The power of configuration makes a HAL Systems solution work for your business in the way you need it to work – not the way some programmers thinks it should work. We combine best practice solutions with the ability to cost effectively configure your system to accommodate the realities of your workplace, customers and suppliers.
Business Rules: Business rules are defined outcomes in response to pre-defined criteria. They can enforce what must occur, or what may not occur.
Examples:
- Frozen ingredients can only be moved to specific locations that are freezers.
- A specific customer only wants deliveries that include all items on their sales order.
- Only warehouse personnel who are forklift-qualified may be assigned a task to move a full pallet of material.
- Product shipments to overseas locations must have 6 weeks of shelf life prior to expiration date.
- Only materials with an MSDS sheet on file can be received.
Workflows: Workflows are sequences of steps needed to complete a task. Workflow steps can be turned on/off and rearranged as required to meet user needs.
Examples:
- A workflow step in a receiving process requires the user to enter the purchase order number being received against. This step is useful if the PO is not in the system, but is not needed if the PO has been transferred from the ERP system.
- A workflow step can require a picture of damaged goods to be taken and uploaded prior to placing the goods on quality hold to prevent further use or shipment.
- A workflow step may require the approval of the hospital pharmacist before the technician can deliver the prescription to the patient.
- Attempts to transgress a required workflow are recorded by the systems as with all other transactions – supervisors can be alerted to employees who require additional training after multiple occurrences
Authorizations: Authorizations define what transactions each individual who has a system log-on can perform.
Examples:
- Only system administrators can establish user-logins and assign authorization profiles
- Mobile service technicians, with responsibility for inventory, are the only ones who can transact materials on/off their assigned vehicles.
- Quality control technicians are the only ones who can approve raw materials for use in production.
Glossary/Help: The terms used on the screens can be edited in a glossary. This can include English terms more familiar to the organization, or foreign languages. Likewise, the screen specific help text can be edited to provide more context specific feedback, and can be provided in other languages as well. Individual users may select which glossary to work with when they log-in, and multiple users can be using different glossaries simultaneously.
Examples:
- The unique barcode assigned to inventory defaults to ‘master unit’ – in some organizations this is referred to as a ‘license plate’ or ‘SKU’.
- The source plant in China can manage finished goods and transact in to sea containers in local language, while the US distribution center receives in English and management can maintain insight in to both locations in either language.
- A French-Canadian producer with distribution throughout North America has a bilingual staff, but must meet the local language use regulations in Quebec. Using the French language glossary easily complies.
- A production worker has not moved all required bill-of-material elements to the production location and attempts to record finished goods and receives a help message. The help message will state that he must move all the required raw material elements as the reason for not being able to proceed with the workflow.
Reporting: All transactions in the system are recorded by user and date/time-stamp. The user-driven report filters can provide invaluable insight in to operations.
Examples:
- Worker productivity and attendance can be monitored by login records and transactions performed.
- Summaries of ingredients approaching expiration dates can be easily obtained.
- Real-time inventory availability can be used to prepare replenishment orders.
- Pareto analysis of warehouse picks can drive more efficient slotting strategies.