The QAD Demand Driven Enterprise Initiative

The March 2006 QAD product launch introduces four new solutions as part of the QAD Demand Driven Enterprise Initiative, the next phase of solutions in the QAD Global Enterprise Edition. These solutions give customers a strategic advantage in the global market by optimizing and streamlining the demand process and fully integrating the demand model with enterprise and extended enterprise operations.

New solutions include:

• QAD .NET User Interface
• QAD Configurator
• QAD Demand Management
• QAD Distributed Order Management

Enhanced solutions include:

• QAD JIT Sequencing
• QAD Production Scheduler

QAD .NET UI: Simpler, Faster, More Interactive

The new QAD user interface, QAD .NET UI, is a rich client framework for QAD applications that provides users essential flexibility. This framework leverages the market-leading Microsoft .NET user interface technology to improve end user productivity and satisfaction. Within the QAD .NET UI, transaction programs are available in newly-designed HTML screens and lookups and browses are available as .NET screens, with powerful new capabilities.

QAD .NET UI:

• Allows users to access QAD products with a single sign-on
• Uses familiar UI metaphors, reducing the effort for users to learn how to use QAD's applications
• Enables integration of QAD products with Microsoft Office applications, such as Excel
• Allows users to quickly rearrange windows within a workspace to best facilitate tasks
• Allows easy and flexible updates
• Enables the use of updated QAD application HTML screens to integrate with .NET screens and browses
• Facilitates seamless navigation from one QAD product to another and fully customizable navigation within an application

QAD .NET UI also provides powerful new browses that enable users to dynamically change their data views, filter browse results, narrow their searches and drill down from displayed data to relevant source material. Browse conditions set by the user can be easily saved for reuse, and shared by other users. Flexibility and the power to move from one set of data to another are the key features of these new browses.

Learn more.
For further information on the QAD .NET User Interface, please contact Barry Stoltz, bas@qad.com.

QAD Configurator: Your Competitive Advantage in Customization

Many organizations are required to meet customers' needs with products configured to order and built within a short delivery time. In a highly competitive environment, these businesses face the challenge of dramatically reducing engineer involvement in the sales configuration process in order to shorten lead times and increase sales. At the same time, they need to improve the quality of the configuration process to avoid costly mistakes.

QAD Configurator achieves these goals.
Especially developed for organizations that manufacture and/or sell products that are uniquely configured to customers' needs, QAD Configurator is easy to use and flexible. Engineers and sales members alike will find the support they need to serve your customers, thanks to consistency of the configuration process and maintainability of the database.

In addition, users (such as sales members) are enabled to configure complex products without having to know all the technical details of the product during the order entry process.

Key concepts of the QAD Configurator include:

• Ease of use
• Flexibility
• Consistency of the configuration process
• Maintainability of the database

Learn more.
For further information on the QAD Configurator, please contact Frank Feustel, fzf@qad.com.

QAD Demand Management: Forecasting is Only Part of the Solution

Demand management requires more than just forecasting; true demand management is measured by a company's ability to manage the need for products or services in a way that meets its business goals and objectives. A company must plan for demand, communicate that demand throughout the supply chain, influence demand through a variety of promotional or incentive activities, and prioritize demand so that costs are most efficiently incurred.

The QAD Demand Management solution encompass all areas of demand management from creation of forecasts and tracking of errors, to collaboration with supply chain members, flexible reporting of demand activities, and seamless integration with QAD applications. When combined with the traditional functionality of QAD applications, QAD Demand Management completes an extensive integrated planning model, which encompasses all areas of demand management.

QAD Demand Management plans demand by seamlessly collaborating with all demand sources, leveraging sophisticated forecasting methods, and detecting fluctuations in forecasts and demand as soon as it happens. This provides communication of exceptions that enables the optimization of production and fulfillment.

Demand Management Value:

• Reduce supply chain inventories by 8-10 percent
• Optimize production efficiencies by 2-3 percent
• Reduce planning expenses by 10-15 percent
• Increase fill rates by 10-15 percent
• Increase customer service levels by 4-5 percent
• Increase profitability by 1-2 percent
• Grow sales revenue by 2-3 percent

Learn more.
For further information on the QAD Demand, please contact Rob Cramer, rac@qad.com.

QAD Distributed Order Management: For the Extended Enterprise

Dispersed global enterprises are continually looking for ways to access all of their disparate information while reducing supply chain costs. In doing so, they must leverage production capacity across multiple locations, and efficiently communicate across the supply chain. Distributed order management requires a balance of global visibility with local capacity. The global aspect requires a mechanism for efficient communication of orders. Without insight into the status of local plant operations, manufacturers simply centralize control of production. Centralization can create more challenges than it resolves, as when the customer is paying in one currency, while the plant is purchasing materials in another.

QAD Distributed Order Management affords more than efficiency; it also helps ensure a consistent return on the investment in any given plant, while providing an easy-to-use order management hub. Distributed Order Management provides flexible rule and role-based order management with visibility to near real-time enterprise information.

Distributed Order Management Value:

• Eliminate manual processes, reduce error rates and exceptions, efficiently execute distributed order fulfillment
• Improve regulatory compliance
• Harmonize and provide visibility of enterprise customer orders, customer credit risk and inventory
• Access enterprise inventory and manage sourcing to improve order fill rates
• Provide customers with reliable order commitments and real-time order status

Learn more.
For further information on QAD Distributed Order Management, please contact Rod Martinez, rmq@qad.com.

QAD JIT Sequencing: Solutions in Production Execution

QAD JIT Sequencing enables the scheduling and management of operations at plants that produce, package and/or ship configured parts and assemblies, in sequence; ensuring the right items are delivered to the customer's production lines at the right time and in the correct sequence.

With this new QAD JIT Sequencing 1.8 release, QAD extends its capabilities and functions to even better support its customers in just-in-time sequenced production environments. A configurable integration framework provides the ability to define multiple integration channels with PLC and/or ERP systems. All messages are traceable and the integration workbench monitors the data exchange between QAD JIT Sequencing and the configured integration partners.

QAD JIT Sequencing 1.8 enables out-of-the-box transactional support with QAD MFG/PRO Advanced Repetitive for production and scrap reporting, for both milestone and final operation codes. At the same time, the QAD JIT Sequencing integration framework is open to integrate with other ERP systems.

Usability is improved through the availability of additional reports, better support of out-of-sequence conditions in the packaging module, improved error tracking and a detailed order viewer. The Assembly Order Workbench supports the usage of pictograms and colors codes to differentiate important information. Component validation and trace data collection can be mandated through barcode scanning to support error proofing.

Additionally, an automated installation procedure reduces installation errors and the total time to install QAD JIT Sequencing 1.8.

QAD JIT Sequencing key features include:

• Configurable common integration framework, including a message traceability and monitoring workbench
• Improved exception handling
• Better support for out of sequence conditions in the packaging environment though utilities such as re-rack and package override
• Order swap functionality
• Introduction of new standard reports
• Order history visibility through the detailed order viewer
• Improved error proofing support in the Assembly Order workbenches
• Automated installation scripts

Learn more.
For further information on the QAD JIT Sequencing, please contact Werner Marien, wwm@qad.com. 

QAD Production Scheduler: Improved Decision Making with Better Visibility

The task of a scheduler, simply stated, is to balance available resources with demand. This becomes much easier when the answers to a few critical scheduling questions are readily available: What is late? What is the demand? Is there any overload? How can I best use the available capacity? Without good visibility into what is happening on the shop floor, accurate scheduling data is not easily obtained and targeting the correct areas to adjust can be very difficult.

What if your Scheduler had:

• Immediate online overload alerts
• Immediate online visibility to late orders
• Global visibility of resources
• Alternative resource opportunities
• Access to online scheduling parameters
• Online demand view
• Simulation capabilities

This is what the QAD Production Scheduler offers!

QAD Production Scheduler 2.0 extends the scheduler's capability to efficiently schedule repetitive production. New functionality now enables the scheduler to schedule work order production using a Web-based application, leveraging QAD MFG/PRO demand, supply and MRP data from several report, inquiry, and maintenance screens into a single view.

The strength of the QAD Production Scheduler solution is built upon the unique workbench design and architecture. Users of the QAD Production Scheduler interact with a production schedule while receiving near real-time feedback of capacity and item availability problem areas, highlighted in the workbench through visual alerts.

Version 2.0 provides global visibility of work orders scheduled across multiple resources and operations. For each work center/machine scheduled with the QAD Production Scheduler:

• System imports all work orders for items where the item has a routing with a "scheduled" work center/machine.
• User modifies or creates the work orders by exception with consideration to constraint information presented to the user on the workbench.
• User releases the work order to production.
• User exports updated and new work orders to QAD MFG/PRO to ensure synchronization.

Learn more.
Further information can be found in the QAD Production Scheduler Technical Reference Guide and the QAD Solutions Guide. Both guides are available on the QAD ServiceLinQ Web site, support.qad.com.