In the complex and fast-paced manufacturing world, having an effective enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is crucial for optimizing operations and maintaining a competitive edge.
Infor VISUAL is a comprehensive ERP solution designed for manufacturers, offering tools to enhance production efficiency, manage resources, and streamline workflows. With features that support everything from advanced scheduling and shop floor control to inventory management and financial tracking, Infor VISUAL empowers manufacturers to improve productivity, reduce costs, and ensure the timely delivery of high-quality products.
This article discusses the key features and benefits of Infor VISUAL, highlighting how it helps manufacturing organizations achieve operational excellence and drive business growth.
Key Takeaways
- Infor Visual ERP is a comprehensive ERP solution designed specifically for order-driven manufacturing companies. It simplifies complex operations and ensures timely delivery of quality products.
- Key features of Infor Visual ERP include advanced planning and scheduling, shop floor mobile technology, and seamless CRM integration, all aimed at optimizing production and enhancing customer satisfaction.
- Infor Visual ERP offers extensive customization and scalability options, enabling businesses to tailor the system to their specific needs and scale operations as they grow, with both on-premise and cloud-based deployment options.
Comprehensive Overview of Infor Visual ERP
Infor Visual ERP is a comprehensive ERP solution built specifically for order-driven manufacturing companies. Its intuitive design simplifies complex manufacturing operations and guarantees the timely delivery of quality products. The system supports supplier, customer, and employee audit management, enhancing reliability and compliance within manufacturing processes.
Infor Visual ERP is highly adaptable to various industry-specific requirements and is extensively used in sectors such as:
- Aerospace
- Defense
- Medical devices
- Capital equipment
- Precision tools
Its ease of implementation and intuitive interface help companies, including manufacturing companies, maintain a competitive edge, making it a go-to choice for many manufacturers.
Key Features of Infor Visual ERP
Designed to optimize production and augment customer satisfaction, Infor Visual ERP has numerous features. These include advanced planning and scheduling, shop floor mobile technology, and seamless CRM integration. Each feature addresses specific pain points in the manufacturing process, ensuring a more streamlined and efficient operation.
Advanced Planning and Scheduling
Challenges such as on-time product production, capacity management, and setting realistic lead times are common among manufacturers. Infor Visual ERP tackles these problems by offering advanced planning and visual ERP scheduling features, enabling realistic scheduling anchored on shop load and capacity management. The system understands when each step of a work order is scheduled and when materials are needed and predicts completion times, ensuring efficient production planning.
The Manufacturing Window™ feature and finite and Drum-Buffer-Rope (DBR) scheduling methods further enhance production planning. By leveraging ‘what-if’ delivery models, Infor Visual ERP helps secure shop-floor capacity and optimize schedules within the scheduling window, aligning everyone with the same information and transforming company operations.
Shop Floor Mobile Technology
Infor Visual ERP’s Shop Floor Mobile solution offers real-time visibility into shop floor activities by replacing traditional barcode transactions with mobile technology, like Bluetooth and QR codes. This innovative approach allows access to:
- Job information
- Resources
- Clock-ins/outs
- Documents
This real-time view of the shop floor enhances efficiency by:
- Capturing attendance, labor, and material data instantaneously
- Automating shop floor operations and reducing paperwork
- Ensuring complete visibility
- Improving data accuracy
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Integration
With its seamless integration with the CRM module, Infor Visual ERP strengthens customer relationship management by offering a panoramic view of customer interactions. This integration includes contact and appointment management features enriched by transactional information such as quotes, orders, shipments, and invoices.
By having access to detailed transactional data, companies can:
- Improve customer satisfaction through better service and communication
- Gain a holistic view of customer interactions
- Ensure that every department is aligned
- Foster a more cohesive and responsive customer relationship strategy
Enhancing Operational Efficiency
Designed to boost operational efficiency, Infor Visual ERP, an enterprise resource planning solution, comes with work order management, material requirements planning (MRP), and labor and material reporting features. These functionalities streamline processes, reduce waste, and improve profitability by providing a clear view of every order, constraint, and bottleneck.
Work Order Management
Infor Visual ERP systems offer the following features:
- Detailed work order tracking and costing, breaking down costs into labor, material, outside service, and burden
- Separation of costs helps in accurately tracking cost variations and avoiding misleading interpretations
- System workflows enforce business processes, ensuring consistency and compliance across departments
By providing visibility of purchased and fabricated materials, including sub-assemblies, Infor Visual ERP enhances the management of production schedules. The key features of Infor Visual ERP include:
- Visibility of purchased and fabricated materials
- Visibility of sub-assemblies
- Completion meters feature that communicates the status of work orders
- Timely deliveries and efficient production management
Material Requirements Planning (MRP)
Infor Visual ERP’s MRP capabilities enable realistic scheduling and just-in-time planning, optimizing material usage and reducing waste. Labeling materials as they are received, picked, and moved in-process provides the system visibility of work-in-process, ensuring efficient material management.
Labor and Material Reporting
Real-time labor reporting and material transaction tracking are crucial for efficient production management. Infor Visual ERP handles labor reporting through a web interface, allowing real-time recording on any device and quick access to work order status. This capability ensures accurate data and efficient production management.
Personalization and Scalability
Offering a wide range of personalization and scalability features, Infor Visual ERP enables businesses to customize the software to their specific needs and scale it per their growth. These capabilities ensure the ERP system can adapt to changing business requirements, providing a flexible and scalable solution.
Customization Capabilities
Without altering the source code, Infor Visual ERP provides tools that enable the creation of custom dashboards, reports, and workflows. This flexibility allows businesses to tailor the ERP system to their unique requirements, enhancing customer satisfaction and maintaining a competitive advantage.
Users can create multiple dashboards based on organizational roles, providing a thumbnail view of business performance. This capability allows for quick analysis and corrective actions, ensuring companies respond swiftly to changing conditions.
Multi-Company and Multi-Site Support
With its multi-entity, multi-site, and multi-currency functionality, Infor Visual ERP capably manages growth. The system can handle multiple companies or sites in one database, multiple databases, or a combination of both, offering seamless data integration and centralized control.
Quality Management and Analytics
Quality management and analytics are indispensable for consistent product quality and data-driven decision-making. Infor Visual ERP includes end-to-end quality management features and built-in, user-definable analytics, providing a holistic view of operations and ensuring compliance and reliability throughout the product lifecycle.
End-to-End Quality Management
Infor Visual ERP guarantees compliance and reliability across the product lifecycle and supply chain by supporting supplier, customer, and employee audit management. The system leverages inspection plans, Failure Mode and Effects Analyses (FMEAs), and control plans to ensure thorough quality checks and address quality issues promptly.
Advanced quality management features help meet AS 9100 and FRACAS compliance, ensuring that manufacturing companies maintain the highest standards of quality and reliability.
Performance Analytics
Infor Visual ERP’s built-in, user-definable analytics provide a comprehensive view of operations with the capability to drill down to the lowest level of transactional detail for root-cause analysis. This functionality enables fast and effective issue resolution, ensuring operational efficiency.
The system’s dashboards provide a quick visual overview of key performance indicators (KPIs). Users also can delve into more detailed information as needed. Predefined database analytics and grids are available, with options to create custom analytics tailored to specific business needs.
Deployment Options and Technology
Infor Visual ERP offers flexible deployment options, including on-premise and cloud-based SaaS solutions. The system uses robust technologies like Microsoft.NET, ensuring seamless integration with Microsoft Office and offering a scalable solution for various business needs.
On-Premise vs. Cloud-Based SaaS
Infor Visual ERP presents two key deployment options – on-premise and cloud-based SaaS. On-premise deployment allows companies to host the system on their servers, offering complete control over data and customization. This option suits businesses with in-house IT resources and specific customization needs.
Cloud-based SaaS solutions provide:
- Faster deployment times
- Lower upfront costs
- Scalability and flexibility
- Data security and system reliability
Powered by Microsoft SQL Server Database
Infor Visual ERP leverages the Microsoft SQL Server database to provide a scalable and reliable technological foundation. This ensures robust data management and analytics capabilities, allowing the system to handle large volumes of data efficiently and securely.
Industry Applications
Specifically tailored for industries such as aerospace & defense and medical devices manufacturing, Infor Visual ERP excels in meeting industry-specific requirements. By addressing industry-specific requirements for regulatory compliance, complex supply chain logistics, and precise manufacturing processes, the system provides a comprehensive solution for these sectors.
Aerospace & Defense
Infor Visual ERP supports aerospace and defense manufacturers by:
- Ensuring compliance with stringent regulations like ITAR and DFARS
- Helping maintain a competitive advantage by delivering high-quality products on time
- Meeting the demanding standards of the industry.
Additionally, Infor Visual ERP facilitates compliance with the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC), ensuring manufacturers adhere to the latest cybersecurity standards and protect sensitive information.
Medical Devices Manufacturing
Infor Visual ERP enhances quality assurance, regulatory compliance, and traceability in the medical devices manufacturing sector. The system ensures that medical device manufacturers meet stringent regulatory requirements throughout the product lifecycle, promoting consistent and high-standard production.
Infor Visual ERP includes preventive maintenance and device calibration processes to further enhance quality management. These features help maintain the reliability and consistency of medical devices, ensuring that manufacturers can meet the high standards expected in the industry.
Getting Started with Our Team
Whether you need help outlining plans for a new Infor implementation project, additional support navigating complex integrations between Infor and other ERP systems, or just an extra hand getting started on your Infor journey, Surety Systems is here to help.
Our senior-level Infor consultants have the skills and experience to understand your critical project needs, outline effective action plans, and prepare your internal teams for long-term success.
Contact Us
For more information about our Infor/Lawson consulting services or to get started on a project with our team of expert consultants, contact us today.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does Infor Visual ERP help in managing production schedules?
Infor Visual ERP helps organizations manage production schedules by providing advanced planning and scheduling features, including finite and Drum-Buffer-Rope (DBR) scheduling methods, and predicting completion times for efficient production planning.
What are the benefits of Infor Visual ERP's Shop Floor Mobile technology?
Shop Floor Mobile technology provides real-time visibility into shop floor activities and access to job information, resources, clock-ins/outs, and documents through affordable mobile devices. It enhances efficiency, reduces paperwork, and improves data accuracy.
How does Infor Visual ERP ensure quality management?
Infor Visual ERP ensures quality management through features like inspection plans, FMEAs, and control plans, which ensure consistency, predictability, and product quality throughout the product lifecycle and supply chain.
What deployment options does Infor Visual ERP offer?
Infor Visual ERP offers both on-premise and cloud-based SaaS deployment options tailored to fit the specific needs of different businesses. On-premise deployment provides control and customization, while cloud-based deployment offers faster deployment times and lower upfront costs.
How is Infor Visual ERP beneficial for the medical devices manufacturing industry?
Visual ERP benefits the medical devices manufacturing industry by enhancing quality assurance, regulatory compliance, and traceability and ensuring consistent and high-standard production.
