The U.S. offers some valuable R&D tax incentives, however, if you are not taking advantage of them, you are not getting the money available.

WIP and ERP Tax Benefits has its roots in Research and Development (R&D) tax credits for manufacturing organizations. Tapping into extended advantages of ERP’s Work In Process (WIP) application. Most teams see producing products for sale to be the sole purpose of WIP. Here is how your company, by extending the use of WIP can add value to the ROI of ERP.

WIP base functionality is Bill of Materials (BOM) execution. In this case, WIP jobs are created using BOMs, which contains Labor, and Sub-Contract Operations, and components, or materials. These lists, sequenced parts, and labor steps constitute the sum of costs and time to produce a given product. We can also say, they impact your organization, taking into account capacities to produce.

To grasp whether software in use or under consideration, meet your needs in today’s evolving manufacturing environment, asking the following questions are crucial:

SUPPORT FAST BUSINESS CHANGE

Software should help plan for change. Change is constant and the chief characteristic of today’s business environment. The ability to prepare for the unidentified makes it possible for corporate agility to thrive. Ongoing planning is not about being able to foresee every single event, but being able to respond fast and smart enough to exploit change. Useful software simplifies the ability to change —not only forecast information, but also supply and demand output, quickly, and provide visibility into what impacts the change will make. In today’s markets, where new product introduction is increasingly essential to growth, enterprise software should help facilitate and control new product introduction.

Inventory Forecasting Overview

Inventory Forecasting is the first module within the Inventory Optimization suite. The full suite of modules comprising:

• Inventory Forecasting
• Inventory Families and Groupings
• Inventory Optimization

Before inventory levels can be optimized, it is essential that sales forecasts are as accurate and reliable as possible. The Forecasting Module addresses this requirement by providing the tools to achieve this.

Given that the forecasting algorithms base their calculations exclusively on sales history, it is essential that the sales history (as held in the forecasting system) is an accurate reflection of the sales demand made on the company's inventory (i.e., it should include any sales lost because there was no inventory available to satisfy a demand).

The Sales Orders system outputs invoices, debit notes, credit notes and dispatch notes to the forecasting sales history. Also, Initial History Creation enables you to build the forecasting sales history using inventory movements as it's source.

Warehouse Management Systems Slotting

Why do you see inventory items in a store on the end-caps or strategic locations on shelves? Why does it cost suppliers more discount allowances to the store for those items to be located on an end-cap instead of the middle of the shopping aisle? They are visible, quickly picked up, and are more likely the buyer will purchase them. So give your customers what they want, faster and more efficiently.

Distribution centers, having a heavy and poignant role in customer on-time delivery and satisfaction, need the best systems and software to process materials' high throughput requirements.

Communications problems between people, technology systems (software and hardware) affecting vendors, manufacturers, buyers, and customers center around a lack of synchronization. When materials for a product mix; ranging from finished goods to raw components, lot expiry and conformance, can be tied to demand and supply chain leveling.  

Microsoft has issued new Windows update packages to fix the printing problems introduced by the MS16-098 security updates on August 9.

We have tested these updates and can confirm that printing from BarTender now works as expected.

Update packages are currently available for Windows 8.1, Windows 7, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, and Windows Server 2008 R2.

46 states start their fiscal year on July 1. With that comes a whole new set of sales tax laws to follow. Are you up to speed with what you need to know about the big changes taking effect? The proposed changes could impact your business when they’re enacted as law.

When it comes to the 50 states and sales tax, it is confounding and frustrating to keep up with the new regulations. If your business sells nationally (whether by the Internet, catalog or other means), it is time to review the systems, software and rates you are using.

(Not all systems will automatically update to the latest rates and rules)

To help you get your team up to speed, we have an overview of the basics about sales tax, new laws and what’s “in the news” regarding proposed sales tax regulations.

It has been said “necessity is the mother of invention” which leads us to make enterprise software upgrades with a “wait until there is a problem” mindset. This only makes sense if you think “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” shows wisdom and foresight.

Waiting for when things are “broke” or an emergency will result in high costs, untrustworthy fixes, and decisions that will have a long-term negative impact. Many issues lie under the surface and unobvious to a less experienced enterprise management team. Cash flow, revenue growth, waste, warehouse efficiencies, the speed of customer service, and inventory accuracy are but a few areas impacted.

Frankenstein software monsters are created when new software is invented and attached to an old system. Systems already broken may not appear to be so.

i.e. Your accounting department is running off of a stand-alone accounting package; your sales team is using a separate CRM, and your inventory is tracked in Access or Excel.

New Announcement: Winner of New Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute and New Manufacturing Hub Competitions

The Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute, headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, brings over $140 million in public-private investment from leading universities and manufacturers to develop smart sensors for use in advanced manufacturing.