Mindfire has deep experience developing Progress databases and Progress-driven applications. We describe some of these Progress database project experiences below, and will be glad to share our expertise in detail with you.
Catch Weight
Distribution Company
Industry:
Distributions and Supply Chain Management
Technologies:
Progress 10.0B, Progress Database
Client's Distribution system is a complete solution for all distribution needs from Inventory Purchases to Sales to Accounting. It has been designed to fulfill almost every industry, but it does have few things which are not supported for food industry where the frequency of one complete cycle is not a month or quarter or year instead it's a WEEK or even less and where the items are stored in a Lots Quantity/ Container but they are being sold by pieces or weight.
Means whatever comes in the inventory comes as a big lot quantity but at the time of selling it is not being sold as a whole lot.
For example : Take an example where a Fish supplier receives a 10 Lots of prawns weighing 100 pounds each, that is total of 1000 pounds, into his inventory.
But when customer requires to purchase prawns from this supplier, he asks for 25.5 pounds of prawns then sales representative go in to the inventory take out Lot 1 (100 pounds) and start picking up prawns from that lot and starts weighing it according to the requirement and after that he comes to conclusion that he can sell either 25 pounds or 30 pounds to customer but cannot sell 25.5 pounds.
So that's where we need to modify and add a complete module in the system which hooks up the logic with standard logic of taking inventory by lot and also saving the weight of each individual piece in that lot in the system.
By doing that we are always in a sync of what has come into inventory and what is going out of it. That is called Catch Weight of the lot product(s).
We have designed the Catch Weight system by modifying / adding up more tables to the database and changing the standard business logic by adding hooks to it and changing the standard code with due permission, wherever necessary.
This is applicable to any distribution industry in which the Inventory Purchases are being made in terms of Lots / Quantity and Sales are made according to the Weight of the item, for example Food Industry.
All this has been achieved with the extensive usage of HOOK's created in Progress 10.0B.
Dashboard
Distribution Company
Industry:
Distribution and Supply Chain Industry
Technologies:
Progress 10.0B, Progress Database
In our client's standard distribution system we have the facility to view the sales, cash, purchase, accounting and inventory value. But those are very restricted to one company and separate accounts individually. Customer wants to have to have an inquiry where they can easily access these dashboard details for any company (with proper user security) but for all the cash accounts based on Daily, Weekly, Quarterly, Month-to-Date and Year-to-Date statuses.
To have the above modification on Standard Logic we need to create whole new set of inquiry screens for Dash Board which in turn shows up the data for all the cash accounts, sales, purchases and inventory values along with the accounting screens based on the different criteria such as Company, Year, Divisions, Accounts and Warehouses.
The Dashboard provides managers with quick access to key information of the status of the company. The data for all the cash accounts, sales, purchases and inventory values along with the accounting screens are readily accessible without running multiple reports or going to several inquiry screens.
The data in the inquiry is provided real-time, based on the current data in the system, and it provides the summary information at a glance.
KEY FEATURES:
1. The Dashboard is accessible from within standard application – there is no delay time in downloading data from the SXe database to an outside product. You are looking at totals based on up-to-the-minute data.
2. The information is provided clearly with one screen for each module. It takes just a few seconds to see the key information for each area.
3. The information is provided first in overview format, and the user can drill down into more detail.
4. Navigation follows the standard model – and is intuitive.
5. Data can be exported to Excel to allow for flexible presentation.
6. The dashboard details can be displayed for any company (with proper user security,) for all the cash accounts. The inquiry can be done based on Daily, Weekly, Quarterly, Month-to-Date, Year-to-Date, One Year Ago Today, This Week Last Year, MTD Last Year, QTD Last Year, YTD Last Year statuses.
The Dashboard has multiple Views to provide inquiry for the status of different areas of your business. The Dashboard provides for the following Views:
1. Cash
2. Sales
3. SO Comparison
4. Purchases
5. Accounting
6. Inventory Value
Fiscal/Calendar Year
The Dashboard will display the data based on calendar year or fiscal year depending on your setting in Administrative Options of the Standard Application.
Banner Options
There are also controls on the banner, to allow you to limit the data that is included on each View. The data can be limited by Company, Year, Display, Division, Cash Accounts, and Warehouse.
Drill Down Data
In general, when using the Dashboard you can right-click on any numeric field. A menu will display which will allow you to "drill down" to the detail level. The browser shows the supporting data that was used to obtain the total number in the field
Excel Export
Whenever you drill down to the detail level, a browser displays with the supporting data that makes up the total amount displayed. As with all browsers in the Dashboard module, you can right click and get the following menu using which columns can be adjusted, moved, resized, and the data can be sorted.
You can also export the data to Excel for ease of presentation and manipulation. Select the desired transactions. You can use the mouse use the Select All option in the right-click menu. Then select Load Excel from the right-click menu. Excel will automatically display with the data imported.
Below are the 6 different main sections of dashboard:
1. Cash View:
The Cash view will display all activity for Cash Accounts. An account is defined as Cash based on its report group. This view will display Cash Accounts' balances, receipts, disbursements and Other charges along with the calculated Current Cash Balance.
2. Sales Comparison View
The Sales Order Comparison View compares the sales for the last 12 periods from the current year to the previous year. thly sales backward for 24 months, along with the Profit %.
3. Sales View
The Sales View shows both the Booked Sales and Invoiced Sales made for the Display Period Selected. It also shows the totals for Cash Receipts and Backlog Value.
4. Purchase Screen
The Purchase View shows both the entered and invoiced purchase orders.
5. Accounting Screen
The Accounting View shows overviews of Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable status.
6. Inventory Screen
The Inventory Value View will show the total inventory value of each warehouse selected. It will total the quantity on hand, multiplied by the cost, for each product, based on the selections. The cost used will be based on the Administrative Options settings.
In general every view listed above has all the related / minute detail which helps managers to see the up-to-date data alongwith the drill down details of each piece of displayed information on the screens.
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