quickly when things change. SYSPRO provides an integrated view of the elements that impact capacity planning, enabling improved resource management and utilization.

SYSPRO's Bill of Materials module provides the tools to maintain the demonstrated capacity for work centers and productive units, while SYSPRO Factory Scheduling enables the configuration of shift patterns and the identification and consideration of multiple constraints such as tooling. The Bill of Materials module enables the configuration of product routings from which Work in Progress and Requirements Planning derive the capacity required, dynamically adjusted for order or batch size.

SYSPRO's Requirements Planning module enables comprehensive demand planning and the modeling of the master schedule and other demand requirements on capacity profiles, over a user-defined horizon. Based on order requirement and lead times, the requirements calculation computes the total capacity load for both open and planned shop orders"”dynamically adjusted for batch size"”by using infinite backward or infinite forward scheduling. It also provides a simple single-level forward finite scheduling tool.

More sophisticated finite scheduling and sequencing capabilities are provided by SYSPRO Factory Scheduling, including algorithm-based forward, backward and bi-directional finite scheduling, as well as operation sequence optimization. A user-friendly graphical interface affords a real-time view of your capacity loads, with one-click highlighting of bottlenecks to provide quick identification of problem areas.

SYSPRO Factory Scheduling delivers a range of features, from manual drag-and-drop to powerful what-if schedule modeling, providing a decision-support tool enabling you to balance demand and capacity constraints.

Furthermore, SYSPRO's XML-aware solutions enable version-independent integration with best-of-breed shop floor monitoring and control systems, to enable up-to-the-minute querying and reporting in complex scheduling environments.

Supplier quality management has emerged as one of the leading business practices in the past few years. Given the increasing pressure to ensure that their products continue to meet or exceed acceptable quality thresholds, manufacturers need to ensure that the materials received from their suppliers are of the highest possible quality. SYSPRO enhances the supplier selection process through features such as approved manufacturers and supplier scorecards. Supplier performance and reliability can be tracked on a number of levels including delivery performance and performance relative to other suppliers. In addition, purchased goods inspection enables you to implement controls over the quality of delivered materials.

SYSPRO's e.net Solutions provide the tools to facilitate secure version-independent integration to core SYSPRO with 3rd-party systems and web applications, allowing suppliers to provide you with quality-related data without having to deploy a mandated quality management system.

In an industry where the requirement for customizable end-products is common, flexibility, speed, and accuracy in meeting customer demand is essential to remaining competitive.

SYSPRO enables you to improve your time-to-market performance and streamline constituent processes through its rules-based Product Configurator. Not only does it provide streamlined order-taking by non-technical staff, it facilitates the automatic generation of factory orders and purchase orders, with all the relevant detail such as materials and operations required to make or assemble the correct customer-specific configuration of the product. In addition to releasing technical staff from the order-taking process, the Configurator mitigates the need for manual input or additional bills of materials to cover all product permutations and drastically reduces the margin for input errors. New permutations may be saved for future orders making it easy to recall at order entry time.

Additionally, for complete engineer- and design-to-order requirements, SYSPRO speeds the processing of inquiries through its estimating and quotations functionality, with estimating providing an accurate view of both standard and non-standard material and labor costs, ensuring accurate profitability projection and quoting. Furthermore, SYSPRO's powerful factory scheduling features enable you to quote accurate lead times and delivery dates based on capacity and existing loads. Once a quote is accepted by the customer the conversion to a factory order is a simple automated process.