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The following sections contain an overview of some of the key areas of functionality covered by the Evolution ™ application.


Foundation

The foundation suite encompasses all of the default master file records (part, customer, vendor, work center, currency, etc.) as well as all of the various analysis codes (product groups, sales groups, customer groups). It also contains the system flag settings, which allow the user to switch on/off certain system wide functionality and user permissions as well as configurable error / warning message levels and unit of measure conversion tables.

Parts

Several key screens are available for users to maintain not just basic part or product record information, but also planning parameters, ordering rules, extended narrative, dimensional and weight / volume related information. Each part can be identified by a 20 character code, with the ability to have a 40 character cross-reference code which can be used as an alternative key for accessing part details. In addition, each item can have up to 999 "paths" (each path is essentially a unique method of manufacture) attached to it. These paths can contain unique bills of material and/or routing information, allowing for alternate routes / machines to be incorporated and different cost profiles established. The BOM functionality allows for activity dates and operation staging. Fields are also available within the BOM record for Item Numbers / Drawing References / Circuit Reference Designators and Scrap / wastage amounts per batch. BOM's can be copied from one parent to another, and updated and maintained on an individual or mass basis. Multi level explosions and implosions are available online. The Routing record allows for extended operational text to be maintained, and for overlapping or parallel operations to be defined as well.

Inventory

The Evolution ™ product is a multi-store / multi-location system with standard nettable locations being enhanced by the ability to define consignment, quarantine, WIP and inspection location types as well. Each store and each bin can be seperately defined with details including size category, maximum weight and G/L code. Each part can have the following inventory parameters specified; minimum stock, minimum days supply, maximum stock, cumulative lead time, transfer lead time, default store / bin as well as attributes that specify at an item level, whether the part is lot controlled, requires Traceability controls, is bulk issued, is back flushed, is forecast controlled, is to be processed via Final assembly scheduling rather than traditional work order control. Tooling parameters can be defined in a similar way, although tooling resources are issued rather than consumed, and returned to stores at the end of the production process. Product Costing allows for upto 999 cost sets to be held against an item, and supported cost types include Standard, Lot Actual, Weighted Average, and Period Average.

Sales & Distribution

The features within Evolution ™ allow for the efficient handling of sales orders, quotations, and inquiries, as well as picking, staging, and shipping information and sales invoicing and credit memos. These features cover both the make to stock and make to order environments, or any mixture of those two. Order entry may be carried out in a number of ways;

  1. by the interactive process, where the details are simply logged by the user, who has online visibility of the stock, price, description details etc during the process, with a final review at the end of the process which leads to the creation of demand records.


  2. by the direct order entry format, which requires the entry of the minimum necessary content at header and line level, and which uses default data to complete the order content.


  3. by a simple web browser screen, custom designed for each client, which is then processed by the back-end server application on completion of input details.


As well as this "centralised" approach to order management, the Distribution Sales features of the application allows users to create demand that is tied to an individual distribution center and where demand is received into several remote locations rather than a centralised facility. Text and charges can be maintained at header as well as at line level, and Customer / Part relationship tables allow for pricing discount structure to be maintained along with payment terms, payment methods, settlement and standard discounts etc. The Order Loading feature allows the user to build a "load" that consists of a series of deliveries in a stated sequence, each delivery may be to a different address and each delivery may consist of full or partial orders.

Purchasing

The purchasing area of Evolution ™ allows you to define vendor details, vendor part relationships, to create manual or automatic purchase requisitions and convert them to a wide range of purchase order instructions prior to receipt and invoice matching. Requisitions can be for a single part / single delivery or same part / multiple deliveries. Parts can be stock or non-stocked. Extensive text or narrative can be added at this stage and carried through to the PO and G/L details can also be attached to attribute costs. Purchase orders may be created manually, or via requisitions or MRP suggestions. Order lines may be entered as non-scheduled (single delivery on a specified date), or scheduled (multiple deliveries on scheduled dates). Schedules can be one of three different types, standard, blanket or bulk. In addition the system supports sub-contract purchasing (linking to a Work Order operation number) as well as purchasing of service items (charged directly to G/L). A purchase order copy facility is also available, as is the ability to link purchasing to specific projects or contracts. Once received, goods can be moved from one store location to another within the Receiving Area, with the option to also scrap receipts, return to vendor, issue direct to production or to another location. A 3-way match facilty is available to approve invoices for payment within Accounts Payable.

Planning

The planning features provide multi-level planning options, from high level Key Resource Planning (KRP) for use on critical business resources such as warehouse storage space, cash flow, headcount, etc through to Master Scheduling, Materials Requirements Planning and Capacity Requirements Planning. The system, as well as providing Regenerative and Net Change planning options, also provides Contract segregated MRP options, for true MTO planning capability. Capacity Planning allows the user to create a series of upto 99 different time buckets in which to plan load. Each period may be of different length, allowing for detailed close in planning, but more periodic or macro views out into the future.

Production

Evolution ™ allows production or works orders to be generated in 3 different ways;

  1. Manually by the end user.


  2. Confirming an MRP generated suggestion and converting it to a form planned or released order.


  3. By entering details to generate a sales order cover order.


At the point the order is created, the user can define which one of the maximum 999 paths the order will use for that specific part order. At that point component allocation details are created and a scheduled route can also be generated. Operation dating, pick lists, rescheduling etc is handled by the WIP orders of component materials, operation feedback recording, and receipts from WIP orders. The issue of materials can be accomplished in a variety of ways, providing issue routines for those companies with stock held in few locations also the ability to issue on a line-by-line basis with multiple locations. Back flushing is also supported, as is the ability to record unplanned issues. WIP locations, to support bulk issue materials, can also be supported. Work orders can be generated for single or multiple items, also allowing by-products to be recorded.

Finance

The general ledger within Evolution ™ support up to 13 periods, allows journals to be posted to any period, current or future, has recurring, reversing, prior year and standard journal types and the ability to create up to 999 budgets at any account level. The account code structure can be up to 38 alpha-numeric characters, split into as many as 6 different sections or levels;

  1. Level 0 - a 2 character company identifier.


  2. Level 1 to 3 - each up to 6 characters, user defined, typically division, department or cost center, product group or customer group.


  3. Level 4 - up to 16 characters for the natural account code.


  4. Level 5 - up to 2 characters for a sub acccount classification.


A cost apportionment system can be used to spread expense type costs accross different cost centers. Payables and Receivables can function in multi-currency mode, with aging reports and journal detail listings available from both sub modules. A "Real Time Ledger" facility is available based upon the concept of a ledger transaction session, in which transactions relating to the ledger concerned is processed online, whilst derived transactions and audit reports are produced in batch mode on closing the session.

Technical Architecture

The product can run on a Windows 2003 or Unix operating system. It uses one of the following databases;

  1. Oracle.

  2. Informix.

  3. Microsoft Sequel.

There are a number of user tools such as reporter, screen editors and visual basic scripting which will allow the user to tailor make the system to suit their business without compromising the system's integrity. The system is web enabled.

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