Purchasing

The FactoryMaster Purchasing module allows full control over the purchasing activities for your company whether it be buying raw materials or components that are used in the assembly of your products. FactoryMasters Purchasing module achieves maximum benefits when used in coordination with the FactoryMaster Stock Control, Works Order Processing and Job Costing modules.

Purchase Orders are raised under various categories to facilitate the easy recording of relevant details - for example:

Raw Material - by specification, form, size or weight

Bought-In Parts

Heat Treatment processes

Paint Specifications

Sub-Contract Operations

Consumable Items

In fact, the user can set up as many purchase categories as required and retain standard descriptions, Part Numbers and process descriptions for all items within those categories. Multiple batch prices can be recorded for any number of potential suppliers with a preferred status indicating the default supplier. Where appropriate, items can be associated to a specific Part or Drawing Number. Supplier’s part numbers can also be incorporated.

Sub-contract orders are particularly easy to raise as (when used in conjunction with the Works Order module) their technical content is automatically extracted from the relevant operation detail stored within the Manufacturing Instructions. The system can also generate Release Notes to accompany items sent away for sub-contract work to ensure full batch traceability.

Each item on a Purchase Order can be allocated to an existing Works Order so that the costs can be booked directly to the job upon receipt.

Booking costs to a job at the time of receipt allows the system to calculate an almost perfect costing without having to wait for any straggler invoices to arrive from your suppliers. However, the included Invoice Matching facility allows the user to compare the prices invoiced with those on the original purchase order and to adjust any discrepancies found.

Details of previous Purchase Orders can be quickly accessed by either Purchase Order Number, Supplier, Part Number, Buyer or Works Order Number - quickly answering the typical questions of What Did We Pay Last Time?, Who Supplied This In The Past?, When Did We Last Buy This Item? A wide range of reporting options provides detailed analysis of your purchases by Date, Supplier or Analysis Code.

A number of Expedite and Overdue Reporting options are available to chase outstanding purchase orders, including an Expedite Fax Report which can be faxed to your suppliers requesting confirmation of delivery dates for each outstanding item.

The system also maintains comprehensive Supplier Delivery & Quality Performance Statistics to assist your Quality Department in ranking individual Suppliers against the categories of Product or Service they have been approved to supply.

Factorymaster can also generate supplier schedules based around the MRP, thus giving your supplier greater visibility of your component requirements and hopefully greater negotiating capability. We can do this electronically for ease of use.

Factorymaster can also manage your approved suppliers.

FactoryMaster can handle varying quantities, ie 1 box of screws contains 1000 screws. So you can buy in one unit but consume in a different unit.

Minimum order quantities are also covered by these options. So orders can be generated based upon min max stock levels, and by supplier, works order, project code, sales order or by assembly.