Article by Nancy Phillippi, Custom Information Services
November 13, 2009
Chemical
Manufacturing: MSDS, Formulas, and Microsoft
Dynamics GP
There are still
many family owned chemical and paint companies in
our part of the country that have the local market
space to thrive. These types of businesses are the
foundation to our economy and compete with the
larger corporations for market share. They also
have the same types of operations issues as the
larger corporations but they don’t have the big
budgets to implement an Oracle or JD Edwards and
based on my experience they don’t want a big package
that dictates the way they do business either.
Small to midsized companies need a flexible package
but also a package that requires less setups and
runs their core processing correctly right out of
the box.
Chemical and paint companies have
more choices now in choosing the right software for
their business.
Custom Information Services (CIS) started
helping our area paint and chemical companies in the
mid-nineties by selling
BatchMaster with the Platinum interface
for accounting. We have seen software companies try
to meet this industry by releasing packages to meet
this niche marketplace. Some good packages and some
very bad packages. Keep in mind that these
companies are process manufacturers, not discrete.
Paint and chemical companies need formula
management, formula security, multiple units of
measure, physical property information, material
data safety sheets, controls and documentation for
hazardous materials, etc. that are easy to manage
and give you accurate inventory costs. Margins are
slim in this industry and inventory costs along with
good customer service are a critical part of doing
business.
Based on our years of working
with these types of companies CIS understands these
business issues and our sales (me!) and consulting
team have years of experience with this industry as
well. A few years ago CIS made the business
decision to add another software package to our
product offering for several reasons. One being
that I lost a couple of software deals to
Dynamics GP! My take on this is if you
can’t beat ‘em then join them! When asked why they
purchased GP over our other package the response was
the same; more functionality for the bucks and the
technology based on Microsoft SQL made all the
difference. I am very glad that we made this
decision since I am not seeing any development and
declined support from the other package we
represent…which by the way is very disappointing.
The good news is that Dynamics GP
along with
Vicinity Manufacturing is the perfect
solution for paint, chemical, and any process
manufacturer. Refer to my past article;
Process, Discrete and Mixed Mode Manufacturing; 3
Business Issues – 3 Dynamic Solutions!
With our solution offering
customers can get rid of MSDS Word documents; if
their
MSDS is dynamic and they have the need.
Vicinity notifies the end user if a new MSDS needs
to be sent based on changes to the formula. Of
course input for raw material physical properties
has to be accurate! And of course that feature is
available in Vicinity.
Formulas can be secured and not
accessible if they are still in R&D or other
statuses. If a customer calls and wants to know
what you shipped them last year, the software can
tell you exactly what formula based on the batch
ticket was made for that order. Formulas are called
a bill of materials in discrete packages. Batch
Tickets is often the terminology used by process
manufacturers that the discrete manufacturer calls a
work order.
The great thing about this
solution is that a proven system such as Dynamics GP
includes superior accounting and distribution with a
total integration to Vicinity Manufacturing.
Vicinity addresses the formula manufacturing team
from the product developer and product planner to
the production manager and quality control tech.
There are many other items I
could discuss such as commission structures (I think
most process or formula manufactures change
commissions on a daily basis!), lot traceability,
complex pricing, etc., however the point I want to
make is this; if you are a paint and chemical
company please take the time to look at several
software packages including
Dynamics GP and Vicinity Manufacturing.
If you care to comment on the
information above or have any questions please feel
free to contact me at 817-640-0016 x 109 or by
emailing me at nphillippi@customis.com.
By Custom Information Services -
Dynamics reseller
in Dallas, Fort Worth Texas. |
