Dramatic improvements in supply chain costs, delivery time and customer satisfaction with QAD eQ 3.5

The newest version of QAD eQ, 3.5 now includes replenishment, which enables customers to extend their back-office ERP systems, while seamlessly integrating sales orders, purchase orders, and replenishment orders with their supply chain through a single order management hub.

The QAD eQ 3.5 Private Trading Exchange (PTX) order hub uniquely addresses the need for lean manufacturing supply chains by co-ordinating Sell-Side, Buy-Side, and Replenishment operations simultaneously. In addition, the application platform enables manufacturers to implement and monitor their trading interface with both suppliers and customers via the Internet, achieving dramatic reductions of supply chain costs, improved delivery time, and greater customer satisfaction.

"Collaborative supply chains are emerging as a competitive advantage in the global marketplace," said David Myers, senior director of QAD eQ Applications. "By integrating back-office systems with the extended enterprise, QAD eQ can play a pivotal role in helping to achieve the high profit margins, low operating costs, and excellent customer service that are so essential to stay competitive in today`s business environment."

"Real-time consumption data drives the flow of material through production to customer sites automatically," said Graham Shackle, sales manager for QAD South Africa. "Material flow is triggered by customer usage - not the receipt of purchase orders, while similarly, real downstream demand, not forecasts, triggers production and procurement processes."

"The need for buffer inventory can be dramatically reduced with QAD eQ Replenishment, replacing manual systems through its automated `pull` capabilities, and by applying vendor-managed inventory and kanban processes.

"Linked planning and execution systems are enabled by pull signals from the customer to the supplier, offering improved customer service and resource planning throughout the supply chain," continued Shackle.

QAD eQ Replenishment brings with it the benefits of increased productivity, together with improved inventory management through automatic replenishment, based on point-of-use or point-of-sale information Visibility is optimised throughout the supply chain through more open communication and tighter production planning, while customer satisfaction service levels are improved by implementing vendor managed inventories. QAD eQ Sell-Side features a centralised order management system that can lower transactions costs, provide multiple ways to capture an order, and leverage the investment in back-office systems.

QAD eQ Buy-Side includes an advanced Internet-based purchase order management system designed to increase process efficiencies and reduce the direct material costs of large, multi-national companies through centralised procurement functions. New to QAD eQ Buy-Side version 3.5 is the advanced ability for purchase order processing to be integrated to various multiple back-end systems.