Enhancing Sage X3 Beyond the ADC Functionality to Leverage Its Full Power

The Sage X3 platform is a powerful tool that allows you to track inventory and production data in addition to the core finance functions customers typically roll out first.  When you use X3 to its full potential, you get traceability/tracking, better production cost data, and the ability to create manufacturing metrics that should result in improved efficiency.

We typically see customers start with the standard X3 install, then add the manufacturing and ADC tools.  However, simply enabling these features won’t help you if you are not feeding the system good data on a consistent basis.  So what is missing?  How do you increase the ROI of your project?

You will generate the highest ROI for your project when you simultaneously implement both the data housing (manufacturing, ADC) features in X3 with the data capture tools (Barcode, RFID, Sensor Appliances, Labor Tracking Appliances) on your production floor and warehouse.

We’ve talked about ADC in the past and the 8 components you need for a successful implementation.  ADC is a great first step and should create immediate benefits whether you choose barcode or RFID.  But adding better data capture tools will reduce your cost of data collection, can remove the human element (errors, forgetting), and generally improves the quality and amount of data you collect.  Better data at a lower price!  Essentially, having the right tools allows you to stop paying employees to collect data and instead pay them to produce — what you originally hired them for.

What are some of these tools?:

• Fixed RFID:  Whether deployed at a dock door to automatically track pallets in/out or at a piece of equipment to automatically issue raw materials or create new WIP, fixed RFID offers tremendous value because data capture is fully automated.  You can also deploy RFID portals between your production floor and your warehouse so you can reconcile the human-dependent put-aways with the actual flow of product in your facility.  This gives you the data to enforce policies and correct mistakes immediately, rather than at the dreaded physical count once or twice a year!
• Sensor Appliances:  Did you know you can connect just about any machine or sensor in your facility to X3?  Sensor appliances allow you to automatically capture machine health, process temperature, metal detector output, flow gauge data, and just about anything else you would like to capture and associate with a work order running in X3.
• Labor Tracking Appliances:  Need an easy way to track which employees are in a particular work cell and for how long?  Want to scan a work order and have an easy way to enter piece count or defects?  Touch screen appliances can be deployed on the production floor to easily capture this information and send it to X3.

X3 does so much more than simply tracking your finances.  The integrated manufacturing and warehouse manufacturing capabilities are powerful tools.  But these tools are only as good as the data you feed them.  Whether it is the increased need for traceability data, the desire to improve profitability in the warehouse by reducing chargebacks or increasing inventory turns, or the need to increase sales at a higher profit by increasing efficiency and capacity on the production floor, customers are increasingly accelerating deployment of these data capture tools to be used with X3.  By reducing the cost to acquire production and warehouse data, manufacturers are able to feed X3 more data and more accurate data.  This unlocks the full power of the Sage X3 platform and delivers the highest ROI.