IFS Applications is Selected
by Brookfield Asset Management
IFS North America has signed a contract with
Brookfield Asset Management, a Toronto-based global
asset manager focused on property, renewable power and
infrastructure as sets
with over $100 billion of assets under management.
Brookfield’s holdings include equity investments in
commercial and residential real estate, pulp and paper
mills, rail and port facilities, electric utilities and
energy companies in virtually every country in the
world.
Brookfield will implement IFS Applications to
streamline its business processes worldwide. With
Brookfield Renewable Power having already implemented
IFS Applications, their success was something the parent
company and its various other divisions wanted to
emulate. The company is licensing a broad suite of
enterprise resource planning (ERP) and enterprise asset
management (EAM) functionality including IFS Financials,
Distribution, Maintenance, Project Management, Document
Management and Human Resources.
“Our affiliate, Brookfield Renewable Power, which had
selected IFS for their ERP requirements, along with our
own independent evaluation of available providers, led
us in selecting IFS as our preferred strategic partner
for an ERP platform for standardizing our global
operations,” Brookfield Corporate Operations Vice
President of Global Strategic Sourcing Roman Kruczaj
said. “Furthermore, their comprehensive financial
management, strong projects functionality, and broad
asset management features have the capabilities to meet
our global requirements. IFS will provide us
best-in-class applications to manage the diverse set of
businesses we operate around the globe, including those
that manage financial assets, ports, construction
projects, power generation assets, and office
properties.”
Still Time to Attend IFS' PBS Webinar
Hosted by Engineering News-Record
Project centric organizations have struggled for
more than a decade to reap the kind of benefits the manufacturing industry
has experienced with integrated ERP systems. The primary obstacle has
been that 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-spec projects.
While ERP systems could support many of the
corporate functions of a project centric organization, these companies
were often forced to develop in-house applications, or modify their ERP
solution in order to support their more complex business processes.
Enter the Project-Based Solution, which combines the integrated
enterprise benefits of ERP, but are designed specifically to support the
complex business processes associated with engineering, construction,
EPCI contracting, fabrication, engineer-to-order, equipment installation
and other project centric organizations.
Free White Paper:
Blast Past Bottlenecks with CBS
The maximum output of many manufacturing operations
is determined primarily by their market. The compa ny
can sell only a percentage of the products that the
manufacturing plant can produce. Some manufacturing
operations, however, have internal limits or
constraints on production that are more restrictive
than market forces, and more restrictive than the
maximum capacity of the rest of the plant. This may
be more common in industries that face seasonality
or other types of lumpy demand, where demand peaks
at a certain time of year or at a certain point in a
business cycle.
It is for precisely these situations that the
discipline of constraint-based scheduling (CBS) was
developed. As a business discipline, CBS requires a
viable definition of the constraint or problem that
limits production, and the development of algorithms
and methodologies to maximize production given the
constraint in question.
Read more about CBS in this white paper today.
Podcast: A Project-Based Solutions (PBS) Primer
In this month's installment of the IFS
Radio Network podcast series, IFS Product Director for Project-Based
 Solutions
Kenny Ingram discusses the history of project-based solutions (PBS) and
the various ways a PBS differs from traditional ERP.
Ingram traces the history of ERP to its
earlier incarnation, MRP. Trying to force ERP to work in project-based
and asset-intensive industries does not yield good results, according to
Ingram.
Stream the podcast for an overview of the
various points where PBS goes beyond ERP in terms of facilitating
project-based, asset-intensive industry.
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"Most of
you are probably familiar with the idea that
the early MRP systems - which is where ERP
came from - were built around the automotive
industry, and were geared around production
and product type thinking... It actually
started life in a company called Toyota. It
was really focused on repetitive
manufacturing, distribution and
production-type businesses. And the common
denominator in those businesses was that
they were focused on parts. Part numbers
were the key, and they talked about
inventory and bills of material, which you
would do in any manufacturing type of
environment. I think the ERP industry is
trying to pretend that it is a good fit, and
trying to convince people that you can take
an ERP system and add a few bits of paint to
it and fit a project and asset-centric
business. And I would say that is probably
not true."
- Kenny Ingram, IFS Product Director for
Project-Based Solutions |
IFS Study Reveals Most
Manufacturers in a Green Supply Chain
Almost 77 percent of
manufactures participating in a recent survey said they
are currently required by their customers to report on
their environmental impact and that of their products or
require their vendors to do so – these results suggest
that green supply chains are becoming the norm .
More than 80 percent of
respondents said that green supply chains – in which
companies make purchasing decisions based on
non-financial criteria, including the environmental
impact of vendors and their products – will become more
important in the next three years. The study was
conducted in December of 2010 among more than 200
executives with manufacturing operations with greater
than $100 million in revenue.
However, respondents
indicated that their IT infrastructure, including
enterprise resources planning (ERP) software, was not
keeping up with their changing green supply chain needs,
with 87 percent reporting that this data was handled at
least in part through hard copy. Only five percent rated
their ERP software as “excellent” in its handling of
green supply chain data while 54 percent rated their ERP
solution as “poor” or “not at all helpful” in this
regard.
ERP Fails to Keep Pace with
Mixed-Mode Manufacturing
Manufacturing is getting more complex, a
study from enterprise software vendor IFS North America reveals. In the
meantime, enterprise software like enterprise resources planning (ERP)
is not adequately addressing that
complexity, leaving manufacturers with disjointed and inadequate
technology and reducing enterprise
agility.
More than 80 percent of respondents to a
study of executives of mid- to large-sized manufacturing companies said
their businesses are running multiple business models or manufacturing
modes, but only 15 percent indicated their enterprise software
adequately handles all of the different modes they are engaged in.
Of the 83 percent of respondents running
multiple manufacturing modes, 76 percent are making products to order,
55 percent are making products to stock, and 34 percent are assembling
to order. Respondents said that
enterprise software like ERP was able to handle relatively simple modes
like make to stock better than more complex, engineering-intensive modes
like engineer-to-order.
Study data suggests that the ability to
handle different modes is of critical importance given that
manufacturers are adding modes of operation on a regular basis, as
evidenced by the fact that 74 percent of respondents said they had added
modes in the last five years. More than half – 54 percent – had added
modes at least twice in that time, and 28 percent had added modes three
or more times. Respondents said that acquisitions, new products,
customer demand and market forces were all factors driving them to
expand their capabilities into new manufacturing modes.
“The fact that a manufacturer’s business
model is no longer static – and instead changes on a fairly regular
basis – has undeniable impact on what companies expect from a company
like IFS,” IFS North America President and CEO Cindy Jaudon said.
“Constant change of this magnitude can be extremely disruptive to a
company. We anticipated this market change many years ago and continue
to develop IFS Applications to be the market leader in serving companies
that operate in complex and mixed-mode environments. This built-in
agility allows the application to be quickly reconfigured and expanded
to accommodate the changing needs of the market.”
Events: Meet IFS at These
Upcoming Spring Events
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Upcoming Events |
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AeroDef Manufacturing Expo
April 4-7, 2011 in Anaheim, CA
Visit IFS at
Booth #1419
Be a part of history at AeroDef Manufacturing.
-
The
only event to bring together the entire
aerospace and defense manufacturing enterprise.
-
A
catalyst for radical change in the face of
government and global economic realities.
-
The
only event designed to foster innovation and
collaboration between buyers and sellers at each
stage of the manufacturing process.
AeroDef
is solely devoted to the highly specialized
challenges of these economic sectors. It is an event
of such significance that leading OEM executives
agreed to guide its development.
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FIATECH 2011
April 18-20, 2011 in Chandler, AZ
Visit IFS at
Booth #3
FIATECH
2011 will begin FIATECH's next 10 years of leading
industry developments in advancing life cycle data
management, design workflows, RFID developments, and
much more.
The
Technology Showcase will provide a unique
opportunity for peer-to-peer exchange and networking
as well as time to envision emerging technologies
and innovative solutions that will enhance your
position in the competitive global market.
By
participating in this 2 1/2 day event you will see
what the FIATECH consortium and its members have
been developing and what is ahead for the next 10
years.
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ELECTRIC POWER
May 10-11, 2011 in
Rosemont, IL
Visit IFS at
Booth #1639
ELECTRIC
POWER is the largest coal power conference in the
U.S. It offers more sessions and speakers and
attracts more coal power producers than any other
event. In addition, the leading users’ group for PRB
Coal holds its primary meeting at ELECTRIC POWER
each year. Register today!
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Download
Free ERP Solutions in the Green Supply Chain and
Multi-Mode Manufacturing Survey Report
The vast majority of
mid-to large-sized manufacturers responding to an IFS
North America research study are grappling with two
trends:
- Market pressure to
measure and report on their environmental footprint
and their vendors.
- Rapid change forces
them to regularly change their business models.
More than 80 percent of
respondents said that green supply chains – in which
companies make purchasing decisions based on
non-financial criteria, including the environmental
impact of vendors and their products – will become more
important in the next three years.
The full report is now
available for free from the button below!
Accurate & Free Software Comparison Tool
Looking
to
compare software functionality from one vendor to
another?
Take the mystery out of the process and utilize the
Comparison Tool from Managing Automation at
www.managingautomation.com.
The IFS Validation Report includes:
- A solution overview
- A functional overview, including a summary of key
capabilities by application and industry
- A technology overview
- A description of the new enhancements in IFS
Applications
- A description of
Managing Automation's validation methodology
Top
Meet the IFS Team
Each month the IFS customer newsletter
will feature an IFS employee.
This
month's
spotlight is on:
Bill Noble
- Implementation Manager
 "I
am an Implementation Manager working out of the North American
corporate office in Itasca, IL. Apart from managing Consulting
Services projects, my other responsibilities include managing
all IFS Business Intelligence implementation projects, 2c8
Modeling tool training and application consulting.
Since joining
IFS, I have had the opportunity to experience how our product is
implemented across different industries. I have also had the
pleasure of working with several of our customers, where I have
learned how their business operates and how IFS continues to
improve their operations.
On a personal note, I graduated
from Northern Illinois University with a degree in Business
Management. I currently reside in Bolingbrook, IL with my wife
Marissa and my son Will. In my spare time, I enjoy playing golf
and the drums." |
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DESIGNED FOR
AGILITY
IFS, the glob al
enterprise applications company, provides solutions that
enable organizations to respond quickly to market
changes, allowing resources to be more agile to achieve
better business performance and competitive advantage. |
IFS
SOLUTIONS
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Contact IFS at
1-888-437-4968 |
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Seven IFS Key Vertical Industries
      
If you're considering new
ERP/EAM options, take a closer look at IFS - the
choice of successful companies such as GE, BMW,
Ericsson, and Lockheed Martin. IFS' component-based
software makes it easier for companies to achieve rapid
bottom-line results. |
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