Regular readers of our newsletter may have recognized my continued editorial presence here as founder and longtime owner of PMI, then PSSI – Brian Sittley.  Well, this is the last one.  Permit me a quick farewell if you will.

Larry Lukasik – the best business and process consultant I’ve ever known, and I’ve known many – took over as sole owner fully one year ago, and I agreed to help with marketing this past year.  Unlike my prior disastrous attempt to transfer the business to employees, I’m happy to say this one has gone smoothly. You, our customers, are in the best of hands, and to my great joy, our team here has remained intact from the time we first began even discussing this transfer 4 years ago.

When I started the company long known as PMI way back in 1987, it was a different world: truly effective “personal computer” technology was a nascent industry, promising enormous benefits to businesses small and large.  “Custom” solutions were the way to go.  PC accounting systems became the rage.  Y2K galvanized the business world.  Our company’s efforts over the ensuing 30+ years changed businesses, lives and fortunes – including our own.  We grew from a one-man shop to a team of over 25 at our peak.

We kept our focus always on enhancing business productivity through improvements to our clients’ processes, efficiency and technology.  We stayed focused on software services and consulting.  Back then, we were a lot less concerned about things like viruses, data hacks, ransomware or the mass harvesting of our personal data.  Sadly, those days are gone.

Just as nearly all technology is borne of good intentions and the promise of improving lives, there is always a dark side.  Automobiles mature over a century but produce countless traffic fatalities.  Telephones evolve to plague us with never-ending robo-calls.  Global connectedness and social media lead to abuses and loss of privacy.  It seems no good deed goes unpunished.

Waxing nostalgic over those glory days of the 80s and 90s is a fool’s errand, but for a while, it was good fun, good growth, good for business and good for workers’ lives.  Today, tech’s benefits are manifest in the tools we use and the work we inhabit.  But as often as not it’s also hard work, head-banging frustration and a nagging sense that sometimes we are not in control as much as we’d like to think.

So as I make my final exit as a voice for our firm, let me reassure you that those core benefits of technology and software did not go away.  People like Larry and his team at PSSI have your best interests at heart.  They’re smart, experienced, and they’ve got your back.  They are capable of bringing worthwhile and extensive improvements to what you do and how you do it.  They’re a throwback to when technology was simply a good thing, and the biggest problem was getting it out to the clients quickly enough.  They are your trusted advisers, and through your mutual efforts they and you will build a better bridge, and continue to make lives more fruitful and productive, both now and well into the future.

Thanks for the great run everyone.  It wouldn’t have happened without all of you.

-Brian

One key reason we favor ALERE is its long-standing adherence to the APICS Dictionary.  APICS is the leading provider of supply chain, logistics and operations management research, publications, and education and certification programs. ALERE was designed to meet, and exceed, the definitions and processes defined by their dictionary.  And PSSI has been named an area APICS “Company of the Year” on several occasions due to our avid support of their principles in manufacturing.

You can see the APICS orientation at work in many of ALERE’s features, a couple of which we’ll briefly illustrate this month, as told by TIW Technology President Rod Hatcher.

Improved Blanket Order Integration
A blanket order (or standing order) is a long-term purchase order that has been placed by a customer. The order is valid for a specified period of time and authorizes multiple orders during that time period for supplying specified goods or services, for a fixed period or in a fixed quantity, at agreed-on prices or pricing methods. After its acceptance by the supplier, orders may be created against it periodically on an as-and-when-required basis, or as specified in the order, without calling for new purchase orders.

However, what happens when a customer calls to authorize a release from the blanket order, a sales order is created, and then the customer calls back and reduces the quantity ordered? The quantity on the order has already been deducted from the blanket order!

In ALERE v16.0 the integration of blanket and sales orders has been more tightly integrated so that changes to sales orders, created from blanket orders, automatically update the linked blanket orders to reflect the remaining quantity!

This feat is possible because of a concept in ALERE that uses the Activity tab on orders to trace the transactions that occur throughout each document’s life.

Transfer Order Planning
Prior to v16.0 manufacturing material planning took into consideration purchase orders and work orders that would be in demand for inventory items to meet production requirements. The orders that were required would be listed on the Generate Recommended Work Orders screen and the Generate Purchase Orders screen where they could be edited and then automatically released as live orders. These recommended orders save an immense amount of manual labor and keep inventory sufficiently stocked to meet the needs of manufacturing.

However, larger manufacturing companies may have more complex material planning requirements if they have multiple locations where raw material inventory is stocked, sub-components are built, and finished product is produced among them.

The planning process has been enlarged to treat different locations as suppliers. This involves recommending transfer orders, instead of purchase orders, among the different locations for raw materials, manufactured sub-components, and finished product. To support this capability, the Generate Recommended Transfer Orders screen has been added to handle material movements among the different locations.

This will be evident when the plan orders process is run and the screen will display the number of WO’s, TO’s, and PO’s recommended.

Want to Learn More About ALERE?  

TIW has a 7 minute “Manufacturing Overview Video“ on YouTube that gives a concise summary of what manufacturing software can do for you.  Click the link below to see why ALERE may be a great fit for your manufacturing operations.

• Interested in a trial version for your organization?

PSSI can work with you to understand better what a manufacturing software system can do for you.  For information on obtaining a trial version, contact Larry Lukasik at the number below.

To learn more, call us any time at 877.273.2444, or visit us on the web.