Technology & Automation
Are Tablets Just Hype in Manufacturing?
Recently, I was watching a movie from the 1970s and I couldn’t help but notice that in all the office settings there were no computers. The height of technology was a single typewriter, on a secretary’s desk, and a rotary dial
... ContinuedFive Reasons to Consider an ERP Sandbox
As a child, many of life’s lessons were learned in the sandbox at school. It is where we learned to share and to be kind to others. It is where we learned that jumping from the top of the monkey bars
... ContinuedShop Floor Automation – Manufacturing ERP’s Next Frontier
IQMS was in the business of manufacturing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software long before it became known as ERP. In the 22 years that I have been in this industry, I have seen the footprint of ERP applications expand at a steady rate.
... ContinuedDecoding Barcodes: IQMS Welcomes 2D Barcodes to the Shop Floor
Recently, we’ve seen new barcode standards emerging. Almost everyone is familiar with UPC barcodes (found, for example, on the containers of grocery items), that have reduced the amount of manual data entry and increased the amount of data that can be
... ContinuedHow to Prepare for a Smooth ERP Software Update
If there is one infallible truth in manufacturing ERP software, it’s that you will never run out of things to learn. Technology is always changing and regardless of whether you hate change or thrive on it, it is coming. So how
... ContinuedMobile Application Software for the Manufacturing Shop Floor
I grew up in the 60s and I don’t mind admitting that I really liked the Star Trek series. It was about the future, it had adventure and it always ended with a moral theme. Captain Kirk and his crew would use technology
... ContinuedTake Charge of Your Vendor Sales Orders with EDI
Many manufacturing ERP software users understand the benefit of using electronic data interchange (EDI) to facilitate communication with their customers. EnterpriseIQ‘s EDI/eCommerce module provides functionality to receive orders and acknowledgments and send shipping notices and invoices, plus many other transactions needed in regular day
... ContinuedHow Much Network Bandwidth Is Needed for an ERP Application?
This question has come up more times than I can count in the past year and every time it does I cringe because I don’t like saying, “I don’t know.” My response is usually followed by the question: Can’t you
... ContinuedSingle Database – Single Source ERP for Manufacturing
Single Database – Single Source ERP for Manufacturing A Little History of Lessons Learned From the beginning of my career in manufacturing I saw the need for a comprehensive system to control the whole process from start to finish. It
... ContinuedOptions vs. Features in Manufacturing ERP Software
When is an option no longer an option but a necessity? When purchasing equipment it can be the stripped down model or the one fully loaded with all options. You may remember when an automatic transmission and radio were an
... ContinuedInventory Accuracy and the Effects on ERP
Inventory accuracy is crucial in today’s manufacturing environments. Some people do not realize the impact of what happens within an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system when your inventory is not accurate. And when I say accurate, I mean at least
... ContinuedAre You Tracking Your Manufacturing Downtime Costs?
I have been in the manufacturing business for more than 18 years. When I first started, I was working in accounting and then moved over to operations. It was all about dollars and cents and what we could improve to
... ContinuedWhy A Fully Integrated Manufacturing ERP System Makes More Sense
There’s no argument that fully integrated manufacturing ERP system is the way to go. It is very interesting that so many of the top ERP systems advertise that functionality such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Warehouse Management (WMS), Manufacturing Execution System
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