CrescentOne Partners with Avalara to Automate Tax Compliance
Integration simplifies sales tax compliance management for CrescentOne’s customers
El Segundo, CA – August 21, 2023 – CrescentOne Inc., an industry-leading Manufacturing ERP solution provider for discrete manufacturing, and a wholly owned subsidiary of Constellation Software Inc., today announced it has partnered with Avalara, a leading provider of tax compliance automation software for businesses of all sizes.
CrescentOne is now part of Avalara’s “Certified for AvaTax” program, which features integrations that perform at the highest level, providing the best possible customer experience. As a result of this partnership, CrescentOne’s customers can now choose Avalara’s AvaTax to deliver sales and use tax calculations within CrescentOne business applications in real time.
CrescentOne is a proven, comprehensive, integrated, and flexible solution that manufacturers use to manage all of their operations— from product design, sales and procurement to production, order and engineering management and post-sales service.
“We are excited to partner with Avalara to provide our customers with an automated way to calculate sales tax,” said Anil Sharma, Executive Vice President and Head of Product and Global Support at CrescentOne. “Managing sales tax manually is complex and costly; our integration with Avalara helps our customers efficiently achieve compliance so they can get back to business.”
Meg Higgins, Senior Vice President of Global Partners at Avalara said, “CrescentOne understands the needs of its customers, and their CrescentOne offering reduces complexity for their customers in many ways. We understand that digitization of business processes is not an option, it is essential; we are proud to offer fast, accurate, and easy tax compliance solutions to our shared customers.”
CrescentOne is now an Avalara Certified partner. Certified partners pass a series of criteria developed by Avalara to ensure the connector’s performance and reliability, thereby helping mutual customers benefit from a seamless experience with Avalara’s tax compliance solutions.
About Partner
A leading innovator in manufacturing ERP software and solutions, CrescentOne is one of the world’s most innovative and experienced enterprise software firms—offering discrete manufacturing ERP software and solutions that enable small to large manufacturing companies, assembly operations and mixed-mode companies worldwide to optimize, manage and grow their operations. More importantly, these solutions help manufacturers meet their customers’ ever-increasing requirements for high-quality, on-time and on-budget production. Headquartered in El Segundo, CA, CrescentOne also has offices in The Netherlands and United Kingdom. More information at CrescentOne.com.
About Avalara, Inc.
Avalara makes tax compliance faster, easier, more accurate, and more reliable for 30,000+ business and government customers in over 90 countries. Tax compliance automation software solutions from Avalara leverage 1,200+ signed partner integrations across leading ecommerce, ERP, and other billing systems to power tax calculations, document management, tax return filing, and tax content access. Visit avalara.com to improve your compliance journey.
From Chaos to Cohesion: Elevating Operations with a Connectivity Framework
In today’s fast-paced and interconnected business landscape, organizations face the challenge of managing large digital ecosystems with multiple integration points and applications running on-premises and in the cloud. This fragmentation can lead to disconnected processes, inconsistent performance, and reduced operational efficiency — potentially impacting your bottom line.
While there are rarely silver-bullet solutions in business, implementing a robust connectivity framework can deliver. Let’s look at how the right connectivity framework can help unlock your organization’s full potential in today’s dynamic market.
Why is a Connectivity Framework Crucial?
Real-time visibility, transparency, and automation of key business processes are paramount for success. A connectivity framework allows businesses, including manufacturers, to connect disparate processes running across the entire supply chain, breaking down silos, and achieving seamless communication. Manufacturers need this capability to decrease response times and automate critical business processes, ultimately enhancing efficiency and productivity.
Reducing Delays, Increasing Efficiency
The right connectivity platform should effectively address manufacturing challenges, including long decision-making cycles, inaccurate and incomplete data, limited visibility into key performance indicators, and slow organizational responsiveness. By providing connected and automated processes, the right framework empowers your team to make informed decisions faster, reducing operational delays and increasing overall efficiency.
Integrating Data Sources and Systems
You want to consider a connectivity framework that supports a wide range of standard data sources and facilitates the integration of business processes and data with various systems, such as PLM, CRM, CPQ, and tax compliance systems. A framework like the C1 Connectivity module set offers flexibility and seamless communication between different applications and data sources by utilizing RESTful web services framework and popular data exchange formats like JSON and XML.
A Comprehensive Solution: The C1 Connectivity Platform
The C1 Connectivity Platform serves as an integration platform that enables quick integration of on-premises and cloud-based processes, services, applications, events, and data for C1 ERP users. Leveraging Restful web services and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), this platform provides a wide array of tools, prebuilt Web APIs, Microservices, and open connectors. These functionalities efficiently link diverse business processes, business intelligence, and supply chain elements, ensuring smooth cooperation between enterprise systems.
Empowering Informed Business Decisions
One of the key advantages of C1 Connectivity Platform is its ability to convert vast volumes of raw data into meaningful, actionable information. By analyzing this data, you gain insights into your most profitable customers, best-selling products, on-time delivery performance, inventory turnover, and customer service levels. Armed with this knowledge, you’ll be empowered to make data-driven choices that drive growth and success.
Standing Out from the Competition
An out-of-the-box, fully integrated technology framework provides the competitive advantage you’re looking for — without the headaches. Built with the C1 ERP base technology framework, it minimizes the learning curve for C1 ERP customers. Additionally, the composable approach to connectivity transforms digital assets into reusable components, expediting project delivery and increasing efficiency.
Choose the Connectivity Game-Changer
A robust connectivity framework is a game-changer for companies looking to improve operations and boost their bottom line. By breaking down silos, streamlining processes, and providing real-time visibility, the C1 Connectivity Platform empowers manufacturers to make informed decisions, enhance productivity, and stay ahead in today’s competitive landscape. Embrace the power of connectivity, transform your businesses, and usher in a new era of efficiency and success. Contact us to get started today.
Blog Series :: GLOVIA G2 :: Manufacturing ERP for Electronics Vertical
Leading electronics manufacturing rely on GLOVIA G2 manufacturing ERP software to boost productivity & increase responsiveness.
Providing the Speed and Agility Required by Electronics Manufacturing Applications
Combined with the competition from emerging markets, the demand to deliver new products quickly and efficiently presents tough challenges for electronics manufacturers. Getting new products to market requires a level of agility, coordination and attention to detail that can be difficult to maintain.
Backed by Fujitsu, one the world’s largest electronics manufacturers, CrescentOne understands the pressures faced by the electronics industry, and our GLOVIA G2 ERP software provides specific solutions for those challenges.
For instance, a product known by one marketing name may require different components depending on the market it’s destined for.
GLOVIA G2 allows for multiple BOM for the same market item, taking into account individual demands while maintaining an overall record for the product.
Revision control is another area where GLOVIA G2 stands out. Keeping track of serial and lot numbers behind the scenes, our manufacturing ERP software can return information on what was built, when it was built and where it was shipped to.
On the factory floor, GLOVIA G2 even allows operators to call up stored videos for on-the-spot training as needed.
ERP Functionality Ideally Suited for Electronics
GLOVIA G2 modules that are particularly useful to the electronics industry include:
Costing – manages costs down to the operational level, allowing you to know exactly where your margins are
Electronic Kanban – monitors floor stock in real time, automatically re-ordering components as triggers are hit
Master Production Scheduling (MPS) – provides a powerful set of tools for material and resource planning, analysis, and performance measurement. MPS with inventory allows purchasing to be set for inventory at the factory level
Material Requirements Planning (MRP) – integrated with live inventories, work orders, projects, and sales and purchase orders to ensure that the latest information is always considered. Not only can it plan activity to the minute level it can also automatically plan substitute parts where applicable
Repetitive Manufacturing– sets one repetitive manufacturing schedule to keep the job rolling and producing components
Supply Chain Planning– maximizes production by identifying exactly where to place orders
Factory Planning– Once the manufacturing location has been selected and FP can take over with the scheduling of machines, people, crews, tooling and material to ensure that product is shipped on time
GLOVIA G2 is used for a wide range of electronics applications, including:
Gaming devices
Disc drives
Personal computer motherboards
Car stereo system
Automotive engine control units
Opportunities for Operational Improvement
The real-life experiences afforded by the GLOVIA G2 installations throughout Fujitsu’s operations lend important insights into the role that our manufacturing ERP software can play in the electronics industry.
GLOVIA G2 is designed to provide real-time transactions – whenever you place an inquiry, you’re seeing the most recent events as they occur.
Our software also allows electronics manufacturers to:
Streamline and automate business processes
Integrate and manage operations
Cut costs and reduce inventory
Boost productivity
Improve responsiveness
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Report :: GLOVIA G2 Setting the Standard for Real-time Manufacturing in ERP
Ted Rohm, Senior ERP Analyst from TEC gives his opinion on GLOVIA G2, our Manufacturing ERP Product. “CrescentOne, from CrescentOne., has a long history of supporting manufacturers that require real-time control over their operations. GLOVIA G2 has its roots in a solution from Xerox named ChESS MRP II, which was first released in 1990.
The solut complex enterprise requirements of Fujitsu and manufacturing industries such as automotive, aerospace and defense, industrial machinery, and telecommunications. Fujitsu was so impressed with the product that they eventually acquired 100% control of it in 2000.
“GLOVIA G2 was built from day one to be a real-time solution for manufacturing. GLOVIA G2 customers have always been able to process material requirements planning (MRP), master production schedule (MPS), and advanced planning and scheduling (APS) operations multiple times a day.”
-Ted Rohm, Senior ERP Analyst, TEC
The CrescentOne solution was built to solve complex manufacturing requirements and to process transactions in real time. These are important differentiating characteristics of GLOVIA G2. The majority of other ERP solutions currently on the market were built first as financial solutions while others were built around batch transaction processing. The manufacturing operations components of these systems were then built on top of these financial solutions, which means that the financial operation is the primary focus of all operations and the manufacturing operations are more of an afterthought. Additionally, many earlier ERP systems were built to push transactions in batch mode across the system. GLOVIA G2 was built from day one to be a real-time solution for manufacturing. GLOVIA G2 customers have always been able to process material requirements planning (MRP), master production schedule (MPS), and advanced planning and scheduling (APS) operations multiple times a day. Users of other ERP systems must run these processes overnight or during non-peak hours to make sure the system isn’t brought to its knees.
In this report, we will look at three areas of GLOVIA G2 that help support today’s real-time manufacturing requirements. These are a lean user experience, the shop floor dispatch tool, and the powerful factory planning tool for APS.
Lean User Experience
The GLOVIA G2 user experience is designed, like the underlying ERP system, to support lean operations. The key thesis of lean manufacturing is to eliminate waste in the manufacturing process. Similarly, critical aspects of the GLOVIA G2 user interface have been built to eliminate wasting time in the system to get things done. The GLOVIA G2 home page (figure 1) provides a user with a set of customizable panes that provide access to the functions in the system.
Figure 1. GLOVIA G2 home page
A user can set up as many or as few of these panes as required to get her/his job done on a daily basis. As shown in figure 1, users will often have a messages pane, a pane for common tasks, and other panes grouped as needed by the user. One pane in the figure shows the G2 Insights that this particular user should be monitoring. The G2 Insights are notifications pushed down to the user on a real-time basis. This pane is then populated with the latest tasks that the user should be monitoring.
Figure 2. Data grids
The figure above shows the data grids, which are an underlying component of the user interface. GLOVIA G2’s data grids look like Excel spreadsheets, but they are even more powerful. A data grid lets a user create a personalized view of the data. A user is able to filter the results by any column, sort data in ascending or descending order with a click of the column header, change the order of columns displayed, and group the data by one of the columns. The data can be downloaded to Excel for further manipulation. Most of these operations can be performed via drag-and-drop functions. Each grid is set up with a refresh rate, but the user can refresh the grid at any time.
A user can right-click on an object to see available operations on an element in the data grid. These functions include sending messages or emails, or performing some other function within GLOVIA G2. In the case of work orders (figure 2 above), these functions might include work order maintenance, work order inquiry, work order completion, and inventory inquiry.
An administrator can set up which functions can be personalized for each user. Some users may be able to view or hide only certain columns or perform only specific operations within a data grid. And the data grids can display a chart beside the data to visualize the data being viewed, as shown in figure 3.
Figure 3. Sales order grid with pie chart
The shop floor dispatch list is built on the GLOVIA G2 data grid technology, allowing for all the customization needed to manage dynamic production activities. -Ted Rohm, Senior ERP Analyst, TEC
Shop Floor Dispatch
The shop floor dispatch tool has been built to be the “one stop shop” for recording all production activity against work orders and repetitive schedules within GLOVIA G2. The screen was designed for touch screens and point-and-click navigation. All production activities are available from this screen including clock-on/clock-off, component scrap, operation scrap, assembly scrap, operations/item completions, inspection results/alerts, component verification, availability and issues, tooling verification, order release, and order inquiry/maintenance. Figure 4 shows a dispatch list where material availability is displayed for an item via a handheld scanner.
Figure 4. Shop floor dispatch screen
The shop floor dispatch list is built on the GLOVIA G2 data grid technology, allowing for all the customization needed to manage dynamic production activities. This application was built for operators on the factory floor to give visibility into all the jobs planned for the individual’s workstation.
A user might need to quickly change the filters on the work orders displayed to perform all operations using a particular tool on hand. Or, an operator might need to switch to another set of operations due to a material shortage that occurred because of excess scrap. The flexibility of the shop floor dispatch tool provides users with the proper tools to do the job and minimizes the keystrokes needed to record activity. In fact, many of the operations require little to no user input.
In addition to the standard data grid capabilities, the shop floor dispatch tool adds additional graphical indicators to highlight the important information for the user. The color displayed for a work order can change depending on multiple tolerance limits set to low, medium, or high. Un-released orders will be shown with a gray background if not late. The overall result is that users get simple screens that present them with the right orders and the right options for executing the manufacturing activity at hand.
Factory Planning
GLOVIA G2 Factory Planning is an advanced planning system (APS) that takes into account multiple constraints to generate an optimized production schedule. The system can take into account any constraints on material, machine capacity, setup and runtime capacity, labor skill sets, and machine tooling. Factory Planning determines the production schedule based on these finite constraints to accurately determine capable-to-promise (CTP) commitments for customer orders. Many ERP systems and their planning tools are able to determine only available-to-promise (ATP) dates; these systems assume infinite capacity while other systems offer CTP tools that lack the sophisticated capabilities of the GLOVIA G2 system.
Users have extensive control over the information that they see in factory planning. Each of the various panes of information can be configured to suit an organization’s and individual’s unique needs. The views or panes of information include an order pane, a seiban order pane, a planning board, a teams pane, a team/skill workload pane, and an inventory pane. Figure 5 shows the order, workload, and inventory panes. This is a great example of how the system makes it easier to manage production schedule problems. In figure 5, one can see that there is a problem with the inventory on one of the items on the order. From here, it’s easy to jump to that particular item and take the necessary action to get rid of the inventory shortage.
Figure 5. Factory planning screen with multiple panes
Factory planning is a memory-resident data model that is a seamless extension of the GLOVIA G2 system. This means that any events posted to the GLOVIA G2 system will be reflected in real time in factory planning. For example, any events recorded in shop floor dispatch will impact factory planning in real time. If a user receives inventory, completes a manufacturing job, or a machine goes offline, the event is immediately visible in factory planning. In many systems, these events will be loaded into the planning tool via some batch update facility and inevitably lead to inaccurate schedules.
But probably the most impressive capabilities in factory planning are the extensive array of planning scenarios supported by factory planning. These include:
Scheduling directions—forward, backward, and mixed
Flexible interactive settings of constrained resources
Simultaneous checking of resources (capacity, inventory, and tools)
Full optimization to reduce setup times
Full optimization to improve the flow through complex processes
Instant re-optimization after machine breakdown or inventory shortage
Planning based on labor skills, resources, and/or team-based manufacturing
Scheduling groups—used for mixed-mode manufacturing scenarios where orders for certain items have priority over order for other items
Multi-pallet / Product carrier planning—plans for machines where multiple pallets of items are placed on tools and prepared for sequential processing in the machine
Figure 6 shows how some of these scheduling parameters are set up in factory planning. This figure shows various scenarios and the flexibility in setting the parameters against those scenarios. Here a planner can also set workday patterns. Workday patterns can be assigned at the enterprise, machine, tools, labor skill, and labor resource levels. This is where all the factory shifts, holidays, and exclusions are set up.
Figure 6. Factory planning scheduling params and settings
Another notable capability of factory planning is that it can be integrated with other ERP systems or data sources to get insight into information outside of the customer’s GLOVIA G2 database. Factory planning also supports multi-plan dependencies, where one plant depends on another for product or supplies.
“GLOVIA G2 was built from day one to support real-time manufacturing operations.”
-Ted Rohm, Senior ERP Analyst, TEC
Real Time Is Part of GLOVIA G2’s DNA
GLOVIA G2 is one of the best-kept secrets in the manufacturing ERP market. The system is built to support organizations of different sizes (from just a few to thousands of users), and various industries (automotive, electronics, aerospace and defense, capital equipment, and other manufacturers). GLOVIA G2 supports multiple manufacturing processes, such as make to stock [MTS], make to order [MTO], configure to order [CTO], and engineer to order [ETO]. The system also supports anywhere from high-touch engineer-to-order operations to manufacturers that can completely automate and have virtually lights-out operations.
GLOVIA G2 was built from day one to support real-time manufacturing operations. The majority of current day manufacturing ERP systems say they run in real time. But, when you take a closer look at what “real time” means to other vendors, you’ll find that they don’t meet up to GLOVIA G2’s standards. Real time is in the DNA of GLOVIA G2, starting with the way that transactions are pushed across the system to the system’s shop floor dispatch and factory planning tools. Organizations requiring a sophisticated discrete manufacturing ERP solution should take a serious look at GLOVIA G2.”
Contact CrescentOne for an online demo or more information about GLOVIA G2’s ERP capabilities for Automotive manufacturers, Aerospace and Defense, Industrial Machinery, and Telecommunications.
Blog Series #3 :: GLOVIA G2 :: Where to Start with our ERP System
CrescentOne’s more than 70 ERP software modules work together to streamline your manufacturing operations. Following up on our previous blog about our Manufacturing Management Kit, we’d like to continue with the second half of the Manufacturing Management Base Modules, which include Repetitive Manufacturing, Shop Floor Control, Inventory, and Physical Inventory.
These GLOVIA G2 manufacturing management software modules work together to increase visibility, flexibility and control of your business. Maintaining a continuous manufacturing flow through repetition and inventory with total insight is crucial to the success of your manufacturing operation.
Repetitive Manufacturing ::
The GLOVIA G2 Repetitive Manufacturing module provides the flexibility needed to schedule, manage and control production in a high-volume or continuous-flow manufacturing environment.
Repetitive production schedules can be adjusted as often as necessary and with minimal user intervention. This production management software makes the entire process more efficient by taking intervening factors into account, such as fluctuations in production capacity and changes in demand patterns.
Mass Customization
The Repetitive Manufacturing module enables you to tailor product configurations as needed to respond to current production conditions or to meet unique customer requirements. Schedules allow a unique bill of materials and routing for each part being manufactured. The manufacturing management system automatically uses the current version in effect, or you can perform an online override and create a modified version of the current bill of material and routing.
Work-in-Process Financial Visibility
Repetitive Manufacturing enhances the visibility into your current production investment. Each schedule can provide an online valuation of value-added costs for material, labor, machine, overhead, and outside processing operations.
The next production management software module we’d like to introduce is Shop Floor Control. GLOVIA G2 Shop Floor Control provides the latest shop floor information along with a set of easy-to-use tools for achieving maximum productivity.
Closed-Loop Feedback
The closed-loop process incorporates the tracking and feedback of actual shop floor activity. The successful execution of your master production schedule and material requirements planning depends on rapid and accurate dispatch of daily production schedules, and Shop Floor Control is designed to integrate these tasks fully.
Visibility and Empowerment
Shop Floor Control provides easy-to-use transactions for reporting work order operation completions and quantities of items produced. Shop status enhances visibility of the current work-in-process.
Schedules and workflows can be tailored to best match the people and machines available at each work center. This helps to optimize schedules and anticipate needs for critical resources, while enabling factory floor workers to actively contribute to the success of the production plan.
Improved Shop Floor Control
View all production jobs by work center
Select workload by date range and shift
Update operation completions
Report completions by quantity or percentage
Work Order Dispatching
View selected work order lines
Display part numbers and order quantities
Display and update work order operations
Review scheduled operation start and end dates
Inventory Management
GLOVIA G2’s Inventory Management software module offers integrated, interactive management of all your inventories, including physical stock room, in-transit, consigned and others.
Dynamic Stock Status
Because of the constant and perpetual inventory activity within an enterprise, the ability to track inventory movement is critical. GLOVIA G2’s Inventory Management software module manages and provides full visibility of all material movement within your company, warehouse or location, as well as between your locations, both domestic and international.
Dock-to-Stock Material Flow
Upon reaching the receiving dock, incoming materials should flow smoothly through receiving and inspection. During this dock-to-stock process, you need visibility of the material’s status, its current whereabouts and its final destination. The Inventory Management software module enables you to preset and automatically direct movement through the required steps and locations.
Units-of-Measure, Conversion Scalars and Decimal Precision
Inventory Management enables manufacturers to buy, stock and sell products in different units of measure. For example, you may buy material in rolls and stock it in feet. You can build and stock products for inventory as individual units or sell them in packages. This feature lets you conduct business with suppliers and customers on their terms while maintaining inventory on yours.
Lot and Serial Traceability
The Inventory Management module maintains the history of all activities for a specific lot number. Serial control may also be used to identify and track critical goods uniquely.
Physical Inventory
The last module in our Manufacturing Management kit, Physical Inventory, provides an automated process for inventory counting that delivers accurate and up-to-date inventory information.
Flexible Cycle Counting
The Physical Inventory software module offers flexible cycle counting with comprehensive, enterprise-wide inventory counts or fewer items with greater frequency. The system dynamically highlights items for cycle counts based on user-specific criteria.
Accurate Inventory
Accurate inventory quantities are essential for effective planning and control of your production and distribution processes. The Physical Inventory module helps your company manage this necessary counting and reconciliation process efficiently with minimum disruption.
Inventory Count and Recount
Unlimited recounts permitted
Original quantity retained for audit
Automatic recounting requirement can be invoked based tolerances
With more than 45 years supporting the manufacturing industry, CrescentOne’s legacy has enabled us to create a suite of ERP modules that successfully manage a stand-alone company, an entire global business or a specific division or factory. The GLOVIA G2 Manufacturing Management software helps you succeed by providing more visibility, flexibility, and control to make your business highly responsive, integrated, and lean.
As a manufacturing ERP solution designed to manage global enterprises, GLOVIA G2 supports multiple languages, currencies and complex business structures, so you can manage your enterprise around the clock, and around the world — with a single, integrated ERP solution.
Contact CrescentOne for more information about our manufacturing ERP software and solutions or to request an online demo.
Article :: Cloud Connectivity Drive ERP Software
New technologies—including machine learning, mobile apps and advanced analytics—help manufacturers keep tabs on fast-paced factory-floor operations
Manufacturing operations depend on getting the right information at precisely the right moment, ensuring that products get built on time, to quality specs. With the latest enterprise resource management (ERP) software, this critical data flow is often coming via the cloud, as more manufacturers become comfortable with it as a repository for key manufacturing information.
With ERP software delivered via the cloud, Big Data is also more easily leveraged for Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications. In this application, advanced analytics do the data crunching required for processing the flow of data, including operational metrics and inventory information.
Along with offering more mobile apps that funnel factory data directly to users’ fingertips, many ERP software developers are also testing newer technologies like artificial intelligence, augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) capabilities, and machine learning and advanced analytics that can handle the Big Data inherent with many IIoT/IoT manufacturing data scenarios.
IIoT and Manufacturing’s Big Data
With advances in Smart Manufacturing/Industry 4.0, the potential for growth in the IoT/IIoT is immense, noted Jerry Foster, cofounder and chief technical officer of ERP software supplier Plex Systems Inc. (Troy, MI), developer of the Plex Manufacturing Cloud ERP. “The IoT and the IIoT [concept] is just huge,” Foster said, noting that while many managers seem to think they’re falling behind, “this is stuff that they’ve been doing for years—it’s just a matter of scale. The enabler there is just the cloud and connectivity.”
Data collection is something many manufacturers are already doing, so they’re ahead of the game, Foster noted. “Big Data for you is just Bigger Data,” he said. “It’s more data than you have now. The problem with this is data deluge. It was a major concern, but it only takes machine learning and algorithms to handle it.”
Plex currently offers machine learning and advanced analytics through third-party applications. However, the company is working on its own applications for this process that Foster said will be available later this year. “What we do is partner with a machine learning service and utilize that to analyze the data. We’d take the ERP data that our customers have and put that in the Microsoft Azure cloud. You want actionable machine learning, and this is one of the things that we’re on the cusp of right now,” he said.
Many other ERP developers recognize the importance of Big Data in the IIoT age, and they are moving to incorporate advanced analytics and AI into their toolkits. “Big Data is already having an impact on the ERP software market, and many manufacturers understand this,” said Terri Hiskey, vice president, manufacturing product marketing, Epicor Software Corp. (Austin, TX). “The insights that can be revealed through the collection of all sorts of data—from the length of time it takes to process orders and respond to customer requests, to tracking materials and costs, tracking inventory, understanding customer patterns and behavior, and much more can be tracked through various algorithms and analytics.
“As manufacturers move into the IIoT, the amount of data increases because now companies can track machine performance out in the field,” she continued. “Depending on performance outcomes, those machines might be set up to course-correct themselves through artificial intelligence. In fact, a term that I hear being used more and more is ‘data fatigue’; that the vast amount of data being collected is often left untouched because there aren’t enough resources or knowledge to make that data actionable. The advantages that companies will get out of leveraging Big Data is the insight into overall ERP processes and the recommended actions to take due to those insights.”
Managing the Workflow
For discrete manufacturers, ERP software helps streamline the process, ensuring workflow is optimized to meet production goals. “Just by creating the workflow in ERP, the business captures the experience, expertise and best practices for the varying workflows,” Hiskey said. “The workflow can be automated in ERP, resulting in less human error and a faster process. Guesswork can be reduced with greater visibility and insights into the business. ERP workflow can cross cross-functional boundaries and allow for easier communications up and down and across the organization and functional areas.”
Businesses can also track the total execution time for any given workflow, she added. “ERP workflows can also help track costs and time related to the completion of a production job, such as whether or not the time falls within an agreed upon timeline; whether all materials were consumed and charged correctly; are there any orders outstanding waiting for the completion of this job; do labor or material costs need to be updated for future production; and are there any corrections to costs before completing the job?” This can help accounting teams close their books, Hiskey said, with information on invoices that need to be completed and posted to accounts receivable; suppliers that need to be paid and costs captured; and making sure that depreciation and accruals are calculated. “All of these steps can be managed through an ERP workflow,” she added.
Users of Epicor’s latest ERP get a personalized, active home page that “provides dashboard views of role-based analytics with quick access to role-based functionality, made possible through Epicor Data Discovery, which supports rich, on-demand data exploration to surface real-time operational and business performance insights to guide decision-making,” Hiskey said. “This results in users being able to access critical insights at a glance for better, faster analysis and execution.”
New customer relationship management (CRM) functionality in Epicor ERP empowers sales and service personnel in the field with the added convenience of mobile access, she added. Epicor Field Service Automation (FSA) features integrated mapping to support optimized scheduling and dispatch and robust workflows to automate processes for asset management, contract, warranty and service level agreements (SLAs), and management of service inventory. Hiskey said the Epicor FSA is available in a cloud or on-premises delivery model and can be used with smartphones, tablets and laptops for both online and off-line communications with the back office for enhanced productivity and efficiency across all service workforce facets, for improved response, reduced costs and improved customer satisfaction.
“Most ERP systems today are very mature and are designed around industrial best practices,” noted Jim Errington, executive vice president, sales and service for ERP software developer CrescentOne Inc. (El Segundo, CA). “So if instead of customizing the software to fit what the customer has always done, the customer has to change and actually review what the software is really offering.
“A lot of ERP systems are now using software such as SharePoint to assist in documenting and defining the processes,” he added. “So when using the solution, users don’t need to access the ERP solution directly but can be steered by the process to use the necessary screens to complete the process,” he said.
The latest GLOVIA G2 ERP software includes a new call center capability and CRM functionality in new modules that allow monitoring activity by cell or machine in real time on the factory floor (seen above).The CrescentOne ERP includes a new Call Center capability, he added, as well as a CRM solution suitable for discrete manufacturing customers. “In the next release there will be a couple of new modules. The first, Shop Floor Dispatch, allows manufacturing to monitor activity by cell or machine on the factory floor in real-time, giving them the ability to react to problems,” Errington said. “The second, Contract Billing, allows customers to create billing contracts to cover things such as machine rentals and service contracts without the need to start with a sales order or sales contract.”
Banking on the Cloud
Moving to the cloud is an important consideration for many manufacturers today. With the latest M1 ERP solutions from ECi Software Solutions Inc. (Fort Worth, TX), manufacturers can leverage the cloud in multiple ways, noted David Christiansen, ECi Solutions vice president of sales.
Moving to the cloud to take the stress and costs of managing hardware from the customer is key, he said. “The main trend is moving towards the cloud and especially mobility. … ERP packages provide the data to make informed business decisions on the floor. This could be utilizing machines on the floor or improving material handling,” Christiansen said.
“The cloud is important today due to the increase in ransomware attacks and the need to have a solid redundancy plan,” added Christiansen. “We will still have manufacturers with on-premise [data storage] due to location and limited Internet access.”
Leaders of growing manufacturers know that innovation is not only critical but imperative, said Epicor’s Hiskey. “Faced with rapid change, they are choosing to invest in business initiatives that accelerate innovation as a competitive advantage, like a range of cloud-based business applications. The cloud has rapidly established itself as the preferred and default deployment environment for companies of all sizes, particularly small to mid-size,” she added.
Customers typically select the cloud for a host of economic reasons. It is less-capital intensive than on-premises deployment and offers better and more immediate scalability; ease of upgrades; the ability to cut direct and indirect costs from infrastructure; and reduced deployment times and corresponding ROI, noted Hiskey. “However, the reasons aren’t all about technology, nor economics,” she said. “Selecting cloud means retiring the status-quo approach to business management applications that could not keep pace with current business needs. Moving to the cloud frees companies from the need to procure, install, maintain and manage their own IT systems, while also gaining the opportunity to digitally transform business processes to achieve far greater results.”
Many manufacturers are still working with on-premises solutions for a number of reasons, Hiskey said, including security concerns, aversion to shaking up the status quo, lack of expertise or knowledge of how to start process improvements, and fear of the cost or downtime during a transition period. “There could be any number of reasons why manufacturers might decide to stay on-premises.” Epicor offers the same solution as either cloud or on-premises, so companies can choose the model that works best for their businesses, she added.
Whether the system is in the cloud or on premise, manufacturers still have to implement the solution, Errington noted. “With cloud, this is difficult for manufacturing companies as they often want to change things in the standard software, so unless it is a single-tenant solution then there are difficulties,” he said.
In addition, manufacturing execution systems (MES) and advanced planning and scheduling require a lot of bandwidth, and connections to the cloud solution can be difficult, Errington said. “Just about all of our customers still want an on-premise solution so that they have control and the ability to modify it when required,” he added.
Visualizing Shop Processes
New wearable technologies such as Google Glass and others that employ augmented reality (AR) are being tested and implemented on the shop, noted Foster. “This is one more interesting thing,” he said. “The hype has cooled a bit, but we’re working on some proof of concept.”
Plex customer Fisher Dynamics (St. Clair Shores, MI), an automotive seating supplier, has tested a system using Google Glass with a barcode system featuring iBeacon and Plex ERP for improving its inventory control and meeting traceability requirements.
Aside from Google Glass, there are other options, including the Realwear HMT1 or the Vuzix Blade AR glasses recently announced by Vuzix Corp. (Rochester, NY) at the CES 2018 show, Foster noted. “The cool thing about them is they utilize voice activated commands,” he said. “At the CES, voice was everywhere.”
Using this type of technology, combined with Plex ERP’s ability to focus users on one single repository of information, is a winning combination for discrete manufacturers, he said. “You get one version of the truth,” Foster added. “You hear a lot about the connected enterprise; ERP connects the whole enterprise, it’s cohesive and it provides one source of the truth.
“When we take Plex into a new customer, we’re often replacing several applications,” Foster continued. “You don’t have a situation where accounting has one software, and inventory has another, and you have arguments like ‘my software says this.’”
Mobile access also is key, offering managers immediacy in getting key performance indicators right on the shop floor. “Our software, since it’s HTML, can run on smartphones or tablets, but obviously the bigger the screen the better. We do have an app, SmartPlex, that runs on Android and iOS devices.” Plex is currently overhauling SmartPlex, he said, with a new version of the app due in the second half of this year.
Contact CrescentOne for more information on how GLOVIA G2’s ERP Solution can keep tabs on fast-paced factory-floor operations, while giving you a customizable solution to fit your business needs.
Blog Series #2 :: GLOVIA G2 :: Where to Start with our ERP System
Our flexible GLOVIA G2 Manufacturing Management solution accommodates the full spectrum of manufacturing styles, from high-volume to engineer-to-order, with advanced capabilities to coordinate orders, equipment, facilities, inventory, and work-in-progress that minimize costs and maximize on-time delivery.
Master Production Scheduling
The first module highlighted in this set is Master Production Scheduling, which enables your management team to balance and integrate the needs of marketing, manufacturing and finance with those of your customers.
Planning Cockpit
Where most ERP packages can only plan in days, GLOVIA G2’s Master Production Scheduling planning cockpit maximizes production efficiency with planning capabilities in hours, minutes and seconds. An on-line available-to-promise (ATP) feature allows manufacturers to investigate up-to-the-minute product availability to guarantee on-time delivery.
The planning cockpit provides a highly visual, productive user experience that enables immediate access to data necessary for successful production planning/scheduling management, including sales demand, and planned and committed production and purchased supply.
Forecast Demand, Consumption and Planning BOM’s
The Master Production Scheduling module enables complete planning by model, product or family group, with automatic generation of repeating forecast based on quantities, intervals, and dates and forecasts optionally consumed by orders.
The material management module of GLOVIA G2, Material Requirements Planning (MRP), helps manufacturers get the right materials to the right place at the right time, thus reducing inventory material investment, improving productivity and customer service.
Integrated Planning Power
This material management module can be driven by project requirements and/or the master production schedule to ensure that high-level requirements are consistent with the authorized production plan. MRP is integrated with your live inventories, work orders, projects, and sales and purchase orders to ensure that the latest information is always considered. The Material Requirements Planning module is also integrated with GLOVIA G2 Engineering to provide access to currently effective bills of material, routings, and item planning policies.
MRP Planning Cockpit
The MRP planning cockpit integrates the functionality of the material management module with other GLOVIA G2 ERP modules, including Master Production Scheduling, to provide an extremely visual, highly productive user experience, with immediate access to information in all areas necessary for successful planning/scheduling, including sales demand, and planned and committed production and purchased supply.
Multiple Planning Cycles
This material management module offers multiple planning cycles, with variable phasing and planning horizons, to satisfy planning needs for near-term production and long-range material commitments. The Material Requirements Planning system can also be used to generate purchase orders and work orders and to release repetitive schedules, as well as contract purchase orders automatically with allocations across multiple suppliers.
Work Orders
GLOVIA G2’s Work Orders management module is the complete production management system for managing all work order-related information and activities – from opening work orders and managing work-in-process transactions through coordinating and evolving your production lines.
Flexibility
The Work Orders management module provides the flexibility to effectively manage any type of manufacturing, assembly, repair, or work activity. Whether you are manufacturing products based on forecasts, demands or Kanban signals, or building engineering prototypes, managing an entire development project or conducting repair work –this production management system offers a single familiar tool that your whole team can use to schedule, manage and collect data for all work activities.
Complete Integration
The Work Orders management module is an integral part of the GLOVIA G2 integrated ERP, financial and supply chain solution, residing on a single database.
When a user records the completion of a manufactured quantity, they receive instant notification when mandatory quality processes and measurements have not yet been recorded.
Work-in-Process Visibility
The Work Orders module provides instant and accurate visibility to current investments in work-in-process inventory. Each work order provides an online valuation of the materials used and value-added costs.
More About CrescentOne ::
CrescentOne’s manufacturing heritage has enabled us to create a suite of ERP modules that successfully manage a stand-alone company, an entire global business or a specific division or factory. The GLOVIA G2 Manufacturing Management software module helps you succeed by providing more visibility, flexibility, and control to make you highly responsive, integrated, and lean.
As a manufacturing ERP designed to manage global enterprises, GLOVIA G2 supports multiple languages, currencies and complex business structures, so you can manage your enterprise around the clock, and around the world — with a single, integrated ERP solution.
Contact CrescentOne for more information about our manufacturing ERP solution or to request an online demo.
Blog Series :: GLOVIA G2 :: Where to Start with our ERP – Product Management
To introduce you to our GLOVIA G2 manufacturing ERP offering, we’d like to start at the beginning. CrescentOne offers more than 70 modules that work together to streamline your manufacturing operations. To accurately set up your shop floor, we start with our Base Modules Kit, which provides insight-and control, and is fully customizable to your needs. Once the Base Modules Kit is implemented, our consulting and services team work with you to help you get the most out of our robust ERP system.
Today, we’ll start by introducing our Product Management suite of modules.
Product Management: Delivering Products On Time and Within Budget
The GLOVIA G2 Product Management ERP module set helps manufacturers define and manage products and respond to customers, while minimizing any disruptions to downstream processes. GLOVIA G2 manufacturing ERP modules work together to give you total control of the entire product lifecycle.
GLOVIA G2 Product Management, the core of GLOVIA G2, provides all the ERP modules manufacturers need to control product costs, estimates, and configurations to better deliver products on time and within budget. The system enables users to manage and track all product-related information using multiple bills-of-material and routings — including revisions and alternates —and support progressive engineering.
A centralized repository for all product-related data helps speed new product development, compress time-to-market, reduce development costs and manage large product portfolios. GLOVIA G2 Product Management also includes powerful estimating and simulation capabilities to help you quickly prepare accurate sales quotes and bids for engineered or configured products.
Within the Product Management suite of ERP modules, Engineering is the architectural cornerstone of GLOVIA G2. The Engineering – module’s flexible design lets you define your products and services so that you can respond quickly to product and service changes demanded by the marketplace.
Manufacturers information on incoming and shipping orders, for product/service design and costing, and for a long list of other daily production functions. The GLOVIA G2 Engineering ERP software module is designed to answer all those questions and provide the detailed control manufacturing operations need to access, review and maintain the latest information.
Our Engineering ERP software provides ‘alerts’ that can be used to ‘push’ the required engineering and product definition activities from one department to another. The Engineering ERP module includes a work-to-list and count of required actions with one-click direct access to the transactions required to complete those actions. GLOVIA G2’s alert system, which requires appropriate follow-up action to turn off the alerts, offers assurance that required actions are completed correctly. GLOVIA G2’s Engineering ERP module also has integration points with Microsoft SharePoint that provide full workflow capabilities.
Costing: Remain Competitive with Tight Rein on Costs
The third powerhouse capability in our Product Management trifecta is Costing. This module allows manufacturers to remain competitive by keeping a tight rein on costs. A mix of standard, actual and average costing methods can be deployed to monitor and manage each of your products and services costs.
Improved Cost Management
As product designs change, operational processes improve, service needs change and new suppliers are found, manufacturers must be able to determine the cost impacts quickly and accurately. It’s important to be able to identify appropriate actions to correct problems and know when to adjust prices for profitability or market share. The GLOVIA G2 Costing module helps manufacturers accomplish this, regardless of the size of their operations.
Life Cycle Costing
GLOVIA G2’s Costing module is ideal for businesses that must track products and services supplied through both internal resources and outside suppliers. Seven cost types can be used to create, model, and track costs throughout a product or service’s life cycle. The Costing module enables users to create simulated cost models for evaluation and analysis without affecting current operations or book values.
Elemental Costing
GLOVIA G2 accurately recognizes the true components of cost, thus providing the critical visibility needed for effective cost control. Each item’s cost can be broken down into multiple user-defined cost elements, or up to 24 pre-set cost elements, including material, material overheads, machine set-up and run time, labor set-up and run-time, fixed and variable labor/machine overheads, outside processing, shrink/yield/scrap, and freight. The financial posting for each cost element of each transaction can be recorded to a different financial account within the General Ledger.
Operational Cost Visibility
GLOVIA G2’s Costing ERP includes item cost records that enable manufacturing operations to value an item or service accurately as it moves through a sequence of operations, tracking the costs of each item’s subassemblies, components and tasks. At each level of the item, the relationship of the materials used may be associated with the value-added costs of manufacturing or service delivery.
Contact CrescentOne for more information about our manufacturing ERP software and solutions or to request an online demo.
TEC deems CrescentOne’s system a highly competitive solution, citing several modules, including Manufacturing Management and Inventory Management
EL SEGUNDO, CA, October 09, 2017 — Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC) rates GLOVIA G2 “a highly competitive solution in the ERP for discrete manufacturing software space,” based on a recent review of the ERP software designed by Fujitsu, CrescentOne Inc.
Several GLOVIA G2 modules were scored in the maximum range of functionality, including Manufacturing Management, Inventory Management, Purchasing Management, and Sales Management, according to the report from TEC ERP Analyst Ted Rohm.
“GLOVIA G2 is built to make manufacturers more productive, and CrescentOne has permeated the lessons of lean manufacturing down into the solution,” Rohm wrote. “The user experience has been refined to bring the execution of tasks to the user, as opposed to making the user seek out the next operation.”
He specifically noted the system’s homepage for its clear, easy-to-find displays of tasks, messages, and work processes that need attention.
“Insights … are created by triggers in the database that push the information in the system to the user, instead of a user having to run a report or go into a screen to determine the status of a work process,” Rohm wrote.
He also highlighted GLOVIA G2’s:
– Deep functionality
– Presentation of complex processes in a simple, easy-to-understand manner
– Versatile applications that can operate independently, access GLOVIA G2, or be integrated with other software
– Extensive and well-defined set of application modules
– Ability to add new modules to meet changing industry and customer needs
“GLOVIA G2 is a hidden jewel in the discrete manufacturing ERP software space,” Rohm wrote. “The solution embodies the lean manufacturing principles it is built to support, with a lean user experience that has been honed through years of continuous improvements.”
The high score and strong assessment were welcomed by CrescentOne. “We’re gratified by the industry acknowledgement of GLOVIA G2’s outstanding ERP capabilities,” said Jim Errington, CrescentOne’s EVP Sales and Service. “We’ve dedicated ourselves to continuing to ensure the best experience possible for our customers.”
About Fujitsu
Fujitsu is the leading Japanese information and communication technology (ICT) company offering a full range of technology products, solutions and services. Approximately 155,000 Fujitsu people support customers in more than 100 countries. We use our experience and the power of ICT to shape the future of society with our customers. Fujitsu Limited (TSE: 6702) reported consolidated revenues of 4.5 trillion yen (US$40 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017.
About CrescentOne.
Founded in 1970 as Xerox Computer Services, CrescentOne. became a wholly owned subsidiary of Fujitsu Ltd. in 2000. Its GLOVIA G2 manufacturing ERP software was first launched in 1990 as Xerox Chess and the next generation version was released as GLOVIA G2 in 2010. CrescentOne is one of the few manufacturing ERP providers offering solutions in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China and Japan. Its more than 1,000 customers include small, medium and large companies in the automotive, aerospace and defense, and electronics industries, as well as related Tier 1, 2 and 3 suppliers. Contact CrescentOne to learn more about its manufacturing ERP software.
All company or product names mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Information provided in this press release is accurate at time of publication and is subject to change without advance notice.
Contact CrescentOne to learn more about how our GLOVIA G2 solution can help maximize your company’s production and respond more quickly to changes in the marketplace.
The latest GLOVIA G2 ERP software includes a new call center capability and CRM functionality in new modules that allow monitoring activity by cell or machine in real time on the factory floor (seen above).The CrescentOne ERP includes a new 