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Product category: Supply chain planning and execution software
News Release from: Infor | Subject: VISUAL Enterprise suite for supply chain mangt
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial Team on 08 April 2003

Bettering supply chain planning and
control

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A software company will use the Engineering 2003 exhibition to launch products for better supply chain planning, monitoring and control and integrate design and manaufacturing management.

Lilly Software Associates will use the Engineering 2003 exhibition to launch onto the UK market a new project management module to extend the functional value of the company's supply chain management systems In addition, the company will highlight the latest versions of two software modules to, respectively, better integrate design and manufacture, and improve engineering change control

Fully integrated with the company's VISUAL Enterprise suite of supply chain management systems, the modules are Project-Based Manufacturing, DesignLink and the Engineering Change Control (ECN) module.

Dr Maz Mohamedali, European sales and marketing director for Lilly Software Associates, said of the new Project-Based Manufacturing module: "To date, integrated project management featuring full costing and manufacturing control functions has been confined mostly to users of large and expensive supply chain management systems.

The new module from Lilly will bring a much- needed and affordable asset to tier two and three manufacturers - small to medium-size enterprises (SMEs) - that operate in project-based environments." A global vendor of supply chain management systems, Lilly Software Associates aims its products at the SME market.

The company works in close partnership with industrial customers such as original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and sub-contractors, as well as the manufacturing subsidiaries of large multinational corporations in industries such as aerospace, automotive, electronics, medical device and other sectors.

VISUAL enterprise project-based manufacturing - Lilly Software Associates claims that a comprehensive and fully integrated project management function is missing from many supply chain management and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.

Designed for SMEs, the company will address this gap in the UK market by launching its Project-Based Manufacturing module at the Engineering 2003 exhibition.

The module integrates with the standard functions of the VISUAL Enterprise supply chain management system.

It will provide powerful new resources for those organisations requiring project-based costing and manufacturing monitoring and control.

Lilly Software Associates' VISUAL Enterprise suite of products includes scheduling, production and inventory control, e-business, financials and logistics modules.

The integrated project management tools include work breakdown structure, project management, project costing, project control and project execution.

The result, claims Lilly Software Associates, is a system the company believes will help those SME manufacturers requiring project management to monitor and control more effectively the whole cycle of design, manufacture and distribution.

It will enable the achievement of greater cost savings, improvements to product quality and the cutting of delivery time to customers by precisely tracking and coordinating all data, materials, resources and suppliers.

Integrating design and manufacture with DesignLink - functioning within computer-aided design (CAD) applications such as AutoCAD, the latest DesignLink software module from Lilly Software Associates uses XML technology to facilitate data management.

The module lets users share manufacturing bill of material (BOM) lists and parts information between the CAD and VISUAL Enterprise supply chain management systems.

The software automates an important process that before could take manufacturing organisations much time and effort to achieve manually.

This high level of integration means that users will be able to maintain and retrieve the relevant data through a single interface, leading to less duplication of data, reduced human error and better accuracy, more consistency and higher productivity.

Further important benefits include the improvement of communications between design engineers, manufacturing personnel and others in the supply chain.

Vital engineering change control - the latest version of the Engineering Change Control (ECN) software module from Lilly Software Associates enables better control to be exercised over the process of making changes to the standard bill of material (BOM) and routings.

It will: automatically generate pending change notifications for engineers and production personnel; track approvals for changes; apply engineering changes to some or all work in progress (WIP) orders for the same manufactured part; prevent certain transactions against WIP orders when changes are pending; and maintain a comprehensive audit trail of changes to the BOM and routings.

The Engineering Change Control (ECN) module is available with the latest version of the VISUAL Enterprise system, release 6.3.

Coupled with the recently launched VISUAL Enterprise for Distributors, a sub- set of Lilly Software Associates' VISUAL Enterprise suite of integrated products, the company will offer the manufacturing industry in general and specialised sectors in particular one of the world's most comprehensive choice of systems and modular software packages for supply chain management.

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