Decimet Sales, Inc. (DSI) is a custom metal manufacturing company that specializes in precision computerized numerical control (CNC) machining and sheet metal fabrication. This includes one-stop customer service, design, prototyping, and manufacturing solutions for the retail, security, firearms, and industrial equipment industries.

Success Highlights

Challenges

  • Grow the company with a reporting system that tracks sales, backlogs, delivery times, and jobs at two separate facilities

Solution

  • Epicor® ERP

Benefits

  • Provided reliable, real-time information and project updates
  • Instantly supplied customers with the details on any past or present order
  • Allowed for navigation between multiple departments companywide
  • Enhanced decision-making and increased production
  • Ensured timely customer deliveries

 

About Encompass Solutions

Encompass Solutions is a business and software consulting firm that specializes in ERP systems, EDI, and Managed Services support for Manufacturers and Distributors. Serving small and medium-sized businesses since 2001, Encompass modernizes operations and automates processes for hundreds of customers across the globe. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. By identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of the Industry.


Proton therapy is a highly advanced, painless, and precise form of external beam radiation that has been used to treat 100,000 cancer patients worldwide. An exceptional option for childhood cancers, it has also become ideal for treating solid tumors of the prostate, brain, eye, head, and neck, inoperable small cell lung cancer, as well as liver and certain types of breast and gastrointestinal cancers.

Optivus Proton Therapy, Inc. (Optivus) was launched in 1993 by the center’s original engineering team led by Jon W. Slater and entrusted with the entire facility’s technical enhancements and ongoing maintenance. Founded on the principles of continuous excellence, Optivus has developed and implemented hundreds of design and new technology improvements over the past two decades according to the facility’s precise clinical specifications.

Success Highlights

Challenges

  • In addition to manufacturing, Optivus is a project-driven organization, with significant requirements for tracking hundreds of thousands of labor charges and managing a bill of materials with thousands of parts

Solution

  • Epicor® ERP

Benefits

  • Better understand job costs through the generation of detailed records integrating manufacturing and engineering with payroll and accounting
  • Identify the exact location and status of parts stored across four separate warehouses
  • Create purchase orders with detailed line items attributed directly to project steps
  • Readily reconcile accounting differences between purchasing, receiving, and billing

 

About Encompass Solutions

Encompass Solutions is a business and software consulting firm that specializes in ERP systems, EDI, and Managed Services support for Manufacturers and Distributors. Serving small and medium-sized businesses since 2001, Encompass modernizes operations and automates processes for hundreds of customers across the globe. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. By identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of the Industry.


Pharma Pharmaceutical Industries (Pharma) is a group of companies that brings together business leaders, seasoned healthcare professionals, marketing and sales specialists, pharmacists, and other industry veterans. Between them, Pharma companies leverage their rich spectrum of expertise to provide a wide range of services to the Saudi pharmaceutical industry. Services offered by Pharma include: branding, marketing, and sales; warehousing and logistics; facilities management; and regulatory compliance consultancy

Success Highlights

Challenges

  • Risk of using incorrect or expired material in manufacturing
  • Inability to accurately control all assets
  • Inconsistencies and errors across manually prepared documents and reports

Solution

  • Epicor® ERP

Benefits

  • Ability to link and integrate transactions across all departments
  • Significant reduction in time for archiving and searching historical data
  • Robust inventory control resulting in improved quality and on-time delivery (OTD)

 

About Encompass Solutions

Encompass Solutions is a business and software consulting firm that specializes in ERP systems, EDI, and Managed Services support for Manufacturers and Distributors. Serving small and medium-sized businesses since 2001, Encompass modernizes operations and automates processes for hundreds of customers across the globe. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. By identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of the Industry.


For more than 60 years, The Baker Company, Inc., has helped advance science, discovery, and clinical care by pioneering innovative solutions for air containment, contamination control, and controlled environments. Baker manufactures biological safety cabinets, clean benches, fume hoods, and pharmacy isolators providing unparalleled user and product protection for a variety of applications, ranging from pipetting to drug manufacturing to the handling of dangerous pathogens such as Anthrax.

Success Highlights

Challenges and Opportunities

  • Sought an ERP platform designed for ease of integration with today’s new technologies and systems
  • Needed strong product configurator and manufacturing ERP capabilities to support its high volume make-to-order production environment

Solution

  • Epicor® ERP

Benefits

  • Improved productivity, collaboration, security, and system integrity
  • Improved functionality and easy-to-use user interface offer immediate access to data
  • Easier satisfaction of RoHS compliance requirements
  • Seamless integration with third-party software for sales tax, shipping, document management, and CAD/CAM design

 

About Encompass Solutions

Encompass Solutions is a business and software consulting firm that specializes in ERP systems, EDI, and Managed Services support for Manufacturers and Distributors. Serving small and medium-sized businesses since 2001, Encompass modernizes operations and automates processes for hundreds of customers across the globe. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. By identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of the Industry.


Serving more than 3,000 customers from facilities across the United States, UFP Technologies is a producer of innovative custom-engineered components, products, and specialty packaging. Founded in 1963 and headquartered in Newburyport, Massachusetts, the company uses foams, plastics, composites, and natural fiber materials to design and manufacture solutions for the medical, automotive, aerospace, defense, electronics, consumer, and industrial markets. Over the past 40 years, UFP has focused on growing organically with enhanced services and products to new and existing customers as well as strategically acquiring competitive firms to fill key industry and client needs. Today, the company includes 11 separate facilities nationwide.

Success Highlights

Challenges

  • Identify a standardized, scalable method for mining data and seamlessly centralizing operational functions across 11 separate company locations

Solution

  • Epicor ERP

Benefits

  • Provided a single chart of accounts incorporating multi-plant functionality
  • Analyzed thousands of jobs companywide, closed financials on time ensured compliance with stringent SEC regulations and reported detailed financial results
  • Captured and reviewed costs, while streamlining processes and decreasing expenses
  • Negotiated better pricing for materials with vendors based on companywide buying patterns

 

About Encompass Solutions

Encompass Solutions is a business and software consulting firm that specializes in ERP systems, EDI, and Managed Services support for Manufacturers and Distributors. Serving small and medium-sized businesses since 2001, Encompass modernizes operations and automates processes for hundreds of customers across the globe. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. By identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of the Industry.


Centor is the world’s largest supplier of regulatory-compliant prescription containers for medication dispensing. The Berlin, Ohio plant manufactures plastic prescription pill containers and plastic packaging for liquid products and it is using Epicor Mattec MES—the Epicor real-time production monitoring and manufacturing execution system.

Success Highlights

Challenges

  • Institute a standardized system of reporting and data collection for more advanced insight into the production process

Solution

  • Epicor® Mattec MES

Benefits

  • Improved production and process control for better decision making
  • Increased machine efficiency with standardized OEE reports
  • Improved quality control and operations

 

About Encompass Solutions

Encompass Solutions is a business and software consulting firm that specializes in ERP systems, EDI, and Managed Services support for Manufacturers and Distributors. Serving small and medium-sized businesses since 2001, Encompass modernizes operations and automates processes for hundreds of customers across the globe. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. By identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of the Industry.


About Encompass Solutions

Encompass Solutions is a business and software consulting firm that specializes in ERP systems, EDI, and Managed Services support for Manufacturers and Distributors. Serving small and medium-sized businesses since 2001, Encompass modernizes operations and automates processes for hundreds of customers across the globe. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. By identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of the Industry.


About Encompass Solutions

Encompass Solutions is a business and software consulting firm that specializes in ERP systems, EDI, and Managed Services support for Manufacturers and Distributors. Serving small and medium-sized businesses since 2001, Encompass modernizes operations and automates processes for hundreds of customers across the globe. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. By identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of the Industry.


The needs of aerospace and defense manufacturers are increasingly complex, requiring coordination and efficiency from decision-makers to staff carrying out day-to-day operations, just like the teams they are empowering in the field. Those needs are growing more complex by the day according to this review of the defense industrial base, conducted in 2018 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Here’s how ERP Software For Aerospace and Defense manufacturers delivers on those unique needs.

Benefits Of ERP Software for Aerospace And Defense Manufacturers

What you may want to consider is a purpose-built solution for manufacturing. In this case, Epicor ERP software for aerospace and defense manufacturers delivers:

  • Constant visibility of product scope and the entire manufacturing process
  • Project predictions and adjustments using comparisons to previous project data
  • Improve lead times and reduce waste through the implementation of lean strategies
  • Automate the compliance process
  • Recording and reviewing of the entire product lifecycle including audit trails and records of all project purchases
  • Framework and support for on-the-fly changes in the supply chain
  • Immediate recognition of deviation from product specification
  • Fully-embedded project management tools capable of facilitating the entire quote-to-cash cycle and supporting both cost and scheduling visibility to maximize efficiency
  • Product life-cycle management from cradle to grave
  • A complete audit trail of compliance standards for design, production, sourcing, and delivery stages
  • A proven framework to streamline business processes and workflows
  • A service-oriented architecture built around lean methodologies, which improves lead times and reduces waste
  • Complete workflows that include customer sign off at each critical stage, from design concept to final estimate
  • Seamless communication of project data
  • Intuitive and clear reporting for stakeholders

With more than 40 years of combined experience serving midmarket organizations and divisions of Global 1000 companies, Epicor has more than 20,000 customers in over 150 countries. Going beyond just ERP software, Epicor’s intimate understanding of aerospace and defense industries drives increased efficiency and improves profitability. By providing product management, project management, customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM) and other essential tools, Epicor equips businesses in an increasingly regulated sector to succeed.

Epicor ERP Software For Aerospace And Defense Manufacturers

Epicor ERP software meets these complex needs by providing the tools necessary to refine operations, glean actionable insights from data, and maintain successful relationships with partners and customers. By streamlining processes to meet demand, without sacrificing quality or increasing costs, business performance improves. It’s one thing to make the essential goods that support critical infrastructure and defense systems, but are you paying the same attention to the quality of you in-house systems and processes that support your business’ longevity? Here’s how ERP software for aerospace and defense manufacturers addresses these unique needs.

Regulatory Standards, Compliance, And Quality

Manufacturing in aerospace and defense industries is highly regulated, and for good reason. Production is complex and due to the nature of use and products need to perform consistently over the course of a long service life. The slightest defect or deviation from highly-engineered components can lead to catastrophe. Managing a business in line with these standards is difficult, to say the least. Compliance, quality assurance, and meeting mission-critical deadlines means there is no room for error. Manufacturers must juggle these standards while maintaining a profitable business.

An image of epicor erp software for aerospace and defense manufacturers advanced quality management

Fortunately, Epicor ERP software for aerospace and defense manufacturers delivers the visibility, governance, auditing capabilities, and management tools needed to satisfy intense regulatory frameworks such as ITAR, IFRS, and SOX.

With the power to trace compliance standards throughout the supply chain, businesses can maintain detailed accounts of their adherence to regulation every step of the way. These milestones and forms of compliance documentation are recorded and easily relayed to individuals and organizations that need to know they’ve been satisfied. By delivering superior visibility and making it easy to communicate compliance, costly fines and errors can be avoided. Examples of data visibility output include:

  • Leverage audit intelligence and apply global searches for results in seconds
  • Track and manage when internal audits are scheduled, due, and overdue
  • Report on nonconformance/corrective actions by type, category, area, personnel, etc.
  • Report on and analyze audit data across departments, plants, regions, and the entire organization

Managing the quality of assembly, component or subassemblies is a complex undertaking. Fortunately, ERP systems take the heavy lifting out of quality management with tools that make compliance a simple affair. They provide detailed audit trails of data, records, and other documentation throughout the supply chain. This can manifest in the form of a single data point, a full report or any combination of manufacturing data in-between. ERP systems provide critical data associated with jobs, parts, inspection plans, serial numbers, lot numbers, and more.

Managing Multiple Suppliers

Small and midsized manufacturers are typically not self-sufficient in that they rely on outside suppliers to provide certain parts for manufacturing operations. However, relying on a single source for critical components is an all too common practice among manufacturers supplying the U.S defense industry. The glaring problem being that if a manufacturers single source of parts goes belly up or can’t provide their necessary parts, manufacturing comes to a halt and the business can’t deliver on its orders.

Managing supplier relationships and building a network of reliable partnerships is critical to maintaining the quality and consistency customers depend on. Supplier relationship tools provided by ERP software make this job easier on the manufacturer. Not only can many processes throughout the supply chain be automated through Epicor ERP software, but it also empowers businesses to make better decisions and secure a more beneficial position in a competitive marketplace.

An image of epicor erp software for aerospace and defense manufacturers supply chain management

 

Your ERP system serves as your single source of truth and operates as a repository for buyer, part and supplier records, it helps you preserve accuracy, streamline workflows and remove redundant data entry, as well. Epicor ERP goes far beyond just supplier relationship management tools with a full suite of supply chain management tools, which includes:

  • Purchase Management
  • Supplier Connect
  • Supplier Relationship Management
  • Inventory Management
  • Advanced Material Management
  • Manifesting and Freight Management
  • Shipping and Receiving
  • Warehouse Management
  • Handhelds

Build stronger relationships with suppliers and own supply chain management processes. By leveraging the ability to request quotes for raw materials from multiple suppliers at once and filter RFQ criteria based on your company’s specific needs.

Product Lifecycle Management And Enterprise Security

A component of the Product Management module within Epicor ERP, Product Lifecycle Management is a key component of aerospace and defense industries. This component of the Epicor ERP system serves as the central command center containing all data and documentation associated with your products. Capable of integrating with more than a dozen computer-aided design (CAD) and electronic design automation (EDA) software systems, Epicor ERP offers a hub where changes are made and recorded. This makes essential review and response operations easy and efficient at every stage.

An image of epicor erp software for aerospace and defense manufacturers product lifecycle management

The topic of digital security is one that has been increasingly placed at the forefront of business’ internal and external conversations. Epicor Cloud ERP and Epicor ERP on-premise deployments utilize state-of-the-art security measure to ensure the security of digital assets, IP, and communications. In Epicor PLM specifically, users only have as much access as they are granted by the Epicor ERP admin. CAD models, engineering designs, drawings, communications, contracts, and private documents are all kept under lock and key with fully-encrypted password protection. Minimize risk and secure your essential data using industry-leading Epicor ERP software for aerospace and defense manufacturers.

About Encompass Solutions

Encompass Solutions is a business and software consulting firm that specializes in ERP systems, EDI, and Managed Services support for Manufacturers and Distributors. Serving small and medium-sized businesses since 2001, Encompass modernizes operations and automates processes for hundreds of customers across the globe. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. By identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of Industry.


When it comes to medical device manufacturing, the FDA has maintained rigorous standards for manufacturers to satisfy. Traceability, quality management, and reporting are among the many areas in that manufacturers need superior performance to meet those standards. The FDA’s push for digital means of achieving and providing a record of how standards are met has many businesses looking to ERP software for medical device manufacturing.

Fortunately, ERP systems have been delivering on these demands and more for decades and are suited to meet the changes in regulatory environments. Such powerful systems help to increase the reliability of processes and reduce instances of failures, recalls, and corrective actions. Not only this, but the benefits of ERP make maintaining compliance and records easier and more cost-effective.

The Benefits Of ERP Software For Medical Device Manufacturing

When it comes to the requirements placed on manufacturers by the FDA, it’s easy to see why ERP is increasingly being leveraged to reduce the difficulty in meeting those obligations.

Data is available at every turn in the manufacturing process and ERP systems can help medical device manufacturers leverage that data in the validation process. This data enables management regulatory obligations, optimization of manufacturing processes, and the resulting increase in customer satisfaction. ERP systems capture this vital information to lessen the risks associated with compliance standards and turn efficiency concepts into real-world results with ease.

How Medical Device Manufacturers Use ERP

Compliance is the top motivator for adopting ERP software for medical device manufacturers. FDA regulations, as well as those for international regulatory bodies, are constantly evolving alongside new technologies, products, and research. ERP provides a means of establishing protocols and processes to satisfy the latest regulations at every stage in the manufacturing life cycle.

Accessibility is another important factor driving the adoption of modern ERP systems. Whether in the board room or on the shop floor, teams need the latest data and documentation to make informed decisions, in real-time. Legacy ERP systems lack the connectivity to this data that modern, cloud-based ERP systems provide. Even sales teams on the road require such access when a customer wants to know how a manufacturer’s products conform to the latest regulations, as well as the proof to back it up.

Auditing is a process required both internally and externally for medical device manufacturers. Audits may be scheduled or conducted at random. In any case, a manufacturer wants to know if they can retrieve and report data on every process in the manufacturing life-cycle. ERP software provides all that in a centralized and secure location.

The tracking and traceability ERP software provides will ensure that each stage of the manufacturing process comes with oversight. Easy-to-follow audit trails streamline the process and identify where, when, and how problems emerge. Recalls, while never an easy process, are swift and efficient thanks to ERP software that leverages automated lot and serial tracking to keep customers safe and businesses insulated from risk.

Through automation, manufacturers can remove the manual tasks associated with logging data, such as billing and manufacturing execution. This cuts down on human error that causes most delays and downtime in manufacturing and sales cycles. While not necessarily a matter of regulatory compliance, the efficiency ERP software provides in this regard only strengthens the case for its adoption.

FDA Requirements Of ERP Software For Medical Device Manufacturing

The electronic records and signatures requirements set by the FDA are stringent and any system of manufacturing must comply with the regulations to receive approval. The full body and outline of these regulations as they relate to ERP software for medical device manufacturing can be found in 21 CFR part 11 – ELECTRONIC RECORDS; ELECTRONIC SIGNATURES:

Subpart A-General Provisions 
§ 11.1 – Scope.
§ 11.2 – Implementation.
§ 11.3 – Definitions.

Subpart B–Electronic Records 
§ 11.10 – Controls for closed systems.
§ 11.30 – Controls for open systems.
§ 11.50 – Signature manifestations.
§ 11.70 – Signature/record linking.

Subpart C–Electronic Signatures 
§ 11.100 – General requirements.
§ 11.200 – Electronic signature components and controls.
§ 11.300 – Controls for identification codes/passwords.

and 21 CFR §820 regarding quality:

PART 820—QUALITY SYSTEM REGULATION

About Encompass Solutions

Encompass Solutions, Inc. is an ERP consulting firm, NetSuite Solution Provider, and Epicor Gold Partner that offers professional services in business consulting, project management, and software implementation. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems or addressing emerging challenges in corporate and operational growth, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. As experts in identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of the Industry.