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.

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.

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.

The standard of service that you provide your customers makes all the difference in building solid relationships and gaining the competitive edge. This requires keeping track, not only of customer sales-related information, but also details of internal or external business relationships. To make better business decisions about expected customer, product and market activity, you need to have information in appropriate formats and at different levels of detail to carry out analysis.

SYSPRO's Contact Management allows for multiple contacts to be assigned to organizations and individuals that you deal with. These can include your customers and suppliers, as well as entities such as charities and government departments. You can group contacts for related entities and record details regarding interactions such as phone calls, emails and visits against the contact. Integration with Microsoft Outlook allows email correspondence to be sent and updated as an activity within the Contact Management system.

Your ability to deliver quality products faster, with more customer-specific features, and at stable or even reduced prices differentiates you in a discerning market place. Features such as available-to-promise and customer delivery performance reporting, provide information to help you improve your customer service levels, and the Customer/Stock Code Interchange function gives you the flexibility to allow your customers to order by their part number.

SYSPRO enables you to keep a history not only of sales data but also individual customer-related product activities, so you can easily identify buying patterns and preferences, and quickly create repeat orders by copying and amending previous ones. SYSPRO Forecasting uses sales history to identify trends and seasonal components of demand, thereby assisting you in calculating more accurate forecasts, which in turn leads to better planning and improved customer service levels.

Simple, extended and contract pricing mechanisms give you flexibility to apply one-dimensional pricing and discounting, or tailor these requirements to individual customers. Where customers are large organizations—such as original equipment manufacturers (OEM) or retails chains—with whom prices are negotiated on a contract or volume basis, more complex pricing is required. SYSPRO's pricing, trade management and sales analysis facilities enable you to provide acceptable pricing terms and delivery targets to large customers without sacrificing profitability.

SYSPRO's Inventory module enables the definition of multiple user-defined units of measure (UOM) for stocked items: Stocking UOM, Alternate UOM, Other UOM and Manufacturing UOM. These units of measure, along with their conversion factors, are used in various parts of the system to ensure accurate quantities for sales, purchasing and production.

For production purposes, SYSPRO's multi-level bill of materials functionality enables you to define the manufacturing recipes and methods for bulk, intermediary and pack items, allowing for up to 15 levels per route, and 10 routes per finished product. For each level in a multi-level bill, you can define ingredient quantities as quantity per, fixed quantity or wet weight percentage in relation to the UOM defined for that level's parent item and routing.

Whether a compliance-critical requirement, or an analysis tool for continuous improvement strategies, the traceability of products from material origins through manufacture to final destination, is a key system requirement in many industries.

SYSPRO facilitates the recording of traceability and quality data on materials and products from purchasing through inspection, manufacturing, manufacturing inspection, stocking and sales. The recording of expiry and shelf-life information is also facilitated and powerful queries enable both upward and downward searches by stock code, lot number and transaction type.

SYSPROls lot traceability and serial tracking functionality afford full visibility to the origins, build and customer destination of products and batches, thereby providing the means to rapidly trace and analyse the source of defects, should they occur. In addition, SYSPRO's Engineering Change Control module enables complete management and traceability of changes to product designs, while the Return Merchandise Authority provides consistent handling of product returns, as well as analysis data for improvement programs.

SYSPRO's integrated nature enables full backward and forward traceability, as well as comprehensive record-keeping to meet strict compliance requirements. Shelf-life management is facilitated through expiry dates and you can use SYSPRO's customization and custom form features to record other compliance-code dates, as well as to capture storage and transport compatibility codes.

SYSPRO's Quality Management System (QMS) enables the configuration and tracking of quality inspection points and metrics, to help ensure product quality and high production yields. Where a full QMS system is not required, the system can be configured to force sample, or full quantities of items through inspection processes, where detailed records of counts, inspection, rework, scrap, defects and returns can be recorded. Basic quality management is further enhanced through the ability to specify approved manufacturers for material supplies, as well as the ability to monitor supplier performance.

Tracking material involves knowing where it is at any point in time. In addition to SYSPRO's powerful traceability features, the system provides inventory management and visibility across multiple physical and virtual locations, as well as detailed tracking of purchase orders, sales orders, works orders, inter-warehouse transfers and available-to-promise quantities and dates.

SYSPRO's e.Net Solutions enable integration with scanning and RFID systems, to reduce processing time, as well as processing lags and errors, as material moves through the different processes.

SYSPRO's Forecasting module gives you the tools to help you forecast future demand, based on seasonal, cyclical and trend demand patterns in your sales history and lost-sales data, thereby enabling you to plan your production and purchasing to meet these requirements.

A powerful Pareto analysis feature enables you to easily identify fast, slow and obsolete items in terms of sales value, gross profit, cost of sales, quantities sold or hits, so you can make decisions about which items to forecast, and the best method to use for each.

You can choose to create forecasts at stock code/warehouse level, and if the Families and Grouping module is installed, you can aggregate your forecasts into user-defined groupings. A variety of forecast calculation methods are available, including the competition method, and the module also provides facilities to track the forecast quality.

Additionally, you can select to manually forecast items which require market intelligence, while selecting to batch forecast all other items, and filters and adjustments can be applied to sales history to account for outliers and other abnormalities.

Multi-level analysis of product performance is available, including at stock code, warehouse, product class, supplier, planner and buyer levels, as well as at user-defined group level if the Families and Groupings module is installed.

The approved forecast becomes the demand input to SYSPRO's Material Requirements Planning (MRP) system. This gives your planners and buyers visibility to the resources and actions required to meet the demand in the short, medium and long term.

Increasing manufacturing efficiency means getting the right balance between demand and supply, while optimizing capacity, improving throughput, and reducing waste and variable costs. SYSPRO provides interactive decision-support tools that give you visibility and control over all inputs and outputs.

SYSPRO's material requirements planning functionality gives you an integrated picture of your time-phased demand and supply, enabling you to model 'what-if' scenarios to produce viable replenishment plans.

SYSPRO Factory Scheduling assists you in maintaining accurate and up-to-date production schedules that take account of your material plans and the complexities of your factory. This enables better co-ordination between work centers, increased productivity, reduced work-in-progress and achievement of improved customer service levels.

Material and labor tracking, as well as cost, scrap and utilization management is facilitated through SYSPRO's Work in Progress module, which enables you to track in-process production at every stage and identify problems as they occur.

Understanding the true cost per transaction of doing business means identifying contributing elements, direct and indirect, across the entire organization. These include not only the cost efficiency of operational activities and their interrelationships, but also the time spent on manual and redundant processes, reconciliations, paperwork and reporting, as well as the cost of lost opportunities from a lack of agility in responding to the global marketplace.

SYSPRO provides essential integrated visibility to your accounting, distribution and manufacturing operations, thereby enabling you to easily identify and track your cost elements and to target areas of waste for improvement programs. Additionally, it facilitates the automation of many processes that have traditionally been labour-intensive and time-consuming, such as operational-to-financial reconciliations and communicating with trading partners.

It offers Standard, Average, Last, FIFO and LIFO costing methods flagged at warehouse level, thereby providing accurate operations-focused inventory valuation, which in turn supplies accurate input for product pricing and profitability. Comprehensive multi-level costing of manufactured items is provided through the Bill of Material and Work in Progress modules, with the Product Configurator and Quotations and Estimating modules providing additional tools for assemble/make/engineer-to-order environments. Lot traceability, serial tracking and return merchandise functionality, along with SYSPRO's inspection systems, provide tracking of product defects, thereby helping you mitigate costly recalls.

SYSPRO's cost rollup and implosion functionality, along with user-friendly costing queries, provides fast access to reliable information on which to base pricing and profit margins. In addition, its extensive what-if costing features enables modelling and comparison of the cost effects of alternative inputs, such as raw materials, production routes, labor rates and subcontractor rates.

SYSPRO provides work-in-progress tracking, enabling evaluation of detailed actual-versus-expected costs, as well as targets for cost savings and continuous improvement programs. Used in conjunction with the Projects and Contracts module, it facilitates comprehensive project job costing. Visibility to production scheduling, along with what-if sequencing and scheduling tools, enhance manufacturing agility and competitiveness and help to prevent lost sales in unpredictable demand environments.

Excess inventories tie up valuable resources both in terms of cost and warehouse management. SYSPRO helps you optimize, manage and track your inventories through its multi-warehouse Inventory, Material Requirements Planning, Purchase Order and Work in Progress modules. In addition, the Purchase Order and Landed Cost Tracking systems provide a more accurate estimate of the full landed cost of imported goods, with the GRN matching and reconciliation features facilitating electronic reconciliation of supplier deliveries and charges.

Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable and Cash Book provide comprehensive balancing and reconciliation tools, as well as credit and cash flow management capability. Additionally, efficient administration of customer accruals, rebates and deductions is facilitated through the Trade Promotions Management module. Commitment accounting is provided through the Accounts Payable and Purchasing modules, while the Assets Register ensures accurate maintenance and depreciation costing, and asset profit and loss realization.

SYSPRO's General Ledger module provides powerful queries with drill-down from journal to transaction source, as well as at-a-glance financial and activity ratios. Processing time is greatly reduced through features, such as sub-ledger integration and reconciliation, journal copy, journal import, automatic weighted transfer of costs and G/L analysis.

Furthermore, SYSPRO's ease of ledger consolidation across complex businesses, along with its XML-based financial reporting features, enables prompt web-based deployment of financial reports to SYSPRO and non-SYSPRO users alike.

SYSPRO's flexible user-defined stationery formats, along with SYSPRO Reporting Services (SRS), precludes the need for pre-printed stationery for invoices, delivery notes, order acknowledgements, dispatch notes, purchase orders and statements. In addition, SRS provides considerable savings by reducing the need for paper-based audit trails and reporting. Its automatic scheduling tool precludes the need for resource-intensive supervision of periodic and month-end reporting. Furthermore, the archiving feature provides for the electronic storage of reports as run, thereby enabling users to view them on-line to discern actual print requirements.

SYSPRO's Office (SOI), fax and email integration saves time, postage and paper by enabling you to deliver transactional documents, such as purchase orders and statements, directly from their point of extraction via secure electronic means. Additionally, SOI facilitates direct 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.

The capability to extend electronic communication, so as to automate the acceptance and acknowledgement of orders on a 24/7 basis, is provided via SYSPRO's e.Net solutions, Document Flow Manager and Web Applications. Furthermore, SYSPRO's e.Net Solutions tools afford non-proprietary and version-independent integration to mobile devices and best-of-breed applications, such as shop floor control and quality monitoring systems.

The ROI of implementing SYSPRO is rapidly realized through full visibility to an integrated picture of your business operations and the resultant reduction in operational costs, processing time and human resources.