Infor VISUAL vs. SAP Manufacturing Execution

The original version of Visual Manufacturing (Lilly Software) was intended for mechanical manufacturing. It was adapted at our facility (we were not the first) to accomodate electronic manufacturing. For electronic manufacturing process control it is not ideal when referencing in-line or custom processes used to build product. For material control it is excellent unless a modification to a standard product is required (and we did this on 60% of product going out the door). The co-product feature that removes material from an assembly requires the creator of the work order to calculate the percentage of cost the removed items are from the completed product. On the business operations side regional tax reports were difficult to extract and an external module to go into the data base and extract that had to be created. The system itself was stable for the most part. Occasional "data collisions" corrupted transactions at times. The accounting procedures in place found them by the end of the month .where they were corrected. For a small business with less formal processes Infor Visual can be used with little training for the operators. If the processes need a higher level of accountability and control the processes can be formalized with workflow scripts to ensure that higher level of control.

Incentivized

SAP Manufacturing Execution is suitable for desecrate manufacturing. For the complex routing of the product, this software ensures users do not by mistake start executing the wrong steps. This is the best tool to track and work on nonconformance and rework scenarios. This is most suitable when the landscape has SAP ERP in place.

Incentivized

• Part/BOM libraries
• Traceability from customer order to work order
• Job status representation

Incentivized

• Visual routing ensures the production line layout is as appropriate as shown on the application.
• Production house needs a lot of data to do an in-process inspection of the product. ERP might not need that. SAP ME provides that place to do every data collection.
• Nonconformance functionality ensures when needed the product goes to the appropriate station to get repaired. Also, data collection can raise NC and can move the product to a particular station to get an issue corrected.
• All the information is well integrated with SAP ERP and makes SAP ME more valuable for the organization.
• SAP MII also comes along with SAP ME helps to get the application well integrated with the shop floor equipment.

Incentivized

• At times a "shadow part" is necessary in the manufacturing process. This shadow part does not require an inventory transaction but is made a as a separate process - sometimes out of sequence to the general process flow. Infor Visual ver 6.3.5 does not have that capability.
• When generating forms for business and manufacturing operations Infor Visual ver 6.3.5 has a limited number of options. To change or add forms requires an unsupported editor. When the stock and custom options are depleted an outside programming module is required as well as programmers to develop the forms.
• While free software upgrades to the main operations modules have been part of the maintenance agreement. One upgrade required database and hardware support not justifiable for the current business model. The system was frozen at the current version at that time.
• There is no easy way to differentiate between engineering documentation and production documentation.

Incentivized

• ODS or the BI part of the ME needed more improvement.
• The archiving job needs to be more robust.
• Database indexes need to me more analyzed and setup as per the organization requirement.
• SAP MII UI integration plugin to be developed for increased usability of this application.

Incentivized

Good Technical and Customer Support during and after implementation tasks. Good Project Plan and Management support for implementation and post implementation. Financial functionality could be more comprehensive particularly with Budgeting and Cash Management. Inventory Management capability was adequate but could be more comprehensive as well. "Out of the Box" functionality was adequate but requested add-ons and enhancements seemed to be a bit pricey.

Because of use cases and easy implementation and the vertical and horizontal scaling.

Incentivized

As we have seen the live environment and the use cases where we implement.

Incentivized

Could have used more hands-on approach. There are multiple webinars and information sessions but until you actually use the system, these are not very helpful.

Incentivized

We unfortunately did not evaluate any other ERP software. VISUAL was a legacy system and we determined that changing systems would be too difficult, and not cost effective. We reached out to our local VISUAL rep who knew how the software functioned, but not how to apply it more appropriately to our business model, so we continued on with what we had rather than looking elsewhere.

Incentivized

There was no product evaluated before using SAP ME. This replaced the custom homegrown MES system. The custom MES system had a lot of issues with the integration with SAP ERP. While evaluating the situation, SAP MII was the initial tool used to create the integration of the custom MES. We later found the fully functional tool SAP ME off the shelf had several functionalities out of the box.

Incentivized

• Good Billing provided
• Easy to implement and use
• scales vertical and horizontal

Incentivized

• Production house is more efficient now.
• Less paperwork improved means less unproductive work on the shop floor.
• Regulatory audits are more efficient.

Incentivized