Alere Manufacturing Software

As an authorized Alere reseller, Conative Information Technology provides onsite implementation services including training, customization (if required) and ongoing technical support. We work with you to produce a System Blueprint specific to your needs and help to determine the manufacturing and accounting modules needed to accomplish the outcomes you've identified as crucial to achieving your company goals. Module descriptions, as well as links to downloadable specifications, are on this page.

Alere Manufacturing Modules

Order

The Order module generates the documents used to produce an item and manage its manufacturing process. A standard work order has information on what to make, the route used to make it, what material to use, how to configure it (if it can be built in different ways), and what lot/serial/traits go into making it. The work order also collects all the transactions used in documenting the process. When the need is to simply and quickly process a work order to make an item, the express order is used. Just enter the item to be made, add a quantity and choose where to issue the inventory material from. The work order is created, released, material issued, standard route labor posted, finished goods posted in inventory, and the order completed - all automatically.

Details & Features (528kb)

Route

The Route module is used to create and store the specific manufacturing methods of an item. Routes are one of the three key elements appended to work orders, the other two being material lists (BOM’s) and product configurations. A master route contains the route name and associated information, plus a detailed listing of the operation steps to be performed, their sequence, the work centers that will be used, and the standards for setting up and running each step.

Details & Features (516kb)

Machine

While the Order module defines what work needs to be done, the Machine module measures, records and plans manufacturing capacity. Manufacturing capacity is determined by the highest reasonable output rate that can be realized with the facility’s work force, equipment and vendors. Capacity is affected daily by a variety of factors including the number of hours per day each work center is available, the experience of the workforce, interruptions for machine repair or maintenance, and dates the facility is closed for holidays, vacations, etc.

Details & Features (332kb)

BOM

BOM (Bills of Material) is the foundational module of the manufacturing system. It lists all subassemblies, parts and raw materials used to make a parent assembly and indicates the quantities required for each component. The BOM module is used in conjunction with the production schedule to determine the items requiring issued purchase orders and released work orders. A variety of BOMs are supported: single-level bills of material, indented bills of material, modular bills, variable bills, phantom bills and costed bills. A BOM may be up to twenty-five levels deep. The parent BOM supports revisions with active/inactive dates, including each component on the bill, enabling items to be smoothly substituted or replaced.

Details & Features (540kb)

Schedule

This module efficiently schedules work orders through the production facility, using finite capacity scheduling (FCS) techniques, to arrive at predicted completion times. Each work order is assigned a priority, routes are considered, time reserved on the work centers used, and a completion date is predicted for each work order. With this method there is no need to manage queues, as every step on a job has time slots assigned on work centers. The scheduler supports advanced Synchronous Manufacturing, tying the production schedule to MRP planning. Components on a bill of material can be matched to the route operation steps where they are used. By scheduling the steps on work orders, material requirement schedules are also determined.

Details & Features (362kb)

Cost

The Cost module fulfills multiple functions. It monitors work in process (WIP), which can be one of the most difficult aspects of managing inventory valuations. This is especially true when a company is primarily order driven and has a significant portion of inventory tied up on the shop floor. This module measures actual versus planned costs on an order-by-order basis to help detect and correct problems with manufacturing processes. It also performs item cost roll-ups using a BOM, a route, an inventory cost, and fixed and variable overhead methods to find the predicted cost of manufacturing an item. This cost can then be used to automatically set the standard cost of the item in inventory with adjusting general ledger entries.

Details & Features (488kb)

Plan

The Plan module is the most powerful tool of the entire system. It utilizes the full range of MRP techniques deploying bill of materials, inventory data, and scheduling. All levels of a bill, from the item being manufactured down to the raw materials, are calculated in one pass instead of the traditional MRP method of one level at a time. Not only are the requirements for materials calculated, but recommended purchase orders and production orders can be automatically generated and released. In addition, because the planning is time-phased, recommendations are made to reschedule open purchase orders and work orders when they are not in phase. This module employs bills of material data, inventory data, sales orders, purchase orders, and production schedule information to calculate requirements for materials. Using a time-phased approach, planning is accomplished by exploding the bill of material, adjusting for inventory quantities on hand or on order, and offsetting the net requirements by the appropriate lead times.

Details & Features (400kb)