Infor Unveils MES Products for MAPICS Shops

Published: October 17, 2006

by Alex Woodie

iSeries ERP giant Infor last week launched a new suite of Manufacturing Execution System (MES) products designed to help its ERP XA (formerly MAPICS) customers squeeze the highest level of production from limited resources by better connecting shop level control systems and reporting systems with existing ERP installations. The new MES solution also enables ERP XA customers to start using Kanban manufacturing techniques.

Infor's new offering, which the Atlanta company calls the ERP XA MES Suite, consists of three components, including a lean execution and planning system, a manufacturing data collection and communication system, and a quality management system. Customers can purchase some of the modules separately or get a break on the prices when they purchase all three of them as a bundle.

Two of the three components of the MES suite--the data collection and quality components--existed as separate products before. In fact, they ran on the iSeries, and are being rewritten in .NET, according to a company spokeswoman. The third component, the lean execution and planning system, is new and was designed from the ground-up to run on the Windows operating system.

Infor says that bringing these previously separate products together into a unified suite that runs on Windows will eliminate the need for customers to manually integrate them with Infor ERP XA (which runs exclusively on the iSeries) and then continuously manage the disparate systems. In other words, Infor is saying that standardizing on Windows simplifies integration for its iSeries customers.

In addition to the integration boost, Infor XA customers adopting the MES suite will also benefit from real-time production reporting, shorter manufacturing cycle times, faster inventory turnover, more on-time deliveries, a higher quality end product, and enhanced cash flow, the company says.

iSeries shops will benefit from the new lean execution and planning functionality system, which allows the co-existence and simultaneous scheduling of Kanban and traditional manufacturing techniques. Kanban is a visualization technique used to signal the readiness of the next stage of manufacturing in lean and just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing processes. For example, an empty cart or an empty tote would signal the supplier that replenishment is needed. Manufacturing forecasts are not used in Kanban systems; rather, the system is designed to be able to react quickly, and to "pull" supplies when they're needed.

The new Lean Execution and Planning component offering addresses a substantial need for an execution system that delivers timely and accurate production and quality information, says Mike Frichol, Infor's vice president of global industry and product marketing. "XA MES Suite provides the tools powerful enough to impact the flow of information from order entry to final delivery of the finished good," he says.

The new MES software was developed for Infor by Paper-Less, a software company based in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. Paper-Less has extensive experience developing data collection systems for the MAPICS ERP system, and had reportedly been developing the new Lean Execution and Planning (LEAP) system for three years.

Paper-Less develops ERP XA add-ons that run on both OS/400 and Windows. The company is a subsidiary of Information Systems Engineering, an IBM and Infor business partner that sells and implements ERP XA systems.