Post on 17-Jul-2020
Running Your Business from the Shop
Floor to the Top Floor
Plex Manufacturing Cloud ERP
Ted Rohm, TEC Senior ERP Analyst
May 2014
www.technologyevaluation.com
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Plex Manufacturing Cloud ERP—Cloud, Industry,
and Customer Focused
Plex Systems—In the Cloud Before the Cloud Was Cool
The benefits a cloud software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution provides to a
manufacturing organization are now well documented. In a research note titled
Six Reasons Why Manufacturers Should Consider Cloud ERP, Nucleus Research
points out that “there are a number of benefits beyond total cost of ownership
to deploy cloud ERP, including increased flexibility, scalability, accelerating
deployment, business continuity, and usability.” The key takeaways from a report
by the Aberdeen Group, The Case for Cloud ERP in Manufacturing: Alleviating
Outdated Concerns, detail that the benefits of cloud solutions beyond overall cost
include “the ability to not rely on internal IT resources, enhanced collaboration
and visibility across the enterprise, scalability, and flexibility as SaaS deployments
are updated by the software vendors.”
However, the benefits of cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) weren’t
always so clear. Plex Systems was founded in 1995 with the initial goal of
providing quality management systems for metal-forming manufacturers in the
motor vehicle industry (MVI). The company initially focused on core technology
for quality tracking, inventory management, and shop floor control. Plex Systems
was one of the earliest adopters of the cloud deployment model for software
delivery, and in 2001 shifted to SaaS as the only deployment model offered by
Plex Systems.
The majority of the ERP solution providers are only now catching up to Plex
Systems’ ability to deliver a SaaS solution via the cloud. Don’t be fooled by the
marketing hype—many of these vendors fall well short of delivering their “cloud”
solution on par with Plex. Some vendors are promoting cloud solutions that
merely run on Microsoft Azure or Amazon cloud service—this is little more than
supporting hard drives managed by the cloud infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS)
provider. Other manufacturing solutions are now springing up on the Salesforce
platform, but require a company to purchase multiple other component
subscription packages to build out a complete ERP solution. Even other ERP
vendors are relying on third-party implementers and integrators to set up and
support their products in the cloud, but do not stand 100% behind the
cloud deployment.
Plex has been delivering its SaaS cloud solution for more than a decade now.
Having a pure SaaS offering means that the software vendor fully supports all the
networking, infrastructure, and software needed to run the system. The vendor
manages the data centers, commits to uptime service level agreements (SLAs),
which in the case of Plex is 99.9% uptime, and maintains things like hot backups
Plex Systems was one of the earliest adopters of the cloud deployment model for software delivery, and in
2001 shifted to SaaS as the only deployment model offered by Plex
Systems.
Plex Manufacturing Cloud ERP—Running Your Business from the Shop Floor to the Top Floor www.technologyevaluation.com 3
to dedicated failover servers. In short, all a company needs to run Plex
Manufacturing Cloud ERP is an Internet connection.
Industry Focus
Born on the shop floor, Plex Manufacturing Cloud today provides global
manufacturers with what Plex Systems describes as “shop floor to top floor
visibility of their operations.” Plex believes the plant floor is the heart of the
manufacturing business, and, by creating a platform for continuous innovation,
Plex Manufacturing Cloud can be a powerful catalyst for its customers’ continued,
profitable growth.
Plex Systems focuses squarely on servicing the needs of six target industries.
The company doesn’t stray from these markets just to pick up business—all the
company’s efforts and attention are geared toward the following industries:
• Aerospace and Defense
• Motor Vehicles
• High-Tech and Electronics
• Industrial Manufacturing
• Precision Metal forming
• Food and Beverage
This allows Plex Manufacturing Cloud to excel in serving the needs of each of
these verticals, with each showing a different facet of the Plex’s core strengths.
Customer Focus
Plex Systems has succeeded in putting the needs of its customers first with its
unique software. This leads to a product development process that is customer
driven. Enhancements to the product are based on customer requests that come
from an active and engaged customer community. The changes are then rapidly
deployed with three significant updates released annually, and other updates
rolled out at times on a daily basis.
Plex Systems doesn’t lock in customers to perpetual licensing agreements
with annual maintenance fees. Rather, more than 90% of its customers are on
annual contracts, and thus Plex must earn the right to sell the software to these
customers again each year. This sense of urgency and intensity to meet customer
demands and expectations galvanizes everyone at Plex Systems to maintain a
high-quality product and drive continuous improvement across all areas of
the company.
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Plex—Overcoming Challenges and the Future
The Plex Manufacturing Cloud ERP solution is not without weaknesses, and Plex
Systems works to continuously improve its product based on customer needs.
An example of how the company responds to customer needs is evidenced in
the recent enhancements in support of multi-entity financials. Plex’s Customer
Advisory Boards challenged the company to augment the breadth and depth
of financial reporting and analysis. In response to this need, “the product
management, engineering, global support services, and product marketing teams
created a cross-functional team that has the purpose to quickly develop, fine-tune,
and launch Multi-Entity Financials. Plex beat our own internal timelines and is
ready to deliver this valuable functionality to our customers,” reports Louis
Columbus, Product Marketing Manager.
Jason Blessing, chief executive officer (CEO) of Plex Systems, states: “We are
focused on helping manufacturers drive down cost, increase quality, and enhance
productivity. Thousands of users rely on the Plex Manufacturing Cloud today in
the auto, aerospace, and food industries.”
Product Overview—“shop floor to top floor”
Plex Systems’ flagship product, Plex Manufacturing Cloud (formerly known as
Plex Online), is a SaaS ERP solution created for high-precision and high-liability
manufacturing industries. The solution extends beyond the boundaries of typical
ERP software for manufacturers to provide a comprehensive “shop floor to top
floor” solution. The manufacturing ERP modules delivered in the cloud include
accounting and finance; customer and sales management; human resources;
inventory management; production management; product and program
management; and supply chain management, all with business platform
foundation support including business intelligence, document management,
and workflows.
Plex Manufacturing Cloud is unique in that it combines the aforementioned
common ERP modules with integrated modules for manufacturing execution
systems (MES), quality management, customer relationship management (CRM),
shop floor integration, and more into a single, fully integrated solution. This
enables companies to effectively and efficiently manage virtually every aspect of
their manufacturing operations. Highly regulated and compliance-driven
industries including aerospace and defense rely on Plex Manufacturing Cloud to
simplify and streamline their manufacturing operations while attaining
compliance and greater profitability.
Plex Manufacturing Cloud ERP—Running Your Business from the Shop Floor to the Top Floor www.technologyevaluation.com 5
Fit and Finish
Layout
The layout of the system is simple and user friendly, even for people on the shop
floor (and if even if they use touch screens). The main menus are organized as
screens containing icons and hyperlinks, and each screen has a few buttons
available at the top for the main functions (e.g., Add, Back, Delete, Help, etc.).
If necessary, a more detailed menu can be obtained by right-clicking anywhere
on the screen. Figure 1 shows a sample of the main menu of Plex Manufacturing
Cloud.
Ease of Use
The screens throughout the solution are purpose built with the end user in mind.
The screens were not designed for wowing the user with an endless number of
tabs or detailed information that is used only a fraction of the time. Common
screens use common everyday titles such as orders, invoices, inventory ship ready,
and shipping. Though the detailed information needed to manage complex
operations is available, the system doesn’t overwhelm the user with complexity.
A good example, given below, is the shipping screen. The critical information
needed to process the shipments, with color-coded visual cues, is immediately
obvious to the end user.
Plex Manufacturing Cloud ERP—Running Your Business from the Shop Floor to the Top Floor www.technologyevaluation.com 6
In contrast to most traditional ERP vendors that create manuals or files of
frequently asked questions (FAQs) to share with their customers, Plex’s online
help is in the form of a wiki. Customers can contribute to it by adding to the
community knowledge base or by extending it with proprietary information that is
available to only its own users.
Key Product Differentiators
Real-Time Shop Floor Monitoring and Control
The simple, easy-to-use user interface belies the depth of functionality supported
by Plex Manufacturing Cloud ERP. The almost naive-looking screens hide the fact
that Plex is built for the shop floor, where the action really takes place in
manufacturing operations. The figure below shows the Plex Control Panel, with all
the areas of production coming together at the time of running production. The
control panel allows operators to log on to equipment, authorizes the operation
based on training, presents the proper quality and process documents for the job
at hand, captures and provides alerts on quality thresholds, and connects with
maintenance and problem resolution.
The simple, easy-to-use user interface belies the depth of functionality supported by Plex Manufacturing Cloud.
Plex Manufacturing Cloud ERP—Running Your Business from the Shop Floor to the Top Floor www.technologyevaluation.com 7
Quality Module
Plex Manufacturing Cloud ERP’s quality module relies on database fields rather
than stored documents for all of the quality documents that are generated. This
allows updating of product specification details to be performed in one place and
then replicated to all dependent documents, such as control plans, check sheets,
failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) documentation, and process flow charts.
Check sheets are generated dynamically, and quality control questions can be
placed automatically in a flipped/reversed manner to force operators to pay
attention to the data entered every time.
Business Platform Support
The Business Intelligence and Foundation modules provide the underlying
business platform support in Plex Manufacturing Cloud ERP. And, like other parts
of the system, these modules provide deep functionality without being overly
complex. Plex Manufacturing Cloud ERP has a complete suite of business platform
tools including document management, workflow, a reporting system, and
SmartPlex Mobile Access modules, which are all combined to form the Plex
Manufacturing Cloud ERP Foundation.
Other modules included in the Plex Foundation module include VisionPlex, which
allows an organization to customize the appearance and functionality of standard
VisionPlex screens and reports; and create entirely new proprietary dashboards,
screens, reports and data downloads—all without needing the user to have any
formal programming experience. The SmartPlex mobile access provides the
anywhere, anytime mobile device access—as SmartPlex is available for Android
and Apple iOS devices.
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Figure 4. Plex Inventory Tracking on Symbol Mobile Device
Business Intelligence (BI)
IntelliPlex is Plex’s solution for delivering business information and intelligence to
its user community. This is a dynamic BI tool that provides comprehensive
reporting and analysis to turn the systems’ data into meaningful information. A
graphical dashboard of key executive reports in Plex Manufacturing Cloud is
presented here as figure 5.
Plex Manufacturing Cloud ERP—Running Your Business from the Shop Floor to the Top Floor www.technologyevaluation.com 9
From the graphically displayed chart of the company’s accounts receivable (AR)
aging, a controller can easily drill into the accounts with receivables that are more
than 90 days past due. A single click on the bar graph then takes the user into the
detailed listing of these accounts shown below in figure 6. Intelliplex is built into
Plex Manufacturing Cloud ERP—not bolted on. Being built into the system allows
for tight integration and instant access to the underlying transactional data. The
solution delivers active reporting, where users can filter, calculate, chart, roll up,
and perform pivot table analysis all within Intelliplex.
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Case Study—EaglePicher Technologies
Plex Manufacturing Cloud ERP is used by hundreds of organizations and currently
supports more than 40,000 users across the globe on a daily basis. There are many
satisfied, and quotable customers, but the aerospace and engineering firm EaglePicher
Technologies stands out.
EaglePicher Technologies (EPT) is using Plex Manufacturing Cloud to simplify the most
complex aspects of its business, which include orchestrating suppliers globally while
remaining compliant with a wide spectrum of customer and aerospace and defense
requirements. Adding to the complexity is the company’s engineer-to-order (ETO)
selling and production strategy, which requires real-time supplier coordination and
communication. EaglePicher relies on Plex Manufacturing Cloud on a daily basis to
manage and simplify these complex tasks.
How does Plex Manufacturing Cloud ERP system succeed in meeting EaglePicher’s
requirements?
Plex Manufacturing Cloud enables EaglePicher Technologies to attain exponential gains
in manufacturing compliance performance, profitability, and quality by reducing many
manual tasks in purchasing, production, and quoting.
Plex Manufacturing Cloud delivered the following results by precisely understanding this
customer’s needs and thoroughly implementing a solution that met their biggest
challenges:
• Accurate consignment tracking reduced inventory valuation requirements,
increased net income, and improved cash flow.
• Cloud-based ERP software simplified reporting, streamlined internal processes,
and eliminated the need for manual tracking and the risk of duplicate data
entries.
• EPT achieved a reduction in inventory valuation of $350,000 (USD) within the
first 18 months of using the ERP system.
Visit the Aerospace Manufacturing and Design Web site to read more on EaglePicher’s
implementation of Plex Manufacturing Cloud ERP. To view more Plex customer case
studies, visit the Plex Systems company page on TEC’s Web site.
Plex Manufacturing Cloud ERP—Running Your Business from the Shop Floor to the Top Floor www.technologyevaluation.com 11
Plex Manufacturing Cloud ERP Benefits
Plex delivers many benefits that differentiate Plex Manufacturing Cloud ERP from its
direct competitors. Many Plex’s competitors are unable to match Plex Manufacturing
Cloud ERP in the following areas:
• Deep expertise in quality management and traceability—these are core
strengths of Plex Manufacturing Cloud learned from decades of serving
customers’ needs on the shop floor.
• Plex customers have complete visibility into their operations and plant data,
and can leverage those details to drive profits.
• Plex’s focus on driving continuous innovation makes it easy for customers to
continually grow, innovate, and update processes.
• The one true manufacturing cloud for the shop floor that provides access to
applications from anywhere, anytime on any device.
• Plex Manufacturing Cloud ERP runs on industrial-strength and secure data
centers, fundamentally lowering the information technology (IT) costs of an
organization.
• With Plex Manufacturing Cloud ERP, customers only pay for what they need,
and the focus is on configuration, not customization.
• As Plex Manufacturing Cloud ERP is delivered entirely online, there are no
costly, time-consuming software upgrades and thus no costs associated with
keeping servers and operating systems current.
Plex Manufacturing Cloud ERP delivers on the promise of cloud computing, enabling
anytime, anywhere access to a complete ERP solution built from the shop floor out.
With Plex Manufacturing Cloud ERP, organizations can increase throughput and
efficiency within existing facilities, squeeze out more profits from every order,
understand where they are most exposed to risk, respond to customer demand, and
keep up with the speed and volume of data on the plant floor.
Small-to-midsized manufacturers in the aerospace and defense, motor vehicles,
high-tech and electronics, industrial manufacturing, precision metal forming, and
food and beverage industries looking for a complete ERP solution and all the additional
benefits provided by a SaaS solution would be well served by taking a look at Plex
Manufacturing Cloud ERP.
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