Tracelink in 3 minutes

Since then, the system has grown and grown and today helps companies in a wide range of industries with all facets of planning and managing production. The small sprout has not only become a forest of possibilities, but probably a whole rainforest of benefits, which it can be difficult to keep track of.

Overall, we tend to say that Tracelink helps to streamline production from the time the order comes in until the invoice is sent. But we actually span a little wider, as we also include CRM functions for the sales process leading up to the order and also have tools for post-calculation when the order has been invoiced.

Overall, we divide our functions into Production planning, Production management and Documentation, which in turn can be divided into different functional areas in the company, where we basically distinguish between:

• Sales
• Stock and purchasing
• Production and logistics
• HR - Personnel
• Economy

as illustrated in the chart below.

Of course, the functional areas may be grouped slightly differently in your particular company, depending on how you have organized yourself, but for the sake of simplicity, we use the division in this text, where we review Tracelink's use in each functional area in the company.

CRM

Basically, every business starts with a sale. But sales rarely come out of the blue, so Tracelink offers a CRM module where you can manage the sales processes; file documentation and agreements, update sales budgets and maintain a calendar of follow-up activities across all cases.

Discounts

In some cases, there may be a need to use very complex discount models in the offer and in that case, we have a discount module that can handle that challenge. Once the sale is in place, the sales department is probably over all mountains - except that they want to know that it will be delivered on time. For that purpose, we run with order status, so it is easy to follow how far the order has reached.

When the sale is in place, it is important to be able to deliver the goods. This often requires raw materials to be ready in the warehouse. Therefore, the warehouse managers need to continuously monitor the stock and the expected stock development.

These tasks are solved with Tracelink's warehouse management module.

FIFO/LIFO

Based on the stock overview, it must of course be easy to make further purchases - from one of several possible suppliers. For that challenge, Tracelink offers a procurement module with supplier management, where, among other things, prices and delivery times can be maintained, just a module for stock management - with and without batch, with minimum stock and FIFO/LIFO principle, as well as stock forecast over 12 weeks based on a calculation based on current stock, expected receipt of dispatched purchase orders and delivery dates on registered sales. That way, the warehouse is always up-to-date and ready to handle any sales.

Receipt of goods

The purchase orders make it easy to handle goods receipt and record location in the warehouse, so that it is easy for the employees in the production department to find the goods themselves afterwards.

Traceability

For the sake of further processing, the goods can also be registered with cost price, batch information (e.g. certificates, durability, etc.), which can be used in relation to traceability and compliance with special requirements from customers or authorities. If the received goods are equipped with barcodes, these can be scanned and the corresponding information saved on the goods.

Once the sale is in place and the inventory is maintained, production can begin.

In the first instance, a production order must be created in Tracelink. Often the order comes from another system via integration - e.g. the economic system e-conomic.

BOMs and routes

When the order is set up in Tracelink, it can be done in many different ways depending on the nature of the production. Perhaps the production is about known goods, to which BOMs and routes through the production are attached. In that case, Tracelink offers the possibility to create "order templates", which can precisely unfold a production order with an associated bill of materials with an indication of the stock movement and a route description with an indication of the expected time consumption for employees and machines. This makes it possible to confirm that the required items are available and that there is free capacity in a resource calendar that enables a given delivery date.

The goods that are picked for the order can be registered - possibly via QR codes - with batch information, serial numbers and certificates, which can be decisive for traceability (e.g. in relation to EU norm 1090).

Quality Control

When the goods are consumed, it is possible to register control points, e.g. for a welding log or other quality control - and throughout production it is easy to photo document.

Time registration

It is easy to record time on the resources used for processing. The time can be linked to specific tasks that represent the route or to types of activity on the order. As the various tasks attached to the order are completed, the order goes through automatic changes between different statuses towards completion of the order, so it is easy for everyone to see how far you have come.

Shipping

Once the order is complete, there is typically some shipping that needs to be handled. In Tracelink, we can help with the management of partial deliveries and associated packages/delivery notes.

Resource Calendar

In smaller organizations, HR and production management are often merged. Regardless, you will need to compare the order intake with the employees you have available. To that end, our resource calendar can create an overview of which resources you need - and when you need them, so you can avoid bottlenecks.

Rights

You decide for yourself whether all employees should have the same access to Tracelink. Via our rights module, you control what different employee groups are allowed to see - there may also be a need to distinguish between what they are allowed on a PC and what they are allowed on a phone. In this connection, various handbooks (safety, environment, quality, etc.) can be made available to employees via Tracelink. There may also be a need to manage hour registrations based on a number of different wage agreements/agreements; these agreements are set up and managed easily in Tracelink with wage types and rules for overtime.

The finance department follows everything from the sidelines, but has access to valuable information via Tracelink. It can be follow-up on sales budgets in the CRM module, follow-up on the hourly budget for larger orders and, of course, it is input for invoicing and post-calculation. In addition, stock status is also of great importance. If received goods are entered with cost prices, Tracelink continuously calculates the value of the stock and automatically saves the stock value at the start of each month. It is also possible to transfer the cost price of purchases as an automatic adjustment of the stock value in the accounts if you use e-conomic.

Dashboard

No matter what challenges you solve with Tracelink, you have the option of setting up dashboards that give you a quick overview of production. Hang a screen with a dahsboard (control panel) in the lunch room, in the goods reception, in the assembly hall or wherever it is relevant and give everyone an opportunity to follow how things are going.

Custom reports

In addition to all of the above, we have the option of making smaller, customized solutions for our customers. The most popular solutions are templates for preparing special reports. These may be reports for documentation of consumption of special goods in relation to tax, goods for export, shrinkage in connection with special products and much more.

March 2020