Cosmolab Inc. (Cosmolab), the largest private label manufacturer of color cosmetics in the U.S. , and a MAC-PAC user since 1989, has licensed MAC-PAC XE Priority Manager (Priority Manager) on the annual usage fee basis recently announced by TDCI Inc. (TDCI). This affordable licensing option has been made possible by TDCI's investment to acquire the rights to the product from Systems Plus for the MAC-PAC XE user base.
"Our production and materials people have been interested in Priority Manager for quite awhile, but until now the software cost was just too high for us," says Julie Johnsey, Cosmolab Scheduling Supervisor. "We are very pleased that TDCI has acquired the rights to Priority Manager. We see the new low-cost annual usage fee option as a major benefit of having a MAC-PAC XE Maintenance and Support Plan."
Cosmolab production and materials personnel envision many uses of the information provided by Priority Manager. In general, they will use it to gain a much clearer view of demand-driven priorities as well as the impact of changes in demand and supply. Specifically, Priority Manager will enable Cosmolab to:
- Look at the full BOM for customer orders to identify potential issues with critical purchased items, in order to prevent shortages and ensure on-time delivery.
- Rapidly identify and resolve material shortages for "quick delivery" orders, while also identifying any existing orders which could be affected.
Priority Manager is an advanced MAC-PAC XE manufacturing management application designed to help manufacturers become more customer demand-driven by clearly identifying the near-term actions operations managers need to take to ship orders on time, reduce expediting activity, and minimize inventory levels. Priority Manager is already integrated with MAC-PAC XE, and a growing number of MAC-PAC XE users have already made dramatic improvements in throughput and delivery performance using Priority Manager.
MAC-PAC XE does an excellent job of planning, but like all ERP systems, it still leaves production planners, schedulers, buyers, and supervisors with a difficult job when it comes to ensuring that the right orders are pulled through the factory when it is time to execute the plan. True demand-driven priorities are often hidden by various planning factors, multi-level BOMs, and ever-changing customer orders.
Priority Manager uses the BOM and supply/demand information that already exists in MAC-PAC XE to identify the ultimate source for each detail demand - at all levels, for all items and activities. A series of reports and inquiry screens give production managers and buyers a clear view of where each item is going to end up - i.e. which order for which customer on which date. Priorities and sequencing of activities can then be tied directly to shop orders that are most important and truly needed to meet customer obligations.
To learn more about Priority Manager and arrange to discuss how it can help your company improve on-time delivery, throughput, and inventory management, contact Shelley Horn at shorn@tdci.com or 614-781-2325 x119.
