Join FIATECH's Tech Tuesday
Webinar Series - Hear IFS Discuss PBS
Kenny
Ingram, IFS Global Product Director, and Christian Klingspor,
IFS Global Product Manager of Engineering and Maintenance will be
presenting about project-based solutions (PBS) on September 21, 2010,
11 a.m. to noon, EDT during FIATECH's Tech Tuesday Webinar Series.
Register today!
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Why Project-Based Solutions Are Replacing ERP For Improved
Support Of The Project Life-Cycle
For over a decade,
project-centric organizations have been struggling to reap
the same benefits the manufacturing industry has experienced
with integrated ERP systems. This is primarily because
traditional ERP systems were developed to support short,
repetitive production cycles tied to a master schedule,
whereas project-centric companies generally have custom,
build-to-order projects with long lead times, multiple
subcontracts, complex material requirements and are tied to
a work breakdown structure.
While ERP systems could support
many of the corporate functions of a project-centric
organization, such as finance and HR, these companies were
often forced to develop in-house applications, or heavily
modify their ERP solution in order to support their more
complex business processes. Enter the Project-Based
Solution, which combined the integrated enterprise benefits
of ERP, but are designed specifically to support the complex
business processes of project-centric organizations.
This webinar will examine the
fundamental differences between traditional ERP and
Project-Based Solutions and provide case examples of how
project-centric organizations like yours are reaping the
benefits. It will also demonstrate how Project-Based
Solutions provide a strong foundation for supporting the
integrated project lifecycle and ISO standards, such as
15926.
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Free White Paper:
Selecting Manufacturing ERP for ISO 26000
Compliance
ISO 26000, a new
standard for corporate social responsibility, is
based loosely on the UN Global Compact. What new
demands will ISO 26000 place on ERP and other
enterprise software used by industrial companies?
Bill Leedale, senior advisor with IFS North America,
discusses how ERP can facilitate ISO 26000
compliance and makes a strong case for adopting the
standard. Read
More!
Podcast: New EDI standard for environmental data
In this month's episode
of the IFS Radio Network, IFS Product Director Par Hammarstrom discusses
IPC 1752, a
 standard
for exchange of materials data for RoHS and WEEE compliance that now
includes information for electronic data interchange file formats and
protocols. IFS Applications' Eco Footprint Manager functionality
supports customers so they can automate data sharing up and down the
supply chain. According to Hammarstrom, this standard and the ability to
automate materials declarations ought to be of interest to any
manufacturer who participates in an electronics supply chain, and
suggests the standard may be adopted by other industries to handle their
communications.
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"The
standard has been around a couple of years
in its first version. Originally it was
designed for some very specific
environmental legislation - things like RoHS
directive in the European Union for
instance. There was a new version of the
standard created this spring. It had two
significant changes from the former version.
Now, it covers a lot more than the original
standard. Now this really covers many more
aspects of environmental legislation and
regulation and it covers full material
declarations which the former one did not.
The second really significant difference is
that it is now designed for automated
handling in the business-to-business context."
- Par Hammarstrom, IFS AB Product Director |
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IFS Welcomes New
Customer - U.S. Federal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) has selected IFS Applications as
its supply chain and maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO)
solution to ensure reliability of equipm ent
used throughout the U.S. National Airspace System (NAS).
Lockheed Martin will be the system integrator in support
of the FAA program called the Logistics Center Support
System (LCSS).
The NAS is one of the
most complex aviation systems in the world - enabling an
average of 50,000 flights per day in the United States
and over much of the world's oceans.
The NAS encompasses
14,500 air traffic controllers, 4,500 aviation safety
inspectors, and 5,800 technicians. It includes more than
19,000 airports and 600 air traffic control facilities.
In all, there are 41,000 NAS operational facilities. In
addition, there are over 71,000 pieces of equipment to
maintain, ranging from radar systems to communication
relay stations.
The LCSS solution
replaces the FAA's existing Logistics and Inventory
System in use at the Federal Aviation Administration
Logistics Center (FAALC), a distribution, warehousing
and repair facility housed at the Mike Monroney
Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City.
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IFS
In the News - Technology Evaluation Centers
 Predrag
(PJ) Jakovljevic, Principal Industry Analyst at
Technology Evaluation Centers, published a two-part
series based on IFS.
He makes reference to
other "smaller vendors [when compared to SAP and Oracle] that may
have developed a user interface (UI) that it easy to use, but they rely
on partners to develop industry-specific functionality."
Read "IFS Bucking the Trends - Part 1"
Read "IFS Bucking the Trends - Part 2"
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IFS Study Exposes Lack of Executive Confidence in
Project Delivery
Corporate executives
generally lack confidence in the ability of IT to
provide the insight and control that is required
throughout the lifecycle of a project and would like to
see better integration with their business software.
These are the findings of a study conducted by the
Internationa l
Project Management Association (IPMA) on behalf of IFS
among CEOs or COOs and project managers at project-based
businesses across five regions (the UK, USA, Australia,
Scandinavia and Benelux).
The study found that:
- Nearly three quarters (72%) of CEOs/COOs
and project managers identify the ability to manage projects as
critical or absolutely critical to the future growth of the
business.
- Despite this, just 11% of CEOs/COOs
and project managers are very confident of their ability to manage
business critical projects in the most efficient way.
- Only one quarter (25%) of businesses
surveyed have fully integrated IT systems for project management and
just 12% of all businesses are very confident they have full
visibility of information to run projects effectively despite
identifying IT integration and real-time data as priorities for
project control.
The research also points out that the
economic downturn has placed new business demands on project-based
industries; 66% of respondents agree or strongly agree that,
post-recession, enterprise software tools have become even more
important to run projects than ever before.
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Events: Meet IFS October - December
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Upcoming Events |
APICS 2010 International Conference
October 18-20, 2010 in Las Vegas, NV
Booth #306
The APICS International Conference & Expo -
one of the world's largest gatherings of operations management
professionals - provides an annual interactive learning environment to
share ideas and learn from peers.
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ConFab Consulting Event
October 23-25, 2010 in Reno, NV
Booth #5No
matter if you are a beginning consultant, have a
growing consulting firm, or are a senior consultant
in your field, Confab offers powerful keynote and
breakout sessions and exhibits to help consultants
increase their skills and knowledge, as well as
networking where consultants make business
connections and collaborate with other consultants.
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POWER-GEN International
December 14-16, 2010 in Orlando, FL
Booth #1041
Recently celebrating
20 years of serving the power industry, POWER-GEN
International is the industry leader in providing
comprehensive coverage of trends, technologies and
issues facing the generation sector. As the need to
operate more efficiently and cost-effectively
becomes increasingly important, no other event
bridges challenges with solutions like POWER-GEN
International. Each year, more than 1,200 companies
from all sectors of the industry exhibit, with more
than 18,000 attendees.
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Check
Out Our New Website
On
August 30th, IFS launched its new external website!
Take a look
and comment on the new design on IFS North America's Facebook page.
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IFS Customer, Fabcon,
Featured in Manufacturing Business Technology
Magazine
Article Title:
Meeting Business Needs With One Tool
Life after IFS
Applications go-live
"Since go-live,
Fabcon's management has enjoyed an unprecedented
degree of visibility of productivity, cost, progress
against project timelines, and other dynamics from
the front office all the way through to the field.
"Prior to go-live, we
had gone through the process of determining what our
key metrics would be," Todd Sorg, IT director for
FabconSorg said. "We are looking at things like
productivity in the plant compared to bid - how we
were doing compared to what we bid. The whole upper
management team felt we had so much more visibility
of the operation from design to estimating to actual
production to installation. It made us much more
effective once we had fully converted to IFS
Applications."
Another benefit of
implementing IFS Applications has been improved flow
of information between manufacturing and
construction sides of the business.
"Information does
flow better between the two sides of the business,
but we do treat them as almost two separate
entities," Sorg said. "One side follows a project
all the way up to having the product shipped, and
then the field picks it up and goes from there. From
a visibility standpoint, the management team can see
it flow through the system much better than we could
before."
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Utilize Express RFI for Smart Software Decisions
IFS Expr ess
RFI, certified by Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC),
is the industry's easiest and quickest way to create an
RFI for enterprise applications. It provides a template
of more than 3,000 functional specifications, organized
by department. IFS Applications 7.5 functionality has
already been identified within the RFI, and each
response has been reviewed and certified by a TEC
industry analyst. For more information about IFS
Applications call 1-888-437-4968 or download a free
copy now!
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New IFS Brochure
Mining
Enterprises Brochure - Download your free copy today!
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