What is process (formula based) manufacturing and how does it differ from discrete manufacturing?
There are two basic categories of manufacturing software, discrete and process. Discrete manufacturing systems are generally designed around a bill of material containing whole, or discrete quantities of materials such as 1 axle, 2 tires, etc. Process manufacturing systems are driven by formulas such as 90% water, 5% flavoring, etc. Process manufacturers usually blend or mix materials rather than cutting, shaping, or assembling hard goods. Hybrid manufacturers combine process and discrete components. A good example would be a cosmetic company that mixes a batch of lip stick bulk and fills the bulk into a base container (process manufacturing), then assembles this into a finished product with a packaging and label bill of material (discrete manufacturing).

What verical industries are best served by a process or hybrid manufacturing solution?
While many indutries can benefit from process-centric solutions, here are a few key industries that commonly come up when dealing with process manufacturing:

SIC 20 - Food and beverage / Flavors

SIC 21 - Tobacco

SIC 2611 to 2631 - Paper / Pulp Mills

SIC 28 - Chemicals / Fragrances

SIC 29 - Petroleum

SIC 30 - Rubber / Plastics (usually hybrid)

SIC 32 - Stone / Clay / Glass (process-centric requirements; Concrete manufacturing is a good process manufacturing environment.)

SIC 33 - Primary Metals (sometimes hybrid; process-centric requirements)

What are some common issues that are specific to process and hybrid manufacturers?

Weight to Volume conversions with Specific Gravity calculations

Formulas (recipes) as opposed to Bill of Material

Production batch loss / gain (moisture / boiloff etc)

Full featured bi-directional lot recall (see Bioterrorism Act)

Elevated auditing and security requirements for formulas, production and regulations such as 21 CFR 11b

Full featured Quality Control (QC) and Certificate of Analysis (C of A) requirements

Customer specific QC and C of A requirements

Nutritional property calculations for produced goods

Lot strength and potency considerations in production

High decimal availability and precision in production

Co-products and by-products

FDA reporting requirements

Compliance reporting (HACCP, SARA, HAPS, MSDS etc) Weight to Volume conversions with Specific Gravity calculations

Why did Escape Velocity choose MAS 500 instead of working with multiple ERP systems or creating a whole ERP system from the ground up?

The simple answer: reliability, robustness and seamless integration. Escape Velocity set out to create an integrated, not interfaced, system. That means that the O2 Manufacturing and Advanced Security modules share data with MAS500; they live and breathe MAS500. Not only do O2 and Advanced Security look and feel exactly like MAS500, but they can take advantage of all of the facets of the MAS500 toolset, including customizer and business insights. An interfaced system, on the other hand, that works with multiple accounting and ERP systems, cannot possibly take full advantage of the host ERP system.

MAS500 is the flagship product of the undisputed leader in mid-market ERP software, Sage (aka Best) Software.

We at Escape Velocity did not want to recreate the wheel (ie, financial, inventory and distribution core modules), and have noticed that no vendor that has tried to do this has created a core module set that can compete with a product like MAS500. MAS500 has proven that it can compete on the open market with its core modules. Why should customers have to choose between an operational process manufacturing oriented system and a full featured accounting / distribution system? With O2 and MAS500, they don't.

O2 can be used alongside MAS500's existing discrete manufacturing module to provide a truly comprehensive hybrid manufacturing solution.

E-mail: solutions@evs-sw.com

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