Darcy Boerio

Watch: Sage Production Management Automation by ScanForce, with Sage’s Timothy Harfield

February 10, 2020 by Darcy Boerio

ScanForce recently made big news in the Sage 100cloud world when they hosted a webinar to introduce their new set of tools to automate Sage Production Management.

Since Sage Production Management is new to many in the Sage 100cloud community, having only been released in 2019, Timothy Harfield, head of Product Marketing for Sage 100cloud, made a guest appearance. He gave an overview of how Production Management gives manufacturers visibility into the entire production process and lets them increase agility by tracking costs in real-time.

A “Tremendous Accomplishment”

Harfield also commended ScanForce on their achievements in rapidly developing integrations to Production Management, including compatibility of DSD/ScanForce Multi-Bin, which he referred to as a “tremendous accomplishment”.

What’s so tremendous about it? While Production Management is written in a more modern architecture than its predecessor, making it easier for third party developers to integrate with, ScanForce faced the challenge of not having access to the source code due to arrangements that Sage made with the company who was contracted to write the module. While lack of access to source code made writing the integration that much more difficult, their in-house development team was able to make it happen thanks to ScanForce’s modern architecture.

“Choice is good”

Choice is good. It’s really important for growing businesses that they have the flexibility they need to remain agile in the face of constant change. And we don’t want to hobble our customers as they work to make the technology investment decisions that are right for them.

– Timothy Harfield, Product Marketing, Sage 100cloud

While Sage Production Management is a feature rich offering that will meet many of the core needs of manufacturers using Sage 100cloud, it does not inherently include multi-bin management or barcode scanning. Rather than restrict users to certain providers of these solutions, Sage encourages collaboration with partners like ScanForce to provide options for users to implement the right tool set. Harfield continues:

I’m thrilled by their accomplishment as a testament to the values of trust, customizability, and connectedness that we embed into everything we do in Sage 100cloud.

ScanForce Knows Manufacturing

After the opening remarks by Harfield, ScanForce’s Director of Sales, Steve Showalter, gave a little background on the company and their manufacturing suite, which includes Bill of Materials Production Entry, Work Order Automation, and of course the new Production Management Automation.

He also showed a slide showing a list of well-known brands whose products are made using ScanForce’s Manufacturing tools.

Demo Time!

After setting the stage, Showalter did a live demonstration of the ScanForce solution, including data capture on the mobile device and the flow of data into Sage 100cloud.

Ready to watch? See it all here!

ScanForce Announces Production Management Automation

January 22, 2020 by Darcy Boerio

The release of Sage Production Management made big headlines in the Sage 100 community in 2019. Replacing several legacy applications – Work Order and MRP – the new module is written in the “framework” essentially meaning that it has more modern technology that is consistent with much of the rest of Sage 100cloud.

Here’s a helpful reference for more about Production Management itself:

Sage 100 Work Order vs Production Management

Manufacturing is a big vertical for Sage 100, with many Sage 100 partners reporting an uptick in adoption of Sage 100 as a whole by manufacturers in 2019. For new Sage 100cloud adopters, this is a no-brainer. They won’t have an option to use the legacy WO and MRP.

But for existing Sage 100cloud customers, they need to decide when the time is right for them to switch over (they’ll all have to make the move eventually). Adoption by this group has been slow by all accounts, which is not uncommon when people are being asked to leave what they know for something new that hasn’t been on the market long enough to garner proven success. Naturally people want others to be the “guinea pigs” and identify holes in the solution that the publisher can repair before they jump into the fray.

One such hole was the lack of an integration to ScanForce’s mobile barcode scanning technology. Users of Work Order and MRP were previously able to use mobile barcode scanning devices by ScanForce to automate actions like capturing material issues and completions as well as Labor Tracking. Only after the release was ScanForce able to access the functionality in order to develop their integration to Production Management.

Another problem that needed to be resolved after the initial release was that it didn’t initially integrate with DSD/ScanForce Multi-Bin, which is included out-of-the box for free with every license of Sage 100cloud. So if you were using the free multi-bin tool that comes with Sage and you wanted to move to Production Management, you would need to adopt a different multi-bin tool or forego multi-bin functionality in the PM process.

Fortunately, both of these issues have been resolved! In December, 2019, ScanForce announced compatibility between Production Management and DSD/ScanForce Multi-Bin. And today they’ve announced the February 1 general availability of the integration of their barcode scanning technology with Production Management.

You can read more about the solution on the ScanForce blog and/or join them for a live webinar:

Keep an eye on Wayne’s blog as things develop – you know he’ll give you the scoop!

How to enable Sage 100 wave picking and wave receiving in your warehouse

August 28, 2019 by Darcy Boerio

Warehouses aren’t for storing inventory, they’re for moving inventory.

Efficient warehouses will find the fastest path to keep inventory flowing. There are a number of different strategies to accomplish this, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Some of the commonly used procedures include split picking, bin allocations for direct picking, zone picking, and of course, the topic of this article, which is wave picking/receiving.

Wave picking and receiving are processes that pre-determine the way you move throughout the warehouse to maximize productivity. Items for multiple orders are picked in one pass, minimizing pickers’ “footprints” and keeping inventory on the move.

Let’s break down the two sides to the wave concept. You may find that both are options that could streamline your operations, or perhaps just one or the other. Every warehouse is different.

Wave Receiving

Waves allow you to group multiple POs together to receive by item. For example, if you receive a large shipment that has multiple items for multiple POs, there’s no need to sort items by purchase order before recording receipts. Simply scan the items in, and they’ll be allocated to the appropriate PO.

Related and based on the wave receiving concept is ScanForce’s new Container Receipt Management (CRM) offering, which is the answer to efficiently receiving items from multiple POs that all arrive together unsorted in a single container. CRM allows you to receive items in a container while it’s still in transit, then verify contents once it arrives, as well as track container details such as container ID numbers and other shipment related info.

Wave Picking

For Picking, waves allow you to pick multiple orders at one time using the most efficient path through the warehouse. With wave picking, your picking order is sorted by bin location rather than SO. This lets you walk the warehouse ONE TIME, rather than duplicating efforts and making multiple trips to the same locations.

A simple analogy for wave picking involves going grocery shopping armed with a shopping list. If your list is in alphabetical order, you will end up going back and forth through aisles, hitting some aisles multiple times. You might go to the produce section for bananas, then over to the meat department for chicken, then back to product for grapes. And so on. Not very efficient!

Scanforce integrated to Sage 100cloud enableds improved wholesale, logistic, loading, shipment and processing within your warehouse

But if your list is sorted by aisle, and the aisles are sorted in location order on your list, you’ll achieve a seamless single path through the store and be on your way!

Read more on this concept here: A Warehouse Nightmare

Fully integrated with Sage 100 / Sage 100cloud

As with all ScanForce solutions, wave picking and receiving in ScanForce are seamlessly integrated with Sage 100, including Sage 100cloud Multi-Bin Basic if you have items in multiple bin locations. Information about quantities picked and received populate the inventory records in Sage for full visibility into whats been picked or received.

Want to learn more? Watch this 20-minute recorded webinar, and we’ll explain what wave picking/receiving is, and what types of warehouse operations can benefit from it. And we’ll show you how easy it is to implement in ScanForce and Sage 100.

Watch “Ride the Warehouse Wave: Wave Picking and Receiving for Sage 100

Managing a local server for Sage 100 – all risk, no reward

August 20, 2019 by Darcy Boerio

IT can be a thankless job.

When’s the last time you told your IT person (or whomever it is that is responsible for your network), “Hey, great job keeping our server up and running and secure this month!”? Chances are you haven’t. They probably only hear from you when there’s a problem.

But if they’ve managed to keep your local server up and running continuously and you haven’t been impacted by a cyberattack (think phishing, ransomware, identity theft, malware, etc.) then they deserve some love. At least for this month.

Every month, new varieties of threats are cropping up, and it can be a full-time job to keep up with it all. The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects the role of Information Security Analyst, described as someone who will “plan and carry out security measures to protect an organization’s computer networks and systems” to grow by 28% between 2016-2026. And at a median pay of nearly $100k, it’s not a cheap role to fill.

IT doesn’t get a second chance.

Have you ever tried to log in to your server and gotten an error? Maybe you just mistyped your password, but did your heart skip a beat?

What about backups? Many people only think about backups when they fear they may need to restore for some reason. “Do I have a recent backup? Did I back up the right files? Do I know how to restore them?”

Have you ever waited until the elements were at your door to try figure out how you will keep your business operational if your on-premises server is damaged or loses power?

IT can’t do it alone.

A recent survey of IT works showed that 62% of IT workers say that, “the biggest security threat comes from well-meaning but negligent end users”. In other words, the very people they’re paid to keep secure are the biggest threats they face.

Read: Yep, your IT guy blames you for your computer problems

What can you do to minimize the risks associated with having a local server?

For starters, read this article from the Sage cloud hosting experts at Summit Hosting on quick and easy ways to protect your data:

7 Ways to Help Keep Your Data Safe

You may also want to consider hosting Sage 100 / Sage 100cloud with a Sage hosting professional who is 100% dedicated to keeping your data secure.

Learn more at https://www.summithosting.com/sage-100-hosting/.

Warehouse Wizard Series Parts 4 – 6

July 9, 2019 by Darcy Boerio

Last month we brought you parts 1 – 3 of the six-part “Warehouse Wizard Series”, a joint effort by ScanForce and Sage Inventory Advisor to provide educational content for Sage 100 users who operate warehouses.

Read Parts 1 – 3 of the Warehouse Wizard Series

And now for parts 4 – 6:

Part 4: Incorrect Levels Drive Excess Inventory

While having excess inventory on hand can seem like a safe bet to make sure you can meet demand, it is not cost-effective and can stunt your business’ growth.

On the other hand, you can have the best methodology imaginable in place to optimize replenishment and avoid excess inventory, but if your inputs are wrong, you will still fail. Good decisions start with accurate data.

Read Reducing Excess Inventory to learn about how to address the complexities associated with not having a source of truth for your levels.

Part 5: The Advantages of ABC Analysis

Ranking your items lets you focus on the ones that really matter. Whether they’re high velocity/high value or slow moving/low value or anywhere in between, these criteria can help you make better decisions about where to focus your time and working capital.

Read up on The 5 Advantages of an Effective ABC Analysis to learn how these classifications can lead to increased profits.

Part 6: Free Tools for Sage 100cloud to Optimize Inventory

Your Sage 100cloud subscription comes with a number of free tools that were previously only available for purchase. Two of these products that are included “out of the box” are:

DSD/ScanForce Multi-Bin Basic by ScanForce
Sage Inventory Advisor Basics by Sage Inventory Advisor

Are you taking advantage of these features you already own? The infographic shows some of the functionality available to help you optimize inventory without purchasing any additional software.

That’s it for the series. Thanks for reading along! You’re a Warehouse Wizard!

Contact ScanForce or Sage Inventory Advisor if we can be of assistance with any of the initiatives you learned about in the series.

Part 4: Incorrect Levels Drive Excess Inventory

Part 5: The Advantages of ABC Analysis

Part 6: Free Tools for Sage 100cloud to Optimize Inventory

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