Sage 500

Advanced Manufacturing Features Provide the Backbone for Production Tracking and Job Costing.

Take manufacturing to the next level with Advanced Manufacturing. Advanced Manufacturing includes all the features of Light Manufacturing/Advanced Kitting plus enhanced work orders and labor and production reporting. Track an item through the entire manufacturing process with enterprise wide visibility at each step along the way. Customer service representatives can view the status of a custom order with just a few simple clicks. GAAP compliant job costing provides insights as to which items are most profitable and which are costing you money. Identify production bottlenecks and respond in real-time to last minute engineering changes. Define the operations, machines, work centers and other options to best fit your unique manufacturing environment and corporate business model.

• Instantly track which employees are currently on the clock in any production facility
• Track actual labor times for accurate job costing
• Track shipments of parts to outside vendors for subcontractor operations
• Efficiently manage work orders for all manufacturing activities

Manage Production and Resources using Advanced Scheduling rules and simple Drag-and-Drop Schedule Board

Sage 500 includes one of the most powerful and easy-to-use Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) modules available. Use industry-standard scheduling rules to automatically schedule production based on advanced algorithms and mathematical calculations. The drag-and-drop schedule board allows you to modify the base schedules to accommodate high-priority orders or move operations to another machine when one breaks down. Production schedules are visible enterprise-wide allowing customer service, management, sales and all areas of the business online access to order status and scheduled completion dates across all manufacturing facilities.

• Eliminate guesswork using industry-standard scheduling rules to generate realistic production schedules
• Improve customer satisfaction with expanded visibility into the status of customer orders
• Accommodate high-priority orders with adjustable scheduling
• Maintain multiple version of schedules for multiple facilities with flexible what-if simulations

Improve Engineering Management through e-mail notifications and standardized approval processes Labor operations and material items are constantly changing as new items are developed and manufacturing processes are streamlined using newer methods or equipment. Standardize the engineering change management process with pre-defined approval processes and e-mail notifications. Changes made to an Engineering Change Management (ECM) controlled routing or bill of material is routed through e-mail to members of the approval group, with specified approval deadlines to ensure timely approval and implementation. Effective dates and retirement dates facilitate production planning and re-tooling.

• Improve communications with automatic e-mails distributed to multiple approval sequence groups
• Increase efficiency with online approvals and flexible notes for each approval sequence
• Eliminate guesswork about which version of a routing/bill of material to use with effective and retirement dates
• analyze and monitor engineering change information to gain insights into how changes impact production costs and pricing.

Increase Profitability and Win More Business with Exceptionally Accurate Estimates Sage 500 Estimates help you provide more than an educated guess regarding the total cost of production because they include materials, outside processing, and labor, as well as overhead rates and one-time charges for tooling and engineering. Estimates can be copied from or to: existing routings, bills of material or even work orders; allowing quick creation of new estimates based on similar items or previous estimates. The ability to copy existing entries increases estimate accuracy through the use of actual material quantities, scrap yields, and actual costs from a similar job. Convert estimates to a customer quote or directly to a sales order with a simple mouse-click to streamline order processing. Flexible markup codes by quantity of parts categories can be based on materials, labor, outside processing, tooling and other costs. Multimedia and CAD integration can further improve the estimate process.

• Accurately calculate costs and prices for new parts using existing inventory costs, work center rates, and other data
• Quickly convert estimates to customer quotes or sales orders
• Assign critical business dates to each estimate to accurately track start date, promised date, required date, order date, manufacturing release date, and expiration date
• Monitor estimate accuracy and profitability by comparing estimated total cost, cost per piece, total price, price per piece, and gross profit to actual

Manage production and kit assembly without complicated labor transactions or material issues. Sage 500 Light Manufacturing streamlines manufacturing and kitting processes, enabling light manufacturers to save time and labor costs and concentrate on other critical business issues.

Light Manufacturing provides an easy-to-use Production Entry screen where finished goods are reported after the fact; this single point of entry eliminates dozens of potential labor and production transactions by automatically issuing material quantities, outside process transactions, and labor time to finished goods. Identify labor as part of the kitting process to dramatically improve product costing, subsequent pricing, and the kitting procedure.

Utilize optional modules, such as Estimating, Product Configurator, Engineering Change Management, Project Accounting, and Material Requirements Planning with Light Manufacturing for additional capabilities.

• Establish standard routings and bills of material for your manufactured items
• Report production only for finished goods, while other labor transactions are automatically calculated at standard
• Notify your maintenance and production departments when assets are due for maintenance with Alerts
• Analyze and monitor Light Manufacturing data and transactions

Manage Material Requirements Planning (MRP) from a single planning screen Sage 500 provides up-to-date item statistics, including on-hand quantities, current purchase orders, work orders, transfer orders, and other elements that affect planning decisions in a single planning screen. Calculations use advanced replenishment formulas and demand forecasting principles to produce extremely accurate material and distribution plans. Maintain multiple MRP versions to run what-if simulations. Plan purchases, production, and inventory transfers, enabling Capable to Promise (CTP) inquiries during Sales Order Entry. Integration with Project Accounting provides a critical management system for companies with material-intensive projects.

• Integrate with Advanced Planning and Scheduling to synchronize manufacturing material needs to production resource availability, creating resource constrained material plans and lower material inventories
• Easily customize plans prior to MRP generation using flexible sorting and selection criteria
• See suggested purchase orders, work orders and transfer orders on a single screen
• Manage transfers from feeder warehouses to subsidiary warehouses and run CTP inquiries in Sales Order Entry

Configure products for sales orders and create new items on the fly with this intuitive manufacturing software interface. Sage 500 Product Configurator provides customer service personnel with an easy-to-use interface for feature/option selection, and integration with Sales Order Entry. Easily identify and select configured parts and configure base products quickly using a double mouse click or search function. Build new parts by starting with a base item and adding features or options. Create new items using customized item masks as well as new long- and short-item descriptions. Product Configurator also builds the item cost and suggested price. Finished configurations contain unique routings and bills of material built during the configuration process. All configurations are based on standard rules that limit or require certain features or options if another feature or option is selected. Validate configurations to ensure that the final item can be produced.

• Easily set up and maintain features and options
• Quickly build new items from customer specifications
• Define options as rangers and use in calculations
• Save and reuse popular configurations as standard parts.

Equip your project management with a full suite of customized tools to manage engineering or prototype production projects and stay within budget and scope. Sage 500 Project Management for Manufacturers keeps your project managers informed and enables them to easily assign resources, track actual versus estimated costs through project completion, and generate detailed estimates for customers. Base projects on a fixed price, by accounting for time and materials, or a combination of both options.

Project Manager provides the flexibility to manage a wide variety of project types, and significantly decreases your project management costs by eliminating the need for multiple project tracking systems. In addition, six GAAP-compliant profit recognition methods enable you to control profit recognized over each period, resulting in a well-managed revenue stream.

In addition, Project Management boasts a series of tools designed for businesses that install or service products.

Integrate Project Management with Microsoft Project to leverage the strengths of both products and gain a comprehensive tool for managing all tasks, resources, and schedules.

• Monitor all details of your project, including estimates, change orders, purchase orders, timesheets, and billing
• Process time and materials against one or multiple projects
• Input expenses electronically as they are incurred without the hassles of paper submission
• Instantly expense time and materials throughout installation or service processes
• Implement Sage TimeSheet to facilitate remote viewing and updating of project statuses
• Analyze and monitor Project Management data and transactions to gain more insights into each project element

Shop Floor Control provides Real-time Labor and Production Reporting with integrated bar coding Gain online production visibility throughout the enterprise to real-time labor and production reporting. Shop floor terminals provide easy access allowing users to logon and logout using look-ups and number pads for data entry or built in scanning capabilities to scan work order numbers and work order steps. Customize the Shop Floor Control menu to include virtually any activity, maintenance function, report or inquiry needed to run your shop floor more efficiently. Enter parts produced, scrap entry and reason codes, setup, downtime and downtime reason codes, outside processing quantities and costs, as well as production related notes all from the Shop Floor console.

• Increase efficiency and accuracy with single point of entry for key shop floor data
• Leverage real-time reporting and downtime alerts to maximize production
• View and assign job tickets to employees for paperless shop floor operations
• Minimize input time with native touchscreen and hand-held technologies