The Real ROI - Integrating Automated Data Collection with Business Applications

In the not too distant past business software consisted of spreadsheet applications, word processors, and the occasional database for the technical elite. Business systems were manual systems – powered by printed copies of reports, spreadsheets, and documents upon which business decisions were based. Over time, competitive pressure, compliance requirements, corporate consolidations, mergers and acquisitions, budget restraints, and many other factors, combined to create the current environment that demands a laser-sharp focus on ways to cultivate business productivity.

In response, business software has grown more sophisticated and today includes applications for supply chain management, inventory management, purchasing, quality systems, process control, shop floor control, manufacturing execution shipping/ distribution, warehouse management, maintenance management, and virtually any other area that could be required to efficiently and effectively operate a business.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) provide this functionality through tightly integrated modules on a common platform. To some degree, most manufacturing and distribution companies have by now implemented one or all of these types of systems. Many also
have acquired business applications that are not part of their core system of record. These applications may use different technologies, reside on multiple platforms, and often use separate or multiple databases. Moreover, ERP, WMS, legacy, quality, manufacturing execution systems (MES), SCM and other business process/ execution applications have evolved in application breadth, functional depth, navigational complexity, transaction processing volume and database size.

An often overlooked challenge of these increasingly complex business applications is the impact they have had on data entry requirements. In the past, when business information was stored on shelves in scores of notebooks that quickly became outdated and useless, it was a generallyaccepted rule that files would be updated with the most current information available before generating reports. This is still true today.

Without consistent, timely, and accurate input of data, the value and integrity of any business software system decreases dramatically. And this is where it becomes apparent that the real ROI of any business software comes down to a tightly integrated, scalable and robust automated data collection system.

American Fan Co selects Radley WorkForce Productivity Suite as Mobile Computing System for Inventory Control, Labor Tracking, Time and Attendance

January 9, 2009 - Grand Rapids, MI - American Fan Company manufactures a wide variety of high-performance centrifugal and axial fans for the Air Movement and Air Climate industry. Their Fairfield, OH, location recently selected Radley Corporation to provide a QAD-integrated advanced mobile computing system for inventory control, labor tracking and time and attendance. The Radley Solutions will be implemented on stationary, touch screen, thin-client data collection stations, as well as, on Intermec touch-screen, wireless, mobile computers. Through time clock entry, users will be able to report crew labor and production specifics, as well as, inventory receipts and movements, among other gained efficiencies. All transactions will be controlled with direct-to-QAD validations and updates. Directly integrated with the American Fan payroll provider, Radley Time and Attendance application is also meshed with the Labor Tracking system, enabling American Fan management access to detailed information and will experience improved control through timely visibility of accruals and exceptions.