Keeping inventory levels and obsolescence to a minimum, while continuing to offer superior customer service, entails achieving the right product mix, as well as the continual balancing of supply and demand. Understanding and tracking the relevant measures of risk which impact the balance is critical for reducing stocks, improving availability and increasing turnover.

Through the powerful tools in the Inventory Optimization suite of modules, SYSPRO enables you to better understand and quantify your risk profile, thereby assisting you to reduce your safety stocks and free up working capital, without compromising your reputation as a reliable supplier in the market place. Key elements that drive inventory across the supply chain are coordinated, tracked and controlled to optimize inventory. Standard analysis of slow-moving, excess, active and static stocks enables targeted promotional and product rationalization programs, as well as accurate obsolescence provisioning. Further benefits include improved warehouse utilization and fewer headaches for the procurement and production scheduling teams.

The Families and Groupings and Forecasting modules enable you to minimize forecast error and manage seasonality, thereby improving order fulfilment performance. This functionality is complemented by features such as available-to-promise and various time fence indicators, which give sales and production staff a reliable view of what they can promise to customers and when.

SYSPRO's material requirements planning gives you clear visibility to the integrated effect of current and future supply and demand, thereby enabling you to make better purchasing and production decisions and reduce excess and obsolete inventories. The inclusion of sources of supply and demand is configurable and various reports and related review programs enable easy identification of potential oversupplies and seamless execution of suggested actions. Order policies by stock code at warehouse level enable you to implement lot-sizing rules for purchased and manufactured items. Standard reports such as the Inventory Exception and the MRP Potential Oversupplies reports help you identify excess inventories and possible problems with your lot-sizing techniques.

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.

While forecasting is, by definition, an inexact science, its purpose is to improve the quality of predictions and thereby enable the fine-tuning of the balance between supply and demand. In forecasting environments where product ranges and configurations are extensive, bills of material are complex and raw material and component lead times are long, improved forecast accuracy is essential to minimizing inventory holding and obsolescence costs without compromising customer service and brand loyalty.

SYSPRO provides tools to enable you to track and evaluate your forecasts, as well as to identify the possible causes of forecast errors. These tools assist you in optimizing your forecasts to produce the best possible outcome with minimum forecast error. The Inventory Optimization suite of modules enables the entry of manual forecasts, as well as the automatic generation of forecasts via a variety of forecast algorithms, including those that compute for trends, seasonality and cyclical events. In addition, the module provides a competition forecasting method (also known as focus forecasting or the tournament method) which attempts to select the most suitable forecast algorithm, based on a selected error measurement and your SYSPRO sales history data. This enables you to compare results to determine which method is the most suitable for any particular item, whether you forecast products at code, revision, release, or warehouse level. A tracking signal is used to indicate when the validity of the forecast might be in doubt; those items with high forecast errors are highlighted and can be reviewed and adjusted as required.

Forecast accuracy depends not only on the regular evaluation of the forecast error, but also on the integrity and nature of the source data. In SYSPRO, forecast accuracy is enhanced through the ability to automatically filter and adjust outliers, as well as to manually adjust forecast base data for quantitative and qualitative factors. Lost sales can also be included in the demand profile.

Furthermore, SYSPRO's proxy functionality enables the forecasting of new products based on the sales history of similar superseded products which is useful in industries where product life cycles are short.

Constant innovation is a key factor to remaining competitive, and on-going research and development into new and better products is integral to the industry. Short product life cycles mean the speed with which you deliver these innovations to the market is imperative to remaining competitive and profitable. SYSPRO's integrated nature and powerful functionality enable you to streamline and track the changes to product designs and costings, as well as to improve the delivery of customer-driven product designs and configurations.

The rules-based Product Configurator enables non-technical staff to rapidly generate accurate product specifications for highly customizable products, thereby helping to reduce lead times and improve the speed and accuracy of order processing in configure-to-order environments. 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. It 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.

For complete engineer- and design-to-order requirements, SYSPRO speeds the processing of product 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.

SYSPRO's e.net Solutions, multimedia and import facilities enable the rapid incorporation and processing of customer design data, such as drawings and CAD specifications, further improving turnaround time. 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. SYSPRO's Engineering Change Control (ECC) enables you to apply strict control and uniformity 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 product design and process changes, assess the impact of these changes on costs and associated data, and control the change routing and approval processes.

SYSPRO provides an integrated view of the development-to-market processes, thus facilitating improved communication between all participants.

To enable you to fine-tune the balance between supply and demand, SYSPRO provides technology and features that afford visibility to integrated supply chain intelligence and facilitate close monitoring of performance risks. SYSPRO fosters informed decision-making, thereby helping you to meet the challenges of supply chain management and synchronization in a dynamic and complex global environment.

SYSPRO's Inventory Optimization enables the configuration and automated monitoring of KPIs for different nodes in the supply chain, to facilitate the balancing of inventory investment and service. Key elements that drive inventory, such as forecasts, lead times, supplier performance and service levels, are coordinated, tracked and controlled to determine risk, evaluate supplier reliability and calculate optimal safety stocks. This in turn enables the modeling and formulation of more accurate target inventories and appropriate inventory policies, as well as better planning and execution of production, procurement and distribution activities.

Engineering change control promotes a cohesive collaborative approach to product life cycle management with your contract manufacturers; Blanket Sales Orders provides the means to reconcile schedules with your OEM clients, while Distribution Requirements Planning enables optimization of replenishment planning in a distributed warehouse environment.

Production schedule visibility and agility is facilitated through SYSPRO Factory Scheduling, which provides graphical scheduling and sequencing; control methods range from manual manipulation through to true algorithm-based advanced planning and scheduling (APS).

Your larger trading partners may look increasingly to closer electronic collaboration to cut production timetables, speed order processing, reduce margin for error and minimize disruption to their businesses. SYSPRO's internet- and XML-based technologies facilitate the implementation of your collaborative commerce strategies, enabling you to share, process and deliver information securely and efficiently within an extended global supply chain.

SYSPRO provides the means to build service orientated architecture (SOA), enabling flexible version-independent options for integrated web-enabled applications and mobile devices. The system facilitates streamlined, secure electronic data interchange and collaborative commerce through features such as Document Flow Manager, SYSPRO e.net Solutions, Office Automation and Messaging, and various business-to-business import and export functions.

The Web Applications are out-the-box solutions which you can customize to suit end-user requirements. Executive Dashboards provide supply chain managers with relevant KPIs at their fingertips while Event Management facilitates user-friendly configuration of alerts for operational and financial exceptions. Powerful VBScripting and customization features enable flexible views of SYSPRO data, as well as the incorporation of data displays from external systems, in a secure environment.

SYSPRO Office Integration (SOI) facilitates direct secure queries of key operational data from the desktops of enterprise-wide users and trading partners, without the need for the desktop installation or licensing of SYSPRO. Using a Microsoft Office product such as Word or Excel, the user can extract information from SYSPRO directly into the current Office document as text or tables. This connectivity means you can allow customers and suppliers direct access to relevant information in your organization. These powerful features, along with SYSPRO's multi-lingual and multi-currency functionality, promote true global visibility and flow of supply chain information.

SYSPRO provides additional functionality that helps you automate and manage an extended supply chain which may involve participants such as contract manufacturers, distributors and retailers: Trade Promotions Management provides extensive product promotion and pricing flexibility and improved management of deductions and rebates for your dealings with large retailers; and Return Merchandise affords efficient processing, tracking and analysis of customer returns and complaints.

SYSPRO Workflow Services enable you to streamline the execution of your supply chain processes in a consistent coherent flow. By leveraging SYSPRO's powerful technology and features, you can optimize the visibility, communication and exchange of information across your supply chain.

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.

SYSPRO provides the tools to help you optimize your inventory investment without sacrificing customer service. It enables you to effectively plan and control diverse and extensive product lines in a single or multi-warehouse environment, facilitating the creation of warehouses and bin locations to represent both physical and virtual stock locations.

Whether you employ simple manual methods to manage your warehouse operations, or sophisticated automated methods such as bar-coding and mobile devices, SYSPRO's Warehouse Management System (WMS) assists you in optimizing your pick, putaway and cycle count activities. WMS-controlled warehouses, bins and items accommodate additional configuration options which promote warehouse management efficiencies.

Whether you stock, sell, purchase or manufacture items by unit, weight, volume, pack or container size, SYSPRO's multiple units of measure per stock item give you the flexibility to accurately record and track stock quantities. Product version control is automated through the Engineering Change Control module, while extensive master data enables you to define parameters for transacting in sales, purchasing and manufacturing.

Inventory optimization functionality aids the sales and operations planning process. Decision-making on desired levels of inventory and customer service is enhanced through the graphical output from its powerful Pareto analysis and forecasting tools. Master information such as order policies, gross requirements rules, lead times, safety stock and minimum/maximum levels assist in planning replenishment, while extensive costing facilities ensure accurate costing of sales, purchase and manufacturing activities. Costing methods are available by warehouse and include the average, standard, last, FIFO, LIFO methods.

The custom forms feature gives you the freedom to define your own fields for the capture of details, such as hazardous goods information, enabling you to include these in your queries, reports and transaction documentation. Also, you can add standard notations per item for automatic inclusion in various transactions such as sales orders, purchase orders and jobs, as well as link multimedia files to key data.

SYSPRO's serial tracking and lot traceability features facilitate the tracking of materials from purchase through production to customer, thereby providing you with the tools to manage product recalls, should they occur, and the optional 2-phased receipting for purchased and manufactured products provides inspection control. The Goods in Transit system gives you comprehensive quantity, variance and cost control over inter-warehouse transfers, as well as providing input into SYSPRO's Distribution Requirements Planning.

The Stock Take system enables you to select on a range of criteria and continue transaction processing once the physical count is complete, so operations are not at a standstill while the count is being captured. Import facilities are available and you can run a number of verification and variance reports to highlight stock take exceptions and provide the necessary checks before confirmation.

SYSPRO's integrated nature and powerful reporting and query facilities give you visibility to detailed stock statuses and transaction history, while perpetual inventory costing provides at-a-glance valuation of stock holdings by warehouse and stock code. Queries include summary stock code quantities, such as warehouse on-hand, on-order, available, free, in-transit, in-inspection, allocated and backordered, as well as the ability to drill-down to supporting detail.

Extensive reporting is available including detailed kardex movements, identification of obsolete, slow-moving and excessive inventories, as well as reports on summary inventory quantities and exceptions based on various stock level criteria. In addition, the Office Automation and Messaging module provides the ability to create alerts and events which are automatically fired when inventory exceptions (such as 'below minimum') occur.

Efficient management of your receivables and mitigation of bad debt is essential to maintaining a healthy cash flow. SYSPRO's powerful features can assist you to improve your credit management performance with reduced effort, as well as to maintain single-point communications with your customers.

Extensive order and invoice credit checking features enable the implementation of flexible terms and controls to suit different categories of customer. Ageing methods offered include by invoice date, invoice due date, statement date and aged statement date, and customer terms allow for a variety of settlement discount options. Multi-currency invoice and payments are catered for, as well as the automation of finance and recurring charges.

Prompt electronic delivery of customer statements, invoices and copy invoices is facilitated through SYSPRO's email and fax integration; documents can be transmitted directly from point of extraction. User-defined stationery formats preclude the need for pre-printed stationery and enable the creation of customer documents in Word or secure PDF format. Additionally, you can allow customers to query your SYSPRO database directly for detailed account information via the internet, with SYSPRO Office Integration or SYSPRO e.net solutions.

The 'Average Days to Pay' calculation and extensive search, query and report features enable the quick and accurate assessment and targeted follow-up of customer debt. Rapid application of customer payments against a large number of outstanding invoices is efficiently handled using SYSPRO's Payments and Adjustment functions, including the automatic payments application feature. Also, the time and effort to manage trade customer accruals, rebates and deductions is significantly reduced through the use of SYSPRO's Trade Promotions and master/sub account functionality.

SYSPRO helps to greatly streamline the completion of account receivable month end procedures. Creation of workflow and checklists for periodic and month-end procedures is made possible through SYSPRO's customizable menus and Task Manager. The system's multi-period accounting enables operational continuity for the new period, reducing pressure on the receivables department to finalize the month's transactions within a severely limited time frame. In addition, SYSPRO Reporting Services provides the ability to automate scheduling and electronic storage of month end reports 'as run', thereby precluding the need to supervise their production and printing.

SYSPRO's standard Trial Balance and Credit Management reports can be supplemented by additional user-defined KPIs and reports using Report Writer or SYSPRO Reporting Services. Furthermore, you can configure SYSPRO's powerful event management and customization features to alert relevant personnel to certain conditions, such as accounts being overdue by a stated number of days, via email or on-screen field highlights.

SYSPRO's Contact Management system helps you to manage your relationships with contract manufacturers through the recording and tracking of all interactions, while the blanket purchase order functionality facilitates the creation, management and electronic communication of the details of the outsourcing contracts that you have negotiated.

For mass production and vendor-managed inventory environments, SYSPRO's powerful forecasting, and material requirements planning functionality give you the means to provide suppliers with visibility to time-phased component requirements out into the future; in make- and engineer-to-order environments, sub-contract manufacturing services for a particular job are placed on suppliers via optionally linked purchase orders. Component tracking and quality management is enhanced through SYSPRO's quality management, lot traceability and serial tracking systems.

Work in progress, bill of materials (BOM) and engineering change control (ECC) functionality enables you to cost and manage your BOM design changes and include tasks, actions and notifications for your contract suppliers in the electronic ECC workflow. Furthermore, synchronization of your internal production facility with any reserved capacity at your contract suppliers is facilitated by SYSPRO's powerful factory scheduling features.

SYSPRO's multi-currency and landed cost tracking features enable you to better estimate the true landed cost of your outsourced production, while the GRN suspense and supplier invoice matching features provide the mechanism to track your purchase price variances.

Whether a requirement for government- or customer-driven compliance, the capability to ensure part traceability, from material origins through manufacture to final destination, is integral to guaranteeing products against defective materials and workmanship. Because SYSPRO's lot traceability and serial tracking features are fully integrated to the rest of the system, they afford full centralized visibility to the origins, build and sales destination of products. This in turn ensures automated real-time tracking and the rapid tracing and analysis of the source of defects should they occur.

SYSPRO facilitates the recording of traceability and quality data on materials and products, from purchasing through inspection, manufacturing, manufacturing inspection, stocking and sales; thereby enabling real-time tracking of supplier performance, quality and warranty metrics. Its serial tracking and lot traceability features provide powerful queries that enable both upward and downward searches by stock code, lot number/serial number and transaction type, and flexible reporting enable the fast extraction of trace reports.

In addition, SYSPRO's Engineering Change Control module enables complete management and traceability of changes to product designs, while the Return Merchandise module provides consistent handling of product returns and customer complaints, as well as analysis data for improvement programs.

SYSPRO provides the capability for the secure storage and fast retrieval of reliable integrated information to enable quick extraction when a product or batch recall is necessary. Adherence to stringent EU/ MHRA /FDA/TGA regulations in terms of traceability and recall procedures in industries, such as food, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, is facilitated through SYSPRO's lot traceability and serial tracking features. Multimedia capabilities enable the linking of relevant documentation and graphics to products and material, while custom forms facilitate the capture of essential traceability data relevant to your industry.

SYSPRO includes the facilities to trace items from raw material origins to customer, and vice versa, as well as the ability to identify the processor of every transaction or data change associated with the item, via Electronic Signatures. Full upward and downward searches and extraction of the integrated traceability data is provided by SYSPRO's powerful queries, and standard or user-defined reports.

Using SYSPRO's powerful traceability features, you can confidently identify the source of defects and quality issues, and thus limit recalls to defective product only. This prevents the need for total product recall and the associated costs and reputation impact.

SYSPRO powerful functionality enables the efficient synchronization of supply and demand, thereby helping you to reduce inventory, obsolescent stocks and lead time to your customers.

In industries where rapid innovation is critical to remaining competitive and trends (such as Moore's Law) continue to apply downward pressure on revenues, strategies to optimize inventory without sacrificing customer service and quality are essential. SYSPRO's Inventory, Inventory Optimization and Requirements Planning modules provide the tools to help reduce forecast error, manage seasonality and optimize inventories to meet customer service targets.

SYSPRO enables you to automate and streamline order-to-delivery processes, and provides complete visibility to an integrated picture of your operations, thereby enabling efficient management of operations in rapidly shifting demand environments. The Inventory Optimization suite provides comprehensive tracking and analysis of forecasts, as well as slow-moving, excess, active and static stocks. Its powerful features enable accurate obsolescence provisioning, product rationalization programs and targeted promotions on slow-moving and end-of-life stocks.

Excess component, work-in-progress and finished goods inventory is further mitigated through the use of SYSPRO's powerful forecasting and material requirements planning (MRP) features. These provide a complete view of independent and dependent demand and supply, as well as accurate time-phased requirements with comprehensive pegging. Component-to-operation linking, along with order policy, lead time and time fence features, enable accurate JIT-based materials replenishment.

For those businesses not requiring full-scale MRP but a simpler derivative, SYSPRO offers Advanced Trial Kitting, which you can run based on a range of user-selected criteria thereby ensuring that you order only the materials that you require. Additionally, true order-linked pull replenishment is provided through sales order- and purchase order-to-job linking and multi-level trial kitting, which enable the automatic raising and linking of the relevant supply orders via simple review.

SYSPRO Factory Scheduler facilitates the efficient preparation and execution of achievable production schedules and assists the production area in quickly implementing the necessary changes when order profiles vary from plan. Additionally, materials-constraint scheduling helps to prevent the accumulation of excess Work In Progress inventories.

Efficient automation, management and tracking of product life cycles is provided through the Inventory, Bill of Materials and Engineering Change Control modules, thereby streamlining time-to-market processes, while efficient warehouse and shelf life management is provided through SYSPRO's powerful inventory, warehouse management, lot tracking and serial tracking functionality.

SYSPRO aids you in implementing your zero-defect initiatives by enabling the automation of processes that monitor product quality. The system facilitates the execution of continuous improvement programs by helping you to identify quality problems as they occur.

The integrity and reliability of product design data and versions is strengthened through the rich functionality in the Inventory, Bill of Material and Engineering Change Control modules; together they provide centralized control and visibility to product life cycles, ensuring that all PLM participants, whether internal or external, are working collaboratively to the same specifications.

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. Purchased goods inspection enables you to implement controls over the quality of delivered raw materials, while the work-in-progress inspection facilities enable quality validation and grading of manufactured products.

SYSPRO's Quality Management System provides the ability to embed product quality and safety validations, data and actions within your purchasing, inventory, production and sales orders processes. It enables the configuration of multiple measurement metrics as well as inspection points per inventory item, thereby enabling the implementation of statistical process control. Furthermore, SYSPRO e.net solutions facilitates rapid development of secure and version-independent integration where other best-of-breed quality systems are employed.

The diverse nature of manufacturing methods employed in the industry entails the synchronization and integration of a variety of manufacturing techniques all within one fully integrated software system.

Whether manufacturing to order or to stock, using discrete or process methods; engineering to order; or building large project-based assets, SYSPRO's outstanding flexibility ensures a comprehensive set of tools to help you plan, record, track and control your output.

SYSPRO functionality enables you to keep finished goods inventory to an absolute minimum and enhances your decision-making regarding what to manufacture, with what resources, when, where, and in what sequence.

SYSPRO's Quotations and Estimating ensures the integrity of cost and profit calculation for bid processes in project, as well as job shop, engineer and make-to-order environments. On confirmation of a quote, SYSPRO provides the capability to automatically raise all supply actions related to fulfilling the customer order, through its sales order, purchase order and job linking features. Furthermore, SYSPRO's Product Configurator facilitates seamless rules-based order processing for assemble, configure and make-to-order products.

For discrete and process manufacturers, comprehensive bills of material functionality enables the definition of simple single-level bills through to complex formulations with multiple units of measure and relationship definitions.

Master data features ensure accurate calculation of lead times and dynamic elapsed times, and assist in the optimization of production order quantities, while Engineering Change Control facilitates the efficient management of changes to product versions.

Planning features include forecasting, master planning, material requirements planning and capacity planning, while scheduling functionality extends from single-constraint scheduling to multi-constraint scheduling and sequencing.

Material and labor consumed in production may be backflushed, or, for longer production runs, issued as consumed to work in progress. Work-in-progress inspection functionality enables a product to be receipted against multiple items if grades of the final product vary.

Tracking of actual versus estimated labor hours, material usage and scrap is facilitated through the Work in Progress module, while SYSPRO's e.net Solutions enable version-independent integration to best-of-breed CAD and shop-floor data collection systems.

SYSPRO features extensive costing control and tracking, including the facility to model the effects of what-if material, labor and manufacturing route costs.

Maximizing profitability in a highly competitive market is only possible with an accurate picture of your costs. For a capital-intensive industry that is characterized by low margins, short product lifecycles, and substantial research and development costs, closely monitoring and controlling costs and margins, and reducing waste in all areas of the business is essential to your on-going profitability.

SYSPRO enables you to implement continuous improvement by giving you visibility to costs and profits across the business and helping you to identify issues as they occur. This includes variations in expected and actual raw material and production costs; late supplier deliveries; obsolete, slow-moving and excessive inventories; and product defects and scrap.

SYSPRO's extensive pricing and trade promotions features, as well as its costing methods configurable by warehouse enable targeted pricing and close analysis and control over margins and profitability throughout product life cycles; available costing methods include Average, Standard, Actual, Last, LIFO and FIFO. In addition, what-if costing features enables you to model possible changes in raw material and labor costs and assess the imploded effects on higher level item costs and profits.

Tracking the costs of long sales cycles and product development activities is essential to identifying true return on investment. SYSPRO's Engineering Change Control functionality enables improved control over product development activities, while SYSPRO's Work in Progress enables the capture, costing and tracking of time and materials consumed in various development cycles and business programs. This provides instant visibility to project cost performance in relation to budgets, as well as the timely identification of cost reimbursement values.

For complex long-cycle projects, SYSPRO's Projects and Contracts module enables project accounting and detailed analysis of activities and costs by user-defined section. Estimating and quotations functionality facilitates accurate costing and quoting of to-order products, services and projects, ensuring accurate profitability projection.

Efficient management and tracking of product lifecycles is provided through the Inventory, Bill of Materials and Engineering Change Control modules, thereby streamlining time-to-market processes, while efficient warehouse and shelf life management is provided through SYSPRO's powerful inventory, lot tracking and serial tracking functionality. Full integration to SYSPRO's General Ledger from the relevant sub-systems affords up-to-date analysis of enterprise-wide financial key performance indicators (KPI) and trends. Furthermore, SYSPRO's digital dashboards, Analytics, Reporting Services and extensive VBScripting and customization features provide the facilities to configure and track industry- and enterprise-relevant financial and operational KPIs.