News & Events
PRESS RELEASE
SAP and Factivity Product Interface for Control and Monitoring of Shop Floor Activity
SAP users eliminate delays with new tool
CLEVELAND (January 16, 2007) Manufacturing software pioneer FACTIVITY Inc., has come to an agreement with SAP Integrator Gesix to provide factory floor capabilities through the FACTIVITY touch screen based, intuitive factory floor system. This lean manufacturing execution system extends the capabilities of SAP for control and monitoring of activities on the factory floor. FACTIVITY is fully integrated with SAP through the GESIX Integration Engine. It delivers the ability to communicate effectively with increased floor visibility and a minimum of implementation costs.
Just as SAP turns supply chain activity into real-time business information, the FACTIVITY product turns factory activityinto actionable management information. Its open systems design delivers real-time information to individual work centers, supervisors and management.
The benefits of this product integration include:
- Improved visibility into production, work orders and jobs currently on the floor
- Real-time management alerts to user-defined problems, such as poor efficiency, too much scrap or non-conformance to quality requirements
- Work scheduling capabilities: FACTIVITY improves job sequencing by using finite sequencing logic to line-up work in all work centers based on finite capacity and user-defined rules
- Highly accurate shop floor accounting with no operator data entry
- Better visibility and labor tracking
- Document and communication control, including paperless messaging on the shop floor and access to critical documents such as CAD drawings, set-up instructions and video clips.
“This product is flexible, scalable and easy to implement” states, Rob Wilson the Gesix FACTIVITY Product Manager in North America. “The SAP Interface Engine used to enable FACTIVITY leverages the functionality developed for our Gesix Ezy Solutions tools, which have been installed at over 100 companies around the world. The relationship with FACTIVITY complements our offering of RF wireless inventory management solutions for production and distribution for SAP.”
About FACTIVITY Inc.
FACTIVITY Inc. develops implements and supports software products for manufacturing companies. The current focus of the company is on FACTIVITY, a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) with modules for APS Finite Scheduling, Time & Attendance, Shop Floor Management, Machine Monitoring and more.
For more information on FACTIVITY, please visit www.FACTIVITY.com or call 216-514-5141.
FACTIVITY™ is provided by and is a trademark of Factivity Inc.
ABOUT Gesix Inc.
Gesix has offices in Australia, UK and USA. Since its inception in 1998, Gesix has specialized in providing solutions to assist clients realize business benefits from their investment in SAP software. Gesix provides solutions that extend SAP in areas such as production, materials management, warehouse management, finance and accounting.
For more information on Gesix, please visit
www.gesix.com or call 440-210-4460.
PRESS RELEASE
FACTIVITY Named To Top Five World Reseller List by Preactor International
Manufacturing software company broadens reach and emphasis.
Cleveland based Factivity Inc. made the exclusive list of worldwide top resellers of the Preactor sequencing product for factory floor use this past June at the week-long World Reseller Conference in Chippenham, England. The Conference is designed to improve the communications between Preactor Sales and Service organizations around the globe and provide a forum for synergy among the companies participating.
The conference consists of presentations and discussions ranging from Case Studies to demonstrations of new product functionality. One of the highlights was the Heijunka Scheduling presentation by Marcus Block using Preactor to help coordinate sequencing and provide LEAN manufacturing at a Toyota Production Plant.
The entire conference highlighted the use of Preactor products around the world. Preactor is implemented in over 2500 companies in over 500 sites worldwide. It is integrated with virtually every ERP sold today as well and many "legacy and home-grown" ones. The implementation of Advanced Scheduling logic continues to provide a quick return on investment.
During the conference, Mike Novels, the Managing Partner of the company recognized additional Reseller contributions including Best Case Study. FACTIVITY's Case Study at Juzo was one of the finalists. You can find the details of this Case Study at http://www.factivity.com/success-juzo.htm. The award highlighted the solution of the combined products of Preactor with the Factivity touch screen based factory floor MES system for data collection and real time visibility and status of production jobs.
FACTIVITY ANNOUNCEMENT
FACTIVITY and RMS have entered into an alliance to broaden the support efforts for their respective Preactor Business Units. RMS, a UK based company, has been successfully selling, installation, and supporting Preactor for over five (5) years. RMS is one of most successful resellers of Preactor in the world with installation in both the UK, Europe, and the United States. They are partnering with FACTIVITY, one of the top resellers of Preactor Software in the US, so both companies can provide a larger band wide of training and installation support services on both sides of the Atlantic. Once again this year, FACTIVITY’ Preactor Business Unit received top honors at the Annual Preactor North American Conference.
PRESS RELEASE
PPG Scheduling Pilot Proves Effective and Profitable
Atlanta, GA. When Amy Lee, Senior
Systems Analyst at PPG Aerospace / PRCDeSoto
Int. was assigned a finite scheduling
project for the Aerospace’s US ASC’s in
Atlanta, her goal was to solve the problem
on time and on budget. The Atlanta division
of PPG which specializes in packaging
adhesive, sealants and coatings primarily
for the aerospace industry was entering
60-100 orders per day manually on an
Excel spreadsheet. There was no way to
manipulate the schedule and it was costing
the company overtime. The factory was in
need of a fi nite scheduling application to
give them visibility of the facility planning
decisions. Ms Lee comments, "For
ASC Atlanta, improving the scheduling
process of the facility needed to decrease
repackaging labor costs (in overtime and
temporary expenses) and increase ontime
delivery." It also needed to enable
the factory to provide accurate delivery
information to customers and perform
"what-if" scenarios for rush orders and
capacity planning.
With fast installation as another prime
objective, Janet Castens, Operations
Manager on the project, wanted a
straightforward application with simple
architecture. The solution they decided
on was the Preactor product installed
and supported by FACTIVITY, a leader in the
development of factory fl oor technology
with over 20 years in the factory software
market. Castens comments, "We did not
have visibility on the fl oor and we wanted
a solution that was both fl exible and easy
to understand."
Both Castens and Lee agree that utilizing
the PPG Project Methodology was also
a component of the successful Preactor
installation and deployment. States Lee,
"It assured business and IT commitments
upfront, it supplied a detailed agenda and
task list for the project to follow and it
guaranteed the entire process and data fl ow
was mapped out before the project began.
This allowed us to be up and running in
approximately two (2) weeks."
In addition, Ms. Castens commented that
FACTIVITY personnel were both prompt and
professional. "We threw a customization
at them and FACTIVITY technical staff was able
to turn it around in a week."
Today, with Preactor, the order information
is automatically pulled in from QAD’s
MFGPRO ERP system directly via the
FACTIVITY interface saving the facility planner
approximately 2 hours a day at current 2006
business levels. The scheduling overtime
has been reduced from four hours to one
hour per day. The Preactor product has
an easy to use drag and drop scheduling
board which produces a realistic schedule
with What-If capability.
This was a first installation site so it was
basically a pilot install for all of the other
Aerospace factories. States Ms. Lee,
"Since it has gone so well and the site
appears to have met their savings goals the
current plan is to target the next several
ASC locations for installation of Preactor
with FACTIVITY’ installation assistance."
Learn More:
Download the full PPG press release in PDF format.
To learn more about FACTIVITY, Contact Us.
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