Technology Enabled Change
Our consultants have extensive ERP implementation knowledge and experience. At FifthQuadrant we can support and define a structured, pragmatic approach to upgrading manufacturing capabilities for those looking to start the journey or support current transformations.
Adopting Industry 4.0 brings together a number of technologies, potentially complex integrations, and often in an environment where systems are almost end of life. Cutting over to new systems successfully is critical for the business.
FifthQuadrant partners with AWS and Infor, who are frontrunners in industrial IoT and IR4 – utilising their platforms, together with FifthQuadrant can deliver tangible improvements in the short term and revolutionise businesses in the mid to long run.
FifthQuadrant comprehends processes and systems legacies and pursues a pragmatic approach to accompany enterprises on their journey to becoming a smart factory and integrating them seamlessly into their supply chains.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Companies are under constant pressure to keep pace with changing customer demands, competition, and economic challenges. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is the key technology for companies to unify people, automate and align core end-to-end processes in an integrated system. ERP is the foundation stone for Industry 4.0 and enables organisations to evolve their use of the latest digital innovations, such as AI, cloud computing, or robotics to ensure productivity, agility, and security. Real-time information, multi-site production, short time-to-market, and security requirements for all core processes from customer management and procurement, planning and scheduling down to finance, are increasingly complex and impose massive investments. Successfully implementing ERP's requires sophisticated IT program management and a clear roadmap for integrating advanced technologies.
Data and insights
Cloud solutions allow data to be extracted, augmented an analysed seamlessly to provide actionable insights across the organisation. Supporting sales to drive increase in order values and on time deliveries to customers. In production, improving capacity utilisation, quality and driving greater volumes. Across the plant reducing asset downtimes and increasing asset life though planned maintenance. Smart forecasting of supply chains can be used to better track and manage inventory and overall working capital. Real-time information can be made available across the entire company ecosystem and can be efficiently fed into modern-day MIS. Process mining is the latest technology further enhancing the capability to streamline operations.
Automation and smart factories
Automation is reaching its next level with the advent of advanced robotic applications. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Intelligent Automation (IA) can without doubt become a real game changer for many manufacturers. RPA is based on business logic and structured inputs, aimed at automating business processes. RPA tools and programming can be used to automate jobs in an ERP system, resulting in decreased cost, error reduction, or process acceleration. The breakthrough on a wider front is enabled by equipping bots with more AI, making them increasingly flexible. Use of sensors across the manufacturing can be used to track production and inventory, feeding directly into the ERP system, tracking stoppages, quality defects and raw material levels.
Supply Chain Management and Systems Integration
Digitalisation knows no borders. Technology is the backbone of supply chains and when companies redesign their processes they integrate entire supply chains, where end-to-end IoT, blockchain, automation, AI and predictive analytics have significant potential to drive improvements. The world is becoming smaller for manufacturing amid supply chains strive’ for resilience, sustainability and agility. Hybrid platforms are here to stay, due to the need to realise business benefits, but also since enterprise has its legacy or multiple platforms within a multi-national, multi-site organization and decommissioning might not be possible or economically sensible.
Manufacturing Solutions
Infor ERP on the Cloud
Infor's LN solution, as well as their industry specific CloudSuite and Infor OS (Operating Service) provide the foundation for all essential, business-critical functionality and for more advanced high-tech capabilities. Infor covers the entire order-to-cash process including digital order processes, logistics, planning, and with its modular architecture can include enterprise asset management, CRM and Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ).
CPQ software allows instant and accurate quotes and complex product configurations. CPQ is often used in conjunction with a CRM component in the core platform and these modules can be integrated into Infor LN. Configuring CPQ and CRM can be a significant undertaking requiring expertise and implementation experience.
FifthQuadrant supports implementation projects over all phases in the project life cycle, from the early vision and strategic beginnings to business process engineering and ultimately putting the solution into operation. Infor’s Implementation Accelerators and their dedicated implementation methodology lay out a framework for streamlined projects. Our project managers and Infor skilled consultants, together with partners from our large international network of technical specialists, and our Delivering Differently approach enable fast and efficient projects.
SCM and Logistics
Infor's Supplier Management facilitates the procure-to-pay process, including strategic sourcing and contract management. The global SCM can be further augmented by web-based solutions, for example, supplier portals from various vendors, allowing greater transparency on prices and supply availability. FifthQuadrant can support in selecting a portal and with the integration into the core enterprise platform.
Digital Twins and Advanced Analytics on the Shop Floor
Infor solutions are well placed to drive process mining and performance measurements. Infor Birst provides a real-time, in-memory, online, analytical processing database for multi-dimensional analysis, planning, and modelling to support decision making. It is a fully-fledged platform for analysis and can be accessed via mobile, web, or Excel on the desktop. Infor Process Intelligence is seamlessly integrated with Infor’s Implementation Accelerators (IA). Process Intelligence technology helps identify the root cause analysis of processes performance deviation, detect, and visualize compliance violations, monitor process performance, and support collaborative efforts to reduce performance bottlenecks.
AWS provides five industrial machine learning services. This includes using smart sensors and gateways produced by Amazon. AWS IoT Sitewise utilises data collected from devices controlling machines in client’s plants for condition monitoring/predictive maintenance purposes. Radio-frequency identification (RFID) solutions can be deployed to gain better control over the supply chain by improving material flow and tracking damages.
FifthQuadrant can assist in finding the right solution. FifthQuadrant’s business process focus enables clients to determine the event data sources and derive useable, operational knowledge out of data science for throughput tuning, maintenance, or quality assurance, and much more.
Working Capital Management
Effective working capital management is more than the implementation of a finance system. It starts from understanding the costs to make and monitor order intake, assessing margins, contribution, and stock turnover by products, markets, and customers to provide a robust view of revenues. Supply chain provides insight on supplier costs, quality issues, and lead times. Optimising operations through asset capacity, reducing downtimes based on planned investments and driving throughput. Bringing these data sets together requires working across organisational silos and systems.
FifthQuadrant work with CFOs and finance teams to drive working capital visibility and improvements, leveraging the value from data and driving implementation of systems and processes that support manufacturing transformation.