ECi M1

Advanced Inventory Management Module

M1 advanced inventory management provides a superior means of manging complex inventory requirements. Advanced tools such as multiple warehouses, multiple bins, dimensional inventory and part cross references improve control of your inventory. Multiple warehouses allows you to create independent warehouse for each stocking location and this provides the tool to manage quarantine and inspection locations. You can transfer between warehouses, view quantity data by warehouse and bin and record your customers part numbers for cross referencing. 

Multiple Warehouse

Each warehouse is uniquely identified and contains its own contact details.

Warehouse Transfers

Move inventory between warehouses

Availability by Warehouse

View the quantity on hand by warehouse and bin for materials and parts.

Cross reference

Cross reference you customers and suppliers part numbers. Supplier part numbers will appear on your purchase orders and Customer part numbers will appear on your invoices.

Bins

Each warehouse can contain multiple bins. Each bin includes its own identification and description, quantity on hand and allocated.

Dimensional Inventory

Control your dimensional inventory through the use of bins and their associated conversion factors.

Documentation

Customise your own documentation to suit your specific requirements.

Searches

Use search’s to view and access any open warehouse transfers.

Alternative Parts

If you have an inventory shortage or need to look at more cost effective options then alternative parts will allow you to review any alternative options you have.

Inventory Management Module

M1 Inventory Management provides the key functions necessary to update and maintain raw materials, WIP, and finished good inventory quantities, costs and methods. When a new job is entered through the M1 Job Management module, or generated from M1 Order Management, the material requirements create inventory allocations. These allocations are relieved as inventory items are issued to the job, or as Purchase Order receipts for specially purchased items are posted. Inventory issues reduce inventory quantities on hand, which are continually replenished through the processing of purchased or manufactured items received into inventory. Receipt processing provides continual updates of inventory average and last costs, maintained for every item. A variety of screen inquiries and printed reports provide extensive management analysis in the areas of material requirement planning, shortage monitoring, reorder analysis, stock status, valuation, critical items and so on.

Method of Manufacturing: Includes both the bill of material and the routing of the part. Up to nine levels are available in the part method.

Flexible Costing

Average, last and standard costs may be maintained for each individual part master.

Mass Issue

This function allows you to quickly issue all planned materials to a particular job. Issue transactions generated in this program reduce inventory quantities, and post material costs to jobs in the work in progress (WIP).

Same as Except

Save and restore functions are utilized within the system to easily create new or same-as-except product structures without having to re-enter information.

Physical Inventory

Ability to enter physical counts, carryout cycle count, print a variance report, optionally update on-hand inventory levels, and class stock into ABC.

Part Prices

Create price lists for customers. For each quantity break, use fixed-price or percentage discount.

Part Advisors

Part Advisor (Purchasing) displays history relating to the purchase of a raw material. Part Advisor (Quoting) displays history relating to the quoting of this part to customers/prospects.

M1 Calculators

M1 Calculators provide you with the ability to accurately estimate cycle times and material usage.

M1 Calculators estimate cycle times & material usage. Calculators provide you the ability to provide accurate quotes and save programming time.

The M1 Calculators available are Sheet, Laser, Bar and Punch. These calculators are the simplest tools for estimating cycle times and material usage so you can always provide accurate quotations. You can throw away that manual spreadsheet and you will never need to spend time programming in order to determine estimates.

With all of the M1 calculators the information calculated is retained with the parts so you can review and adjust calculations at any time.

Laser Calculator

The M1 laser calculator accurately calculates your cut time. You can store an unlimited number of material types with thickness, lead In/Out feed rates, external feed rates, pierce times etc.. for easy retrieval when doing quotations. Simply enter the number of holes and types along with the internal & external perimeter and M1 will calculate your total cut time.

Punch Calculator

The M1 Punch Calculator accurately calculates your punch time. Simply enter the number of tools, hit rate, repositions, tool changes and reposition times and M1 will calculate a total run time.

Bar Calculator

The M1 Bar Calculator accurately calculates your material usage per part. Simply specify part length, cut width, Face off & drop lengths and M1 will calculate the material usage and total number of bars required.

Sheet Calculator

The M1 Sheet Calculator accurately calculates your material usage per part. Simply specify part length & width, sheet length & width, top & bottom trim and part spacings and M1 will calculate number of parts per sheet including suggested rotation unless grain is a consideration.

Advanced Bill of Materials Module

M1‘s Advanced Bill of Materials gives you the tools to effectively manage your simplest to your most complex multi-level assembly with ease.

M1‘s Advanced bill of materials module gives you the tools to control your revisions, create engineering change requests and assign and track serial numbers to ensure traceability. With absolute ease use find and replace to modify multiple bills and you can even roll up your costs.

Revision CoRevision Control

Revision levels can be numeric, alphanumeric or any formula that suits your business. Revision levels are controlled with start and end effectivity dates. Each part may have multiple revisions, these revisions show in the grid on the entry screen that shows the quantity on hand and quantity allocated for each revision, so you can keep track of all variations. The part advisors show information for all the revisions for a given part, so all the information you need is readily available.

Serial Number Tracking

Serial Number tracking allows you to specify if a part is to be tracked. You have the ability to specify a formula for the construction of a serial number, this can be a global setting or based per part.From job management integrated through shipments serial number control is available and allows you to select the serial numbers used on the transaction. The packing slip and invoice can even be printed with or without showing serial numbers to ensure total traceability. The serial number explorer shows various information about the serial number including when it was created, what job or receipt created it, what job issue or shipment used it, and what the current status of the serial number is.

Change Requests

Engineering Change Requests can be managed and authorized for parts and jobs.

Find and Replace 

Find and Replace allows you to replace all incidents of a part with another part in the part master file, allowing you quick and effective management of engineering changes.

Standard Cost Rollups

The standard cost roll-up wizard allows a part or product group costs to be updated in the inventory file with ease. All costs, labor, material and overhead costs can be rolled up and you can even update the selling prices with the click of a button all at the same time.

Estimating & Quote Management Module

M1 Estimating/Quoting Management allows you to easily generate and track all customer or prospect RFQs from the time of receipt until an order is placed. You can rapidly calculate all material, sub-contract, labour and overhead costs for multiple quantities of a part, pulling information from the last time you quoted or ran the part, the last time you quoted or ran something similar, or from a ​“skeleton” part. Then you may add any additional special charges, such as tooling or design charges, which you may either quote separately or lump into the piece part prices. When the order comes in, all you will have to do is punch a few keys and the detailed routing will be ready to go to the floor or ready for additional changes.

Quotes can be prepared in a rough-cut manner including minimal detail, or they may be complex, highly detailed quotes. 

Order /Job Integration

Quote information is easily transferred to a sales order or job once an order is received.

Standard Routings

“Same-as-except” type parts may be pulled into a quote and then modified to quickly and easily create a new quote.

Realistic

Price breaks, scrap factors and minimum charges on materials and subcontracting allow realistic cost estimating.

Mark-ups

Individual mark-ups may be specified and stored for Material, Outside Operations, Labour, Overhead, Quoting Rate and Special Costs.

Margins

Control the % margin for materials, subcontracting, labour and overhead.

Prospects

New prospects may be added to the Organisation table from within the quote.

Quote Enquiry

Instant on-line enquiry into summary and detailed information on an Estimate/Quote.

Miscellaneous Costs

May vary per quote quantity and be used for freight, commissions, etc.

Lead Management Module

M1 Lead Management allows you to control your sales process by recording every lead or enquiry received. The milestones that you create measure the progress of your leads. By assigning a confidence factor to each milestone, you can predict the expected revenue over a period of time. As your leads proceed through their sales cycle, you utilise the milestones to identify their likelihood of closure and timeframe.

Lead Management also manages your marketing programs. This provides you with information to determine which marketing activities are most suitable to your business. Expected revenue and costs are assigned to each program, providing you with statistical analysis on each program. 

M1 Lead Management provides a complete and concise method of generating, tracking and converting leads to sales and your forecast can be viewed in your ​“Projected Cash Flow Report”.

Reasons

Tracking the reasons why you win or lose deals allows you identify problems in your sales process.

Create Quotes and Orders

From within a lead you can quickly and effectively create a quote or an order.

Contact Method

Identify the methods of communication from your prospects when leads are created. The list of standard methods within M1 can be expanded to include your own methods.

Milestones

Develop your own sales process and create a milestone for each logical step within the plan. Each milestone contains a confidence factor with relates to the possibility of this lead being converted to a sale.

Searches and Reports

Use the standard options to review the expected leads to close this month and next, to view a report of the forecasted closures over a period of time, view the forecast in your ​“Projected Cash Flow Report”, or create your own specific reports and searches.

Competitors

Assign competitors to your leads and track your competitor activities, pricing, strategies products etc.

Project Management Module

M1‘s Project Management allows you to manage, track and analyze project activities to ensure success. M1‘s Project management module ties together all quotes, jobs, orders, purchases and invoices to a specific project, you can assign a project manager, track progress, and create follow-ups to ensure you never miss an important milestone.

Project Identification

A Project Identification number allows you to link quotes, follow-ups, attachments, calls, orders, jobs, purchase orders, receipts, shipments, leads, accounts receivable invoices and accounts payable invoices. The project identification will transfer when a document is transferred between modules. Project types are user definable and allow you to manage groups of projects by type.

Project Manager

A project manager can be assigned so you can view and track progress and activity.

Project Entry Screen

At the project entry screen you can view and manage all related documents for a specific project. Here you can view all calls, attachments, quotes etc. You can even enter follow-ups that integrate with Microsoft Outlook so you can review milestone achievement.

Project Reporting

There are numerous methods of viewing project activities within M1. Searches allow you to view current open projects, newly created projects and projects marked for follow up. The project status report allows you to view the % of jobs completed. M1 business analysis tools allow you to view pie charts, bar graphs and calendars of your projects, in integrated modules, just select the project ID and you can view and drill into all transactions. Job Analysis and Job Status Reports allow you to select the project identification in order to view, print, export or email project reports. Keep track of the various stages of each job in the project and the progress bar provides you the visual representation of the status of the job. Compare your estimated job costs to the actual costs as the job progresses. You can even look at the scheduling board by project ID.

General Ledger (Including Fixed Assets Register) Module

M1 General Ledger processes and posts entries created by the M1 Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable and Payroll modules, as well as manual entries made directly in the General Ledger. A Chart of Accounts is easily established to control how you want the system to report on your business. You may export your General Ledger data to a spreadsheet to handle any special requirements. M1 General Ledger including the Fixed Asset feature clearly meets the needs of small to medium sized custom manufacturers looking for outstanding business control.

Flexible Account Structure

Account numbers may consist of chart of account, division and/or department components.

Flexible Posting Times

Entries may be posted to any period in the current, next or any year, even while a period is still open.

Adjustments

Prior year adjustments may be made and all balances forward will be properly adjusted.

Budgets

Figures may be entered for any account and year. 

Income Statements

Print comparisons between current actuals and budgets or previous actuals.

M1 Help

M1’s on-line help walks the user through the General Ledger process in an easy-to-follow format.

Fixed Assets Register

M1’s General Ledger module even includes a Fixed Assets Register. Keep track of all your assets, calculate book and tax depreciation schedules, sell, dispose and revalue your assets with ease.

Integration

M1 General Ledger is fully integrated with the M1 Accounts Payable Accounts Receivable and Payroll modules. Transactions hit the General Ledger on-line.

Projected Cash Flow Report

A ​“must have” for making informed decisions. This report will take the current balance of the selected cash account, and then add un-invoiced open sales and purchase orders, open AR/AP invoices, recurring payments, projected payments, and optionally forecasted leads.

Accounts Payable Module

M1 Accounts Payable allows you to enter vendor invoices for purchases that you make and then create cheques and electronic payments for the invoices you want to pay. You may allow the system to generate payments for all invoices due, those for a specific vendor, or only for specific invoices. Invoice lines can be brought through from the Purchase Order, saving time and eliminating errors.

If a vendor calls you to discuss an invoice, you will have complete information at your fingertips, and you may keep that history for as long as you would like. Accounts Payable allows you to update Purchase Orders in the M1 Purchasing Control module, as well as actual job costs. Adjustments are created if the purchase price does not match the invoiced price. With M1 Accounts Payable, you will always know how much you owe and when it is due.

Cash Management

Improves cash management through the automatic handling and reporting of discounts available, payment due dates and payment selection methods.

Easy Entry

Allows easy entry of all invoices, credits and payments.

Checks

Checks may be printed for payments selected. Manual cheques may also be created.

Electronic Payments

EFT payments can be created for use with banking software.

On-Line

Jobs created in the M1 Job Management module may be updated directly by material and subcontract costs entered through Accounts Payable.

History

Accounts Payable transaction and vendor history may be kept indefinitely.

G/L Interface

General Ledger entries are automatically created and posted from Accounts Payable transactions.

Recurring Entries

Allow creation of recurring Accounts Payable invoices.

Integration

M1 Accounts Payable is fully integrated with the M1 Job Management, Inventory Management, Purchasing Management and General Ledger modules.

Accounts Receivable Module

M1 Accounts Receivable allows you to invoice your customers as parts are shipped, and then track payments as they are received. Invoices can be generated using the AR Invoicing Wizard. This creates invoices directly from shipments, eliminating the need for re-keying information and therefore eliminating errors. Customer invoices may be previewed, printed, faxed or e‑mailed directly to your customer. At any time, you may call up a customer to check credit history and current aging. M1 Accounts Receivable interfaces directly with the General Ledger module providing you with immediate financial reporting.

Several reports are available to display your sales activities in various formats.

With M1 Accounts Receivable, you will know who is buying what and who is paying bills on time.

Invoice Entry

Multiple lines for an order may be entered on a single invoice. Supports ​“Progress” billing directly from an order. 

Sales Commissions

May be paid at time of invoicing or on receipt of payment. 

Taxes

Taxable and non-taxable lines may be entered. Numerous tax types may be used to improve tax reporting.

Invoice/Statement Forms

May be customized, previewed, printed faxed or e‑mailed.

History

Payment history, invoice history and sales detail may be retained indefinitely.

Credit Hold

May be placed on new customers or on customers who are past due.

Aging Information

May be viewed on the screen, or printed in one of several formats.

Sales Analysis

Reports allow access to sales history in a variety of formats. 

Adjustments

Allows adjustments with full audit trail.

AR Payments

Supports payment of invoices, order deposits and miscellaneous application of credit memos.

Multi-Currency Module

M1 multi-currency simplifies your buying and selling functions in foreign currencies. Define any number of foreign currencies and their exchange rates relative to your home currency and manage accurately through effectivity dates.

Currency Mode Button

Simply and quickly toggle between your home currency and the foreign currency to view both values.

Currency Information

At each entry screen where multi-currency is used, view the foreign currency and exchange rate being used for that transaction. You can override the default exchange rate if required.

Foreign Currency Bank Accounts

Manage your foreign currency back accounts with ease. Make deposits, payments and reconcile the account in the foreign currency.

Re-value AR and AP Invoices with the latest exchange rate

Use the Revaluate Wizard to revalue the selected invoices with the current exchange rate or enter a custom exchange rate for the revaluation.

Quotations and Orders

Produce quotes in foreign currency and convert these quotes into sales orders, or create new orders, all in the foreign currency.

Purchase Orders

Manage your international purchases by raising your purchase orders in the supplier’s currency. Each supplier may have a default currency.

Invoices

Create your customer invoices in their specific currency, process your supplier invoices in their currency.

Reports

No need for manual calculations all financial reports are automatically displayed in your home currency.

Payroll Module

M1 Payroll will transfer data from the timecards of shop employees, using Shop Floor Entry (SFE) or Time Card Entry, so you only need to review your entries, make adjustments and your payroll is ready to post. Of course paying your salaried employees is just as simple.

Payroll Definition

You can define the rules for individuals or groups of employee’s, so no matter what pay frequency or conditions an employee is subject to, such as overtime, shifts etc.. M1 Payroll can cater to your needs.

Payroll Rates

You can setup an unlimited number of rates to cater for all your needs including rates such as; standard time, sick, annual leave, vacation, overtime etc..

Taxes

All Federal, FICA, State, local or other taxes can be handled. M1 allows you to store previous tax revisions and even allows you to setup future tax changes before they come into effect.

Leave Accruals

Leave accruals will automatically be calculated based on options you have configured to suit individuals or groups of employee’s. When a leave application is entered it can be viewed in a scheduling board format so leave can be effectively planned to ensure smooth running of your plant.

Deductions

You can setup an unlimited number of deductions for such items as; 401K, cafeteria plans, child support, union dues, etc., deductions can be a fixed amount or percentages.

Direct Deposit

Your payroll payments can be exported to a direct deposit file for simple EFT payments to your employee’s bank accounts

Bank Accounts

Employee’s can have an unlimited number of bank accounts setup in M1 giving you and your employee’s flexibility.

Employee Management

Employee Management provides you with the ability to record important employee information, follow-ups and attachments. Record training, attach performance appraisals and reviews or even send messages to an employee or group of employees and check the status of whether the message has been read.

Integration

M1 Payroll is fully integrated with Shop Floor Entry and Timecard entry making your payroll processing simple and M1 Payroll will automatically update your General Ledger and Bank reconciliation when you post the payroll session.

Analysis Tools

M1 Business Analysis Tools provide quick and simple visual tools to quickly view such things as payroll payments so you can see if your payroll is increasing or decreasing or compare against last year, tools that provide you valuable data.

Job Management Module

M1 Job Management is a comprehensive manufacturing management control application designed specifically for the routing, scheduling, costing and tracking of parts manufactured on the shop floor, whether these are custom parts, or repetitive parts which may eventually be sold out of finished goods inventory.

A ​“Methods” file, storing standard routing information for each part manufactured, may be continually updated on the system, so that job details for a repeat part requires minimal effort to provide the quick and accurate reference necessary for requoting a part or analysing the types of work at which your company excels.

Job Costing

Actual compared to estimated job costing for materials, sub-contracting, operations (labour/overhead), as well as comparisons to projected and actual billings for profitability analysis.

Order-to-Job Linking

Ability to handle one on one delivery, one job/multiple deliveries, blanket production runs, and internal work orders to build parts to finished goods inventory.

On-Line Cost Enquiry

Review of estimated vs. actual costs by overall job and individual material, subcontracting and operation sequence.

Assemblies

Routing, costing and tracking of single or multiple level assembly parts.

Quality Control

Extensive tracking and analysis of scrap, rework and added operations.

Productivity

Extensive tracking and analysis of efficiency and utilisation figures by employee, operation, work centre and department.

Job Wizard

Improve your manufacturing efficiency by linking orders or requirements for the same part on the job.

Split Job

Divide one job into multiple smaller jobs. The production quantity and job costs are all split according to your requirements.

Stocked Sub Assemblies

Sub Assemblies for a job can either be manufactured, pulled from stock or a combination of manufactured and pull from stock. Additional sub-assemblies can be manufactured on a job to replenish inventory or meet an economical build quantity.

Schedule Board

Once a job has been planned, you are able to schedule it immediately, reducing the time to complete the job planning process.

M1 SFE Shop Floor Entry (Data Collections) Module

M1 SFE is an easy-to-use, on-line system that allows labour transactions to be entered at the time that work is being done on the shop floor. Transaction entry is straightforward and rapid with the use of mouse, light-pen, bar-code or keyboard interface to update labour information from the shop floor. 

The SFE System ensures you have accurate labour reporting, costing and Job Status. Labour transactions are posted efficiently, on-line, real-time, eliminating costly manual time card entry that is time-consuming and often inaccurate. Integration with M1 Job Management eliminates dual entry. Integration with M1 Scheduling provides on-line, real-time views into up-to-the-minute shop floor scheduling priorities. Integrated multimedia with SFE incorporates scanned images, CAD/CAM drawings and even video. 

Flexible Data Entry Technology

M1 SFE utilises mouse, light pen, bar code or keyboard interface to update labour information from the shop floor.

For Mobile Staff

Shop Floor Entry also runs on a Symbol PPT8800 series PDA for staff that are on the move.

Messages

Communicate directly with shop floor employees with M1 messages. Send message to individual employees or company wide.

Document Management

Attach and view part drawings, work instructions or even video instructions for parts, assemblies and operations.

Work Queue

On-line, dynamic work queue window provides employees with prioritised work schedule and paperless routing information on the shop floor.

Distributes Hours

Automatically splits labour hours across multiple jobs being worked on simultaneously by an employee; likewise, splits machine hours when two or more employees work on the same job.

Labour & Overhead Split

Choose the split of labour and overhead per work centre.

Quality Reporting

Captures rework and scrap reason codes along with miscellaneous employee comments from the shop floor.

Grace Periods/Multiple Shifts

Clock In/Out periods adjusted for user-defined grace periods. Accommodates split and staggered shifts.

Material Issue

Shop employees are able to record the materials and their quantities used during an operation.

On-Line

All transactions update M1 Job Costing and Scheduling functions immediately.

On-Line Enquiry

Real time management access to exact job locations for prompt customer service and early identification of problem jobs.

Order Management

M1 Order Management is at the heart of Bowen & Groves’ order-driven manufacturing system, accommodating those companies that do custom ​“job shop” work or service work, as well as those selling standard product lines off the shelf. From the time an order is entered, the system tracks its progress through to final shipment, producing timely reports on demand. Multiple releases may be established and tracked through the system individually or as an aggregate analysis of the overall blanket order.

True multi-level bill of material access enables you to better manage your custom jobs.

With M1 Order Management, all orders and change orders will be effectively managed on-line, reducing your chance for error and smoothing out the entire order-to-delivery process for maximum customer satisfaction.

Order Line/Job Link

Immediately creates a linked job, improving your job planning efficiency.

Blanket Orders

Multiple releases may be established for each sales order line item. Each release may be set up to pull parts directly form inventory or seamlessly integrate with Job Management to generate production orders. A separate shipping address can be attached to each release.

Order Wizard

Quickly create an order from a quote to eliminate the need for re-keying the information.

Flexibility

Order lines/releases may be integrated with Job Management in a one-to-one, many-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many production strategy.

Sales Commissions

Commission can be calculated for each line of an order.

Part Price Tables

A pricing table may be set up that allows multiple quantity/discount breaks.

Progress Payments

A payments schedule can be created for an order which enables progressive customer invoicing.

Resellers

Have your resellers linked to orders including the ability to calculate commissions.

Finance Companies

M1 supports the ability for payment by finance companies for your customers orders.

Order Acknowledgement

Advise your customer that their order has been received and processed by forwarding an Order Acknowledgement.

Aging Info

While entering a customer’s order, you can immediately view the status of their account. For further detail, simply click into an aging bucket to display the relevant invoices.

Activity Graphs and Calendars

Bar graphs, pie graphs and calendars are used to graphically display various search results. Use the bar graph, for example, to view orders to date, compare to last year’s results, analyze the trends and click into a bar to view the records contained in that month.

Product Configurator Module

M1‘s Product Configurator will allow you to offer superior service to your customers by simply and easily being able to configure products to their exact needs. No need for thousands of bom’s in your master file anymore, quote or create a job with ease. Just input the rules and anyone even those with the least amount of product knowledge will be able to configure a BOM, a quote or even a job.

Functionality

Product Configurator allows you to configure a dimensional or configurable part based on rules and parameters. E.g. a desk that can be a different length, width, height, material and have different options, such as drawers or a return. The configured part can generate a Part ID, Description and price based on rules.

Ease of Use

The construction of a configured part is a simple matter of defining a template Bill of Materials (BOM), then select what part of the BOM to apply rules i.e. a material, operation, sub-assembly, part id or description etc. Graphics can be added to the configuration screen to provide simple instructions and explanation of what values are required.

Design

The design screen for building your unique rules for part configuration is simple, yet very complex rules and parameters can be applied to cater for the simplest or the most complex dimensional part.

Verification

The verify rules check allows you to ensure that rules are tested prior to part use.

Customization

Build custom screens that allow parts to be configured from Quoting, Order Entry, Job Entry and Lead Entry, so anyone can configure a part.

Design Studio

M1 Design Studio is used to build your configuration. This is the same tool that is used to develop any customization within M1, so this provides a familiar environment and minimizes the learning curve.

Revisions

Each revision of a configured part can have a unique set of rules. This will accommodate the requirement where each revision may require a different logic applied.

Wizard

The Product Configurator Wizard will amaze you. The wizard provides you with multi-level automated configuration. It will automatically build your product configurator from a bill of materials, including all sub-assemblies. The advantage of the wizard is for an item with multiple choice options your configurator screens are built within seconds. Additional rules and formulas can easily be added after the wizard is complete.

Quality/Warranty Management Module

M1’s Quality & Warranty module ties together all your quality and warranty functions so you can provide superior products and services. The M1 quality and warranty module is packed with features that will improve efficiency, productivity and assist you in meeting or continue to maintain ISO quality certification. 

Non Conformances

Enter non-conformances to manage, control and analyse your rework and scrap. 

Inspection

Manage the inspection process to ensure inspections are carried out on incoming goods, in process or at outgoing goods inspection. Inspect returned materials, reworked goods and non conforming parts.

Quarantine

To ensure parts under inspection, rework or claim are not used a quarantine bin holds the stock.

Discrepant Material

DMR Management allows you to disposition your non conforming material and make claims on your suppliers to ensure recovery of your costs. 

Return Material

RMA Management allows you to process return authorisations and claims from your customers.

Corrective Action

Create, track, follow-up, verify and sign off all corrective and preventative actions taken to address quality related issues.

Warranty Management

Warranty provides you with the ability to activate warranty contracts associated with a part or parts and allows you to quickly determine whether a claim is covered under warranty or not. 

Integration

Quality/Warranty management is fully integrated with financials so wizards in AR & AP allow you to process DMR’s, RMA’s and Warranty Claims. Quality/Warranty management is fully integrated with all production modules.

Analysis Tools

M1 Business Analysis Tools provide quick and simple visual tools to quickly view all your quality related data, analyse trends and review involvements.

Scheduling Module

M1 scheduling is designed to provide you with pertinent information to enable your improved delivery performance. M1’s scheduling is a comprehensive tool that allows you to visually track progress, see capacity constraints and develop what if scenario’s to ensure you can best utilise your assets to achieve customer satisfaction. 

Shop Load Explorer

You can view available capacity or overload situations for each work centre or department

Scheduling process

Jobs may be individually scheduled from within the job entry screen, or alternatively, schedule multiple jobs at one time through the scheduling module. Rescheduling multiple jobs is made easy through a single screen. Choose backward scheduling or forward scheduling for individual or multiple jobs to ensure achievement of customer delivery dates.

Work Centres

Define the characteristics of a work centre by its crew size, number of machines, daily capacity and individual work centre calendars.

Scenario’s

Carry out an unlimited number of scenario what if analysis to ensure that you can achieve the best possible schedule and then save to the master schedule.

Work Centre Overload

Select a work centre with overload indicated and M1 will automatically finite schedule the entire work centre.

Planned material requirements

Job operations are integrated with material requirements to provide a detailed planned material requirements report.

Multi level assemblies

All assemblies within a job are scheduled to come together for final assembly, providing powerful usability for make to order manufacturing companies requiring true multi-level BOM’s.

Production Calendar

M1 scheduling uses your production calendar to accurately forecast the duration of your jobs. 

Shop Floor Data Collection

All changes made to your schedule are immediately reflected in the Shop Floor Data Collection module. Real time data for your shop floor employee’s.

Purchasing Management Module

M1 Purchasing Management handles Purchase Order generation and the tracking of vendor performance. Detailed line items indicate planned receipts to inventory or to a job, although their destination may be changed at the time of actual receipt entry.

The Purchasing Wizard will generate purchasing suggestions based on the filters you select. Filter by supplier, part, job, date or inventory class. Select the items or services that require purchasing and M1 will create the purchase orders for you.

Purchasing approvals assist you in controlling the purchasing process. Purchase orders requiring approval can be emailed directly to the appropriate staff for quick, efficient action. This process can accommodate requisitioning needs.

With M1 Purchasing Management, you will reduce inventory levels, improve on-time deliveries, enhance your cash flow and increase your profit levels.

Purchasing Wizard

Based on the same logic as the Planned Material Requirements, this wizard suggests the parts and sub-contract operations that need to be purchased.

Part Advisor (Purchasing)

Obtain detailed information relating to the purchasing history of a part, including who you purchased from, how many and how much.

Receipt Management

Quickly create receipt details for all lines or individual lines. Manage PO receipts for partial deliveries or multiple deliveries. Multiple PO’s can be received on the one delivery.

Flexible

Purchases made for specific jobs may be optionally redirected into inventory at the time of receipt. This flexibility is also offered for items originally purchased for inventory.

Purchase Order Approval

Set approval limits for your buyers. When purchase orders exceed this limit, email a request for approval to the next person in the approvals list.

Purchase Order Printing

Purchase orders may be directly printed from Purchase Order entry by date, user or Purchase Order number range. Purchase Orders may also be faxed or emailed directly to your vendor.

Supplier Delivery Performance

Accurately measure the performance of each supplier. This report measures the number of days late on each purchase order providing you with a delivery performance profile.

Purchasing RFQ Module

M1’s request for quotation module provides an efficient tool for purchasing personnel to manage the process of requesting quotes from suppliers for materials or outside services from one or more suppliers. Each RFQ can contain multiple lines and multiple quantity breaks. You can pull all or a selected group of parts from a quote or a job into an RFQ, no duplication of entries, no errors. With M1’s integration tools you can fax or email your quotations directly from M1 so you save time and money printing. From your RFQ’s no duplication of entries just create a purchase order directly from your RFQ.

Materials & subcontract services

Request pricing on both raw materials and outside services

Pull from Quote or Job

Pull all or selected parts or services from a quote or a job into an RFQ.

Create PO

Automatically create purchase orders from the contents of an RFQ. Multiple purchase orders can be generated from a single RFQ.

Flexibility

Generate PO’s for parts that are not setup in your part master.

RFQ Worksheet

Use the worksheet to review the part and supplier information you have entered, as well as any quoted prices you have recorded.

Status Report

Print the RFQ status report when you need to determine which RFQ’s are complete and those which are still outstanding.

Shipping Management Module

All activity relating to shipments can be performed and tracked through Shipping Management. Shipment information is passed through to Accounts Receivable Invoice Entry, ensuring that the correct shipment details and quantities are invoiced.

An option is available to track your shipments through the carrier’s web site. This becomes most useful when tracking international deliveries.

At the time a shipment is prepared you may add additional items or services to the delivery without having to update the order.

Creating a shipment immediately updates your inventory by warehouse, the order and job and links also to AR Invoicing Wizard. Packing slips and labels can be printed at the time the shipment is prepared.

Shipping Labels

Shipping Labels may be printed for each delivery. The customer’s name and address will be printed. Other information printed will be their Purchase Order number, ship via, number of packages and shipping comments.

Packing Slips

Print packing slips to accompany orders to customers with general or detailed line comments.

User-Defined Forms

Customizable packing slips and shipping labels may be created to meet your specific design requirements.

Add Extra Items

Quickly add extra items or services to a shipment without the need to amend the order.

AR Invoicing Wizard

Each shipment creates a record in the AR Invoicing Wizard. Invoices are then created from the wizard using information from the order and the shipment.

Tracking

Shipments can be tracked through the carrier’s web site. M1 provides the necessary link to execute this search facility.

Call Management Module

M1 Call Management provides the channel for formally recording all communications with organisations. Calls can be separated into different types. This module enables you to build a complete history of conversations held with your customers and suppliers, you can even record your sent & received emails as calls.

The tracking information facilitates the analysis of all calls. Review the time spent on calls, assign the call to the most appropriate person, record its priority. From the call details, you can also create a Knowledge Base page. This can be used for commonly asked questions. Knowledge Base Page Entry allows you to publish calls that can be formatted differently so they can be viewed by external people over the web.

Service Contract Maintenance screen gives you the opportunity to record contracts for customers who may have equipment that requires servicing. For example, 12 month warranty service agreement.

Time Tracking

M1 records the time the call is open. Add extra time if required. You can then analyse the time spent on various call types.

Create Options

From within the call, you can create a quote, order, job and/or AR invoice.

Service Contracts

Warranties and maintenance contracts can be professionally managed using Service Contracts. State the start and end dates and the value of the contract.

Knowledge Base

Assists your employees and customers in responding to frequently asked questions relating to your products and services.

Create Page

From the call entry screen, you can immediately create a page in the Knowledge Base. The Published checkbox is updated when a page is created.

Searches and Reports

Review call activity by using the standard searches or creating your own custom searches. Standard reports provide statistical information relating to the calls you have created.

Emails & Email Attachments

M1 gives you the ability to store all your sent and received Outlook emails as calls, no cutting and pasting M1 is full integrated with Outlook. You can even store your email attachments.

Contact Management Module

M1 Contact Management provides a complete and concise method of managing all activities relating to your customers, suppliers and other organizations. This module forms the basis of M1’s CRM (Customer Relationship Management) capabilities. By including multiple locations and contacts, and a range of other details, you can build a complete profile on each company. Using the standard mail merge facility within M1 saves precious time by enabling you to create and forward documents to multiple contacts.

The Organization Explorer is the ultimate tool that provides complete transaction history for any company. From memos and attachments right through to manufacturing and financial transactions, all details are accessed from the one screen.

Contact Management

Store all details for customers, suppliers and other organizations in the one area.

Multiple Locations & Contacts

Include all locations and their contacts for each organization. Develop a complete outline for each organization including correspondence (attachments).

Mail Merge

A time saving feature for communicating with a customer or supplier or a group of customers or suppliers. Standard templates can be created to automate your communication, even include attachments.

Price and Availability

This prompts for a part and shows the quantity on hand, job quantity in production, unshipped order quantity, unit sale price, and the current selling price for the selected customer.

Follow Ups

Create a task or appointment; when the follow-up is saved M1 will create/update a task/appointment in Outlook with the current information. 

Refresh Follow Ups from Outlook

If you change the information in Outlook this will synchronize the data with M1

Document Management

Document management provides a cost effective method of controlling all documents relating to quotes, parts, jobs and purchase orders. An unlimited number of documents can be linked to your records. You can even link your drawings, video clips, graphics, spreadsheets, word processor documents and many more formats can be linked and viewed from within various screens.

Link Levels

Documents can be linked to the part header, assembly and operations for all parts, quotes and jobs.

Formats

Supports the viewing of any document with a native application viewer.

Integration

Document management is fully integrated within M1

Benefits

You can maintain your quality records, safety records, work instructions, testing procedures, production information, customer drawings and all this can be seen on the shop floor.

Human Resources

M1 Labor Management is a fundamental module used to collect and control your employee’s labor hours. Direct or in-direct, including administration hours can all be captured through timecard entry or shop floor entry. Integrated with the M1 Payroll module, the data from Shop Floor Entry or Time Card Entry will be transferred into M1 Payroll for payroll processing. 

Employee Information

Record critical information relating to each employee through their master file record and memos.

Timecard Entry

Manually enter the employee time cards, or adjust entries created through Shop Floor Entry. All related jobs are immediately updated for accurate reporting.

Shop Floor Entry

Times collected through shop floor entry are editable in Labour management.

Auditability

Ensure all collected labour entries are correct prior to processing payroll.

Search who’s clocked in

This standard search provides an efficient employee tracking tool.

View Jobs Currently in progress

Without physically visiting the factory you can see the jobs that are currently in operation on the shop floor.

Reporting

Timecard audit report shows the breakdown of labour collected from both timecard entry and shop floor entry. Employee Payroll summary displays employee hours and the Employee efficiency report provides the analysis tool to review performance.

M1 Webgear Customer Web Interface

WebGear is a total e‑commerce solution for M1 users. WebGear Explorer empowers you to provide exceptional customer service and save money while doing so. WebGear Ecommerce allows you to create a full online web store to increase sales. This equates to a direct impact on your bottom line.

WebGear Explorer

It’s all about exceptional customer service. You share grids of any information stored in the M1 system. These may be shipments, orders, jobs, and invoices. Reduce routine repetitive phone calls from customers while increasing their satisfaction with information quality and availability. Create grids using the familiar M1 grid designer and turn them on for viewing on the web by those you allow. Customers perform shipment tracking on shipper sites directly from links automatically appearing on your WebGear site. M1 reports of your choosing are available on your Web Site. When your customers call with questions, you e‑mail links that take them straight to their answers with a single-click view to any grid or report.

E‑Commerce

Full Shopping Cart with Payment Processing. You have full shopping cart and product search capabilities allowing you to sell effectively and profitably on the web. Display product thumbnails on search screens, and full-size pictures with detailed descriptions of the products you place for sale on the web. Increase sales with WebGear’s cross-selling features. Checkout lets the customer specify their bill and ship addresses, select shipping carrier, calculate taxes, and pay with a credit card. Use Verisign’s robust ​“PayFlo Pro” credit card gateway allowing you to accept all major credit cards and tie to nearly any credit card merchant account. All online ordering is recorded in real-time, and it is seamlessly entered into the M1 system.

Gives you Control

WeGear’s configuration tools give you total control over the M1 information your customers can view and what products are for sale on the web. You customize the appearance of your WebGear site so that it is consistent with the look of your existing billboard site.

Editable Themes

Webgear has editable themes, custom themes are simple to create which means you can add your own company image.

Security – Simplified

Set all access and security settings within M1’s familiar user and contact management screens. WebGear knows which company your customers belong to, so it automatically ensures that they can only see their own company’s information on any search grid or report. The simple login process assists your customers if they forget their passwords. User-entry forms are secured with the same SSL protocol in use by the largest financial institutions.

System Security

M1‘s System Security keeps your pertinent information secure and provides a change log for auditability.

Security

You can secure the tables used by M1 for each user/dataset. The access levels are None, View, Edit, Edit+Add, Edit+Delete and Edit+Add+Delete for each individual table. No Access allows you to set which related screens user’s) can not see. The View Access allows users to see tables and related screens but not modify them. The Edit Access allows users to add new and modify existing tables and related screen’s. The Edit+Add Access allows users to add new and modify existing tables and related screen(s). The Edit+Delete Access allows users to modify and delete existing tables and related screen(s). The Edit+Add+Delete Access allows users to add new, modify and delete existing tables and related screen(s). You can specify the report and component security. No access allows you to give no access to specified reports or specific processes. Execute access allows you to set the users ability to see and run specified reports or specific processes.

Audit Trail

M1 provides you with the ability to view a complete audit trail of changes. You can select either to record the user ID and change date of the record or you can also select field level which will save the old and new values for the fields that have been changed. A change log lookup search, change log listing and purge change log option are all available in the M1 explorer tools.

Free Unlimited View Only Users

M1’s view only allows you to have users who can view, print and export data for free. You only pay for the users that actually transact in the system not for those who just review pertinent information.

Saving You Money

M1’s unlimited View Only users means you can now reduce the number of users you require and therefore reduce your cost of maintenance by taking full advantage of our free view only users.

View Only users are those who typically only need to view, print or export information in order to analyze the business performance.

A View Only user is ideally suited to the management personnel in the organization.

View only users do not count against the maximum number of users that can be logged in at one time so your view only users is unlimited.

Another feature that helps manage and reduce your user count is the auto logout option. This allows you to control the hours a user will have access to M1 and can also be used to set a period of inactivity by which to log them off the system automatically.

Effective after-sales support and continual product enhancements are essential for you to realize the maximum return from your investment.

At Bowen & Groves, a commitment to ensure maximum utilization of the M1 product is paramount, one of our support team will be assigned as your dedicated Account Manager and they are responsible for ensuring your success with M1.

We have no automated phone system so when you need to talk with your Account Manager or an application specialist, your call will be answered by a real person.

M1 support maintenance includes unlimited telephone, modem, online support and all software updates, even special discounts on new modules developed.

Our secure Customer Login provides on-line access to many services for our customers including: software updates, the ability to view and track calls, view support contracts, log on new calls, view the knowledge base and even purchase and make payments.

User Group

Currently we have an international user group forum where users communicate via the web. All users and prospective customers can access the group where they freely discuss M1 and other topics. This is not a censored forum — real responses from real M1 users.

Professional Services

We understand the importance of the implementation and training phases of technology investments and as such, have established a professional team to help you achieve the success that you seek from your investment.

Professional services in installation, implementation and training can be provided to ensure that the implementation of M1 is successful and the maximum return is achieved within the shortest possible time frame.

Customization

To ensure your most unique business processes can be handled, M1 design studio is a simple and flexible customization tool. With M1 you can make the software work for you, you can add new fields, you can change any input form, including moving objects around and adding new objects, you can customize any report, and the search grids can be changed to show the information in different ways as well as completely new views added to the grids.

We can either train you in M1 Design Studio and Crystal Reports so you can customize M1 yourself or our support specialists can perform customization for you. 

Training

Training is a major contributor to the successful implementation and optimization of your software. Our success at Bowen & Groves depends on you reaching your business objectives and goals. We are committed to providing you with the tools and support necessary to ensure your success, including education.

We have available a full range of classes to provide you with a thorough understanding of the various aspects of your system. Our education staff draw upon a wide range of experiences that help tie in the classroom to the business world. With quality education comes the opportunity for you to become self-sufficient in the use of your system.

Training is provided on-site and we regularly offer online classes for our customer, contact our support team for the latest class schedule.