Production Machining - Your access to the precision machining industrial buyer.
Issue link: https://pm.epubxp.com/i/753552
Knowledge Sync Event Manager rough the years of their partnership, both JGR and JobBOSS have changed and evolved. Recently, JGR imple- mented KnowledgeSync Event Manager as an add-on module that acts as an invisible assistant. is feature is a business activity monitoring solution that integrates with the ERP software to give real time visibility into key activities, information and milestones. Data is added to the system continuously as operations are (or are not) taking place. e system can then proactively report this data automatically, via email, text or other means, to designated users at specified intervals without the need for the user to go after the data. For example, someone in the quality department may receive a notification email that a certain machine just scrapped three parts. Every depart- ment within an organization can take advantage of the data tracking. Notifications can be sent externally as well, such as to customers for product shipment or past-due payments. ere is no limit to the number of events that can be programmed or the number of people being notified. "KnowledgeSync removes a lot of the burden of handling everyday tasks," says Lisa O'Flaherty, senior solutions engineer with JobBoss. "Having the information delivered to people automatically without anyone having to track it down provides enormous time savings." Some compa- nies use the software to look for trends, such as quanti- ties of orders coming from specific customers. ey often discover information they weren't necessarily expecting. Ms. O'Flaherty says people sometimes have the percep- tion that implementing such a system takes too much time to set up. To alleviate these concerns, JobBoss provides 20 standard canned events for what the company has found to be the most common applications. ese events can be easily modified as needed to suit the user's requirements, but provide a quick jumpstart for implementation. "Once a shop begins using these, they become more comfortable with setting up their own," she says. Alerting the Race Team Within two weeks of implementing KnowledgeSync, George Skelton, JGR materials manager, was able to implement more than 15 business critical alerts for the entire team to track data accurately, ensure POs are received, and send material reminders in real time. e team is able to use the event manager to proactively notify personnel of critical business updates and stay ahead of the issues that could arise. JGR has between 300 and 500 over-the-counter trans- actions every day and cuts about 1,000 POs a month. Volume such as this requires keeping track of many small details, and it's common for data points to get lost in the noise. With KnowledgeSync alerts, JGR employees are able to easily assess their task list and sift through the important items that require attention. In an industry Why ERP? It's not uncommon for shops to manage their work orders and even many of their front office functions using cumbersome methods such as spreadsheets and handwritten record keeping. Such manual processing requires significant time for tracking job costing, order entry and other detail-oriented financial calculations. An ERP system can reduce much of that time devoted to tracking and managing jobs and keeping a handle on accounting requirements for personnel, inventory and customer relationship management. Software packages such as JobBoss offer an all-in-one solution for data analysis that eliminates the need for multiple systems that don't necessarily communicate with each other. These products are designed to handle the long list of data management, including quoting, estimating, order entry, sales, payroll, purchasing, and personnel, from shopfloor employees to shipping to owners. While many ERP packages are more item-based, JobBoss is designed to be job-based, allowing easier customization of jobs that come in, whether they are completely new or some modification of an existing work order. Shops that do prototype work often benefit from this approach because they can more easily make changes on the fly for any type of job. The software is also a proven solution for a mix of repeat and make to order shops as well. ERP software helps streamline operations, from the front office to the shop floor. SHOP MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE 38 PRODUCTION MACHINING :: DECEMBER 2016