Infor Factory Track
Infor Factory Track is an auxiliary application for Infor ERP systems. It provides you with many additional capabilities to enhance your ERP systems. It allows different devices to connect to your ERP system for the purpose of collecting data, efficiently performing transactions, eliminating unnecessary paper, and providing real-time relevant information to warehouse and shop floor users.
Discover how Infor Track works
Factory Track extends the reach of the ERP in three main areas:
- The Shop Floor module supports touchscreen operations through wired or wireless networks and serves as an information hub and execution support system for production personnel.
- The Time Track module allows for the collection of time and attendance data, which can be fully integrated into labor collection.
- The Warehouse Mobility module allows for real-time inventory updates to the ERP system through the use of barcodes over a wireless network.
Factory Track is written in Infor Mongoose, an application development tool. For industrial scanning devices, touch-based shop floor devices, and PC-based users, the application communicates through a Web browser using Web pages with standard HTML 5 capabilities. PC-based users can also choose other
Mongoose clients. Each application area can be configured to work in stand-alone mode, or they can be integrated when functionality of more than a single module is required.
In Factory Track, labor reporting from the shop floor can be accomplished in a number of ways, including using touch-screen devices that can run browser pages. The work center user interface provides users with the capability to start or stop labor, start or stop machine times, issue materials, report production, and perform a number of other functions with a touch of a screen. Labor functions can be fully integrated into the time and attendance functionality, or they can be used in stand-alone mode. The system allows an operator to work on several jobs simultaneously using the workset feature or, for a team of operators to work on a single job or multiple jobs, using the teams feature. Machine time recording allows for the recording of machine usage either integrated with labor recording using the automatic method or as a stand-alone function using the manual method.
The module retrieves data from the ERP as needed and updates the ERP in real-time to accurately chronicle the usage of material or to record job progress. The operator is able to retrieve drawings or notes for a specific item, operation, or job. They can also request replenishment of material via Kanban. For work centers producing Kanbans, production can be recorded while filling Kanban requests. For repetitive environments, production schedule reporting capabilities are also available.
Using an attached barcode scanner, operators can scan items, lots, serial numbers, and other production data as needed for transaction purposes. The system can be configured to send output to a barcode printing program for most transactions. Lost or ruined labels can easily be reprinted with the reprint transaction.
Most shops use barcodes to identify inventory. The efficiency, accuracy, and ease of use afforded by barcodes have made the technology nearly universal in many industries. Due to advances in communication technologies, Wi-Fi capabilities for mobile devices are now common. Industrial handheld barcode scanners often serve as an integral part of a modern integrated shop floor environment.
ERP screens are often complex and support multiple extended features that are often poorly-suited to the average implementation. By re-designing these screens to better fit the intended task and concentrating on the user profile of the employee using them, Factory Track provides a simple step-by-step method for performing tasks. These screens include only the data needed, much of which is Factory Track read by scanning barcodes, allowing higher accuracy and efficiency to be achieved, resulting in higher productivity.
Using these devices, the shop can link employees to the system in real time, allowing them to act on current information and priorities without the need for paper printouts. This gives the system an up-to-date status for many material activities, such as picking or shipping customer orders, goods received at the dock, and floor replenishment.
Factory Track bridges the disconnection between an ERP system and the shop floor and warehouse. Using modern input methods, including handheld scanners and touchscreens, and an intuitive interface, Factory Track meets users where they are by bringing the robust capabilities of an ERP system directly to the shop floor and warehouse where they are needed. By integrating time and attendance with labor reporting, work center support, and inventory management into a cohesive system that communicates with the ERP system in real-time, Factory Track eliminates the lag that comes from filling out paper forms, reading printouts, and entering data into a database, thereby ensuring that databases are always updated and users always have the information they need at their fingertips.
The time and attendance with labor reporting functionality enables your site to have employees clock in, time their daily activities, record lunches and breaks, and clock out in an integrated fashion. The data is captured by its reporting date and is available for supervisor review and approval. This functionality includes the most commonly requested features, such as vacation and holiday handling, excused and unexcused absence processing, and overtime determination rules. The data can be wholly or partially integrated back to the ERP system to record actual hours per operation. In addition to collecting hours, the system can also record pieces completed and scrapped. An extract of the data can then be transmitted to a payroll system.
The system can operate as an exception system. The system can be configured to correct minor discrepancies, within the parameters of the system, and to alert supervisors to unexpected occurrences. Supervisors are visually cued to correct, accept, or report problems when established tolerances are exceeded. By configuring unique employee types, different rules can be applied for different circumstances, or different modes applied to different employee groups. Rather than using a clock-in and -out scheme, some employees may be configured to report their time using a simple time sheet mode, either to general tasks or to ERP-defined activities; for example, engineers working on specific tasks or projects.