In the past twenty years or so, the development of information technology has grown by leaps and bounds. From the 1970s to the main computer, to the 80s, the widespread use of micro-computers, the 90's entered the Client-SerVer combination, the e-commerce began in 2000, the rapid development, it is hard to imagine. In the same period, enterprise informationization has indeed undergone an evolutionary process. From the perspective of commercial software, we see three very influential management software terms:
1. Seventies: MRP I-Material RequireMent Planning Material Requirements Planning;
2 80s: MRP II-Manufacturing ReSource Planning Manufacturing Resource Planning;
3: Nineties: ERP-EnterPriSe ReSource Planning.
However, when carton companies try to apply these commercial general-purpose software, they often encounter great difficulties. Many businesses ended with failure.
Personally, I think that the uniqueness of carton manufacturing makes these commercial general-purpose software necessary for industrialization to be possible. The uniqueness of carton manufacturing is fast response and service, order, scheduling and production. If the information transfer and conversion process from the order input to the production schedule to the machine controller can be completed within a few minutes, the entire production cycle can be significantly shortened. This uniqueness produces the following requirements:
a. Minimize preparation and time for product structure, BOM-Bill Of MaterialS, and Process ProceSS Routing design as much as possible: For common MRP/MPRII/ERP software, these tasks typically require several modules to process. However, for the packaging industry, especially the corrugated box manufacturing industry, their products and processes are relatively simple. It is better to combine these tasks and complete them in a short time by one person.
b. For the carton manufacturing industry, it is particularly important how to deal with the order of timely delivery (JuSt-In-TiMedeliVery), which can effectively arrange and record production, inventory, and delivery. This allows the sales department to see the progress of each order from the computer at any time in order to take early action on events that may deviate from the plan. This means that:
â— Track the status of semi-finished products in production.
â— Track the number of finished products and where they are placed.
â— Delivery schedules maximize the use of transport capacity resources.
â— Flexible delivery forms and invoice formats can meet the different requirements of customers.
c. ScHeduling: According to the order's delivery date, required materials and production capacity, actual production capacity, the computer scheduling system will automatically generate job schedules. The production dispatcher is on the Electronic Planning Board.
Then according to the actual situation of the workshop and urgent orders to modify. A good job schedule can effectively reduce the loss of raw paper, reduce downtime and frequency, and ensure delivery date. It must be emphasized that the computer-aided job schedule requires that the order tasks to be completed by the corrugating machine be grouped and sorted according to the width of the paper roll and the type of paper used; the orders to be completed by the printing press should be sorted according to the order of the ink to reduce the number of ink replacements. ; Insert an emergency task in a scheduled production schedule or remove an order task from a scheduled production schedule. Due to many special needs of the carton manufacturing industry, the general-purpose MRP/MRPII/ERP software is difficult to handle the scheduling requirements of corrugated box production.
d. Base Paper Management: Unlike general inventory management software, the base paper management system should be specific to the location and production volume of each roll of paper, with automatic conversion between length, weight, and diameter. Due to the long procurement time of raw paper and the short delivery time of customers, the demand for raw materials is no longer determined by orders but needs to be forecasted (this means that MRP technology - the core of MPR II or ERP software - is no longer applicable ).
The above examples explain the uniqueness of carton manufacturing. I will discuss these special requirements in detail in future articles. As a result of these special needs, industry software developed specifically for the carton industry was created, such as CTI in the United States, HRMS in New Zealand, KIWIPLAN in New Zealand, and CIM-PACK in Singapore. The core of software manufacturing in such industries is the core of the carton enterprise computer integrated manufacturing system, which focuses on helping manufacturers increase productivity and provide value-added services for manufacturers.
Another special aspect of software in this type of industry is that software developers must have a fairly sophisticated knowledge of the industry’s production and management in order to informatize the business process. Software vendors have experienced project engineers, and their experience and capabilities have a great impact on the commercial performance of the system, project schedule, and so on. The computer integrated manufacturing system has many information points, decision support, and cost control functions, such as product design, job planning, demand forecasting, and so on. To make full use of the system's functions to promote business and improve competitiveness, companies must analyze the company's business conditions, organizational structure, management methods, decision-making process, and customer and supplier relationships, and make necessary improvements or even reorganization, making the computer The system is organically integrated with the operation and management of the company. In this process, a matching industry software and software vendor is a key factor for success.
Due to the above reasons, in the implementation of computer integrated manufacturing systems, foreign companies now rarely develop their own, but buy commercial software, and seek the training and assistance of software vendors. Compared with foreign counterparts, the domestic carton manufacturing industry started relatively late in enterprise informationization. The advantage is that the carton manufacturing industry can absorb foreign experience in one step.