Visibility Blog

When most people think of the manufacturing industry, they think of it as a male dominated field. And in many ways it is – women only make up a third of the workers in the industry. However, women make up about half of the sales and office jobs in manufacturing.

Through working at Visibility, an ERP technology company that serves the manufacturing industry, I have gotten to meet many strong and successful women in manufacturing. Seeing these women break glass ceilings made me wonder – where did women get their start in manufacturing? In this blog we will take a look at the great women in manufacturing history.

Most people know the Red Cross responds to major disasters, but you may not know that the Red Cross responds to an emergency every 8 minutes.  Visibility implementation consultant Paul Hoy is a Red Cross Disaster Services Volunteer and has responded to over 300 house fires, blizzards, tornados, terrorist attacks, and hurricanes over the last 6 years, assisting literally thousands of displaced residents!

Project manufacturers require management information to insure timely delivery and an on-time, on-budget outcome. Project manufacturers also require speed and fiscal timeliness of their project managers and financial managers to ensure no delays or financial obstacles. There are many critical aspects to each project which managers must be on top of. Examples like project, customer, status, time and costs. Using these dimensions, several measures need to be viewed to include actual and estimated hours and costs along with other data.

Many Engineer-to-Order (ETO) manufacturers operate their business on a project basis managing and delivering activities outside the normal product costing models. There are typically a handful of projects in process at any one time, yet they can be sizable and often last a year or longer. Unable to carry the financing on these projects, these manufacturers employ progress billing to maintain cash flow.

I entered the wonderful world of parenthood almost one year ago in June 2017. While on the face parenthood and ERP seem to have nothing in common, after some sleep deprived nights you can start to see some similarities! There are many ERP modules that could simplify my day-to-day life as a new mom so I thought I would start a series of blogs on the various modules as they relate to parenthood. First up, inventory control…

Diapers- check! Wipes- check! Formula- oh no, we’re out of formula! No parent wants to be doing the midnight drive around town to search for that one type of formula that agrees with your baby’s tummy and taste buds.  With the inventory control module, I could keep track of my inventory and associated costs. I could set reminders to order items when they reach a certain level. This would ensure that I have all of the necessary baby supplies in stock and that I am ordering them at the best prices at all times.

At the beginning of the annual Visibility Customer Conference, Visibility 2018 was launched and announced as being available for general release. This is the most significant update and upgrade to Visibility's flagship ERP solution in the history of the company. At the center of Visibility 2018 is a completely redesigned and reimagined user experience; a user interface that offers a truly intuitive and productive experience. 

The center of the Visibility 2018 universe is the Visibility Portal. Users can now create their own unified workspace to include Visibility 2018 applications, links, favorites, workflow messages, activities and a news feed. Visibility 2018 is entirely mobile device friendly and runs on any device, any browser, from anywhere. Available as either a Cloud or on premise deployment, Visibility 2018 empowers the end user with improved user experience tools:

• Global Search. Navigating through a traditional menu is no longer necessary with the Global Application Search. Type or say part of what you are looking for and that application is presented to the user. 
• Multi-Tab. Like all contemporary web applications, each Visibility 2018 application window opens in a new tab, further improving user productivity. Visibility 2018 takes full advantage of the significant screen real estate offered with modern, multiple displays. 

Last week we held our annual Visibility Customer Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. Not only was it one of the most fun filled and memorable conferences we've had, but we are pleased to say that this was one of our largest attendances in years. 

Business Process Automation is the practice of analyzing, documenting, optimizing and automating business processes. The business process is the flow of information, modified by value-added tasks, that begins with the first contact with a prospective client and continues through delivery of a finished product. Well-developed business processes can create a seamless link from initial client interface through the supply chain. Automation of those processes improves the accuracy of the information transferred and ensures the repeatability of the value-added tasks performed.

The decision to invest in Business Process Automation is significant and often part of a project-based manufacturer's lean initiative. Engineer-to-order companies must consider the value of significantly reducing bidding, engineering and manufacturing cycle times, reducing product rework, and improving customer service and internal communication. There is additional value to the clients of engineer-to-order manufacturers when their product is designed precisely to meet customer requirements and is achieved with high quality and delivered on time and within budget.

Company’s Challenges Before Implementing Business Intelligence

 A $30 million manufacturing enterprise customer providing systems and components to the telecommunications industry was struggling with analyzing its own effectiveness as a business.  The Company, through the implementation of key performance indicators (KPI’s), wanted to be able to measure its cash management and margins in two product areas.  Specifically, the Company was interested in low-volume and engineering-intensive project orders and high-volume, repetitive sales. The Company faced numerous challenges:

Many manufacturers are public companies, and even more manufacturers are private companies that may one day be acquired by a public company. For some mid-market manufacturers in particular, the ultimate goal may be acquisition by a larger public company.  All of these companies should be aware of and mindful of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and ensure that their ERP software solution includes built in tools to ensure compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley.  In fact, all manufacturers should consider implementing procedures to ensure their compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley in order to meet industry standards regarding best practices.

Individual business processes including management controls are subject to a Sarbanes-Oxley compliance audit. When it comes to Sarbanes-Oxley, ERP software is a tool which, when effectively combined with appropriate procedures specific to an organization, can deliver the necessary management controls to pass Sarbanes-Oxley muster.