MDF Wood-Board Manufacturing Enterprise Management

SIS ERP - A comprehensive management solution for the MDF wood-board manufacturing field, including managing the entire process, from purchasing materials to production and product consumption. The software system is built on a closed-loop process, from receiving customer requests or planning production and business to monitoring production progress and delivery. ...

Product information

Implementing this solution at MDF wood-board manufacturing enterprises will depend on the ability to consult, survey, and customize the software to fit each company.

The SIS ERP software system has the ability to manage the industry's specifics and fully meets the data-entry features for direct operational users. It's designed with operational modules for each unit and department, supporting connections between departments, linking, carrying forward, and controlling data as it arises, improving work effectiveness and raising the enterprise's management capability.

The SIS ERP solution is designed to be open, with the ability to customize and expand modules, features, and management operations on the software system in the future as the enterprise grows and needs to change.

1. Specifics of MDF wood-board manufacturing enterprises

An MDF wood-board manufacturing enterprise involves many units and departments in the business process, purchasing raw materials, controlling products, and internal management. The MDF board production process has two methods, dry and wet, where the dry method has a specific process

The dry MDF board production process

Includes the steps:

Grinding raw wood
Mixing with glue and additives
Pressing under high pressure
Sanding and polishing
Finishing and packaging the product

Additives such as Formalin and glue are used during MDF board production, and compiling statistics and calculating production cost price requires detail for each type and each stage.
MDF board production is carried out mainly per a "sales order"/"sales contract," so every production stage and finished-goods receipt tracking must be tracked and tallied tied to the "sales order"/"sales contract."
The output product must meet strict standards to be exportable, so QC work needs to be done well starting from purchasing input, assessing defective products, deductions, and conforming products to get wood/wood chips that meet the required quality.

2. Some specific operational processes

Scope and operating process of the software system

2.1. Purchasing Management Process

To effectively manage purchasing activity in the Enterprise, the following steps need to be carried out:

Balancing, reviewing, and purchasing materials, tools/instruments, and raw materials for daily production-business activity.
Using SIS ERP software to support flexibility in reviewing material-supply and purchasing requests.
Setting multiple approval levels with "Approve" or "Reject" feedback along with a specific reason to keep purchasing management tight and clear.
Must be able to handle operations and track records per the company's requirements.
Purchasing forms must be managed by scope such as bidding records, small purchases, competitive quotes, direct purchases, sole-source contracting, or transport bidding.
Organizing and managing the purchase history and purchase price of an item for each different supplier.
Updating, analyzing, and assessing many set criteria for each specific purchase request to choose a suitable supplier.

2.2. Weighbridge Management Process

In weighbridge management, specific to managing purchasing input materials (wood, wood chips), the work is closely monitored to avoid loss in purchased volume.
Electronic-scale and camera connectivity technology is used to link the weighing data and photos of the cargo truck, including the license plate, automatically recognized and stored directly in the SIS ERP software database.
A truck is weighed in and weighed out when entering and leaving the material storage yard. If the license plate doesn't match on entry and exit, the software will alert. Once saved in the software, a weighing slip cannot be edited.
Weighing data is shared with the Accounting department to update payment on the weighing slip. This data is used to carry forward into the purchase-receipt voucher and post accounting entries, recording payables.
Weighing data is also shared with the material/raw-material warehouse so staff can update warehouse-receipt documents based on the weighbridge's weighing slip in the SIS software.

2.3. Sales Management Process

In the sales field, sales-management work is carried out from receiving the customer's request to when the company's sales department completes delivery and updates the goods-issue order for domestic orders or the transfer order for export orders. This process involves many units/departments, such as the production-scheduling department, which must pay attention to delivery deadlines to adjust the production plan accordingly, and the material and raw-material warehouse, which must ensure material balance to meet production needs. The sales department must also track order/contract execution progress and each order/contract's delivery progress to ensure the customer will be served per the previously signed terms.

In addition, if sold goods are returned, the sales department is responsible for handling and tracking information in the SIS ERP software. Sales must update the returned-goods handling record and attach handling documents, such as a consignment-receipt notice or a sales record to another customer, while sharing data with related departments such as warehouse and accounting to carry out related operations. This information is also used to generate statistical reports and analyze returned goods, serving the company leadership's management work.

2.4. Production Statistics Management Process

During production statistics compilation, a notable characteristic is that "production volume" is updated daily and in detail for each production plant. This data is used to generate reports and statistics on production status and to compare material consumption between norm and actual. The software is based on "norms by cost element" declared by the Accounting department to aggregate the material needed per the norm, as well as based on actual material statistics to compare against the norm. If actual material use greatly exceeds the norm, the system will alert. In addition, aggregating and tracking detailed total finished-product quantity, conforming quantity, defective quantity, and blistered quantity, as well as analyzing the pass/fail percentage, gives Company Leadership an overview of each plant's daily/weekly/monthly production situation.

2.5. Material and raw-material warehouse management process

In managing the material and raw-material warehouse, there are some notable characteristics as follows:

For purchased wood raw material used in production, the material warehouse will use data from the Weighing Slip to determine the material's weight. At the same time, the material warehouse also carries out material-quality control to ensure the material-purchase cost is best controlled.
For receiving materials, equipment, and spare parts into the warehouse, the material warehouse will use data from the Acceptance Slip to determine the quantity of goods received.
Managing the material and raw-material warehouse by location to optimize tracking receipts – issues – inventory during warehouse operation.
Tracking receipts – issues – inventory is done through a warehouse diagram in the SIS ERP software, designed with an intuitive, easy-to-use graphic.
When a user selects a location on the warehouse diagram, an intuitive diagram of the warehouse at that location will display. In addition, the receipt – issue – balance report for materials in the warehouse will also display at the corresponding location when the user clicks on it.
Carrying out inventory counts with a PDA device to scan material barcodes, reducing counting time, increasing accuracy, and achieving high effectiveness in warehouse inventory counting.

2.6. Finished-goods warehouse management process

In managing the finished-goods warehouse, there are specific characteristics as follows:

Generating a production barcode and managing products by production barcode.
After production finishes, the finished-goods warehouse will declare "package" information assigned a barcode before affixing the label and receiving it into the finished-goods warehouse. Package information includes production date, package number, production order, barcode, finished-product name, description information, the package's dimensions, and detailed information on the product's quality.
The finished-goods warehouse tracks the goods-issue order (for domestic sales) or the transfer order (for export sales) to carry out issuing the product.
When issuing a product, the finished-goods warehouse updates the issue document for each document to accurately determine the issue per the corresponding goods-issue order/transfer order.
The finished-goods warehouse tracks execution progress per the goods-issue orders/transfer orders to ensure order/sales-contract execution progress is tracked.

SIS ERP software provides two software-deployment models for MDF board manufacturing enterprises. The first model is a centralized-online-data model for enterprises with plants and offices in many locations, while the second model is distributed data - periodic synchronization.

Most MDF board manufacturing enterprises have synchronized internet-connectivity infrastructure at plants and offices. So, to ensure data updates synchronously and is controlled instantly, SIS ERP uses the centralized-online-data model. Each user will be managed and assigned detailed permissions per their user role in the relevant departments.

The weighbridge management model used at each weighbridge will include a running program and independent weighing data for each weighbridge. Weighing data will be stored on the server at each weighbridge and forwarded to the Server at the Company Office periodically via internet connection.

S.I.S Vietnam provides a software solution that lets remote locations connect via an internet connection system with a basic connectivity requirement (common ADSL network). Data stored centrally on the Server will be backed up periodically or continuously through the software's automatic backup mechanism. Enterprises are advised to also equip a backup server to ensure data stability and safety.

The SIS ERP software solution is designed for use by every unit/department in the enterprise, enabling linking and carrying forward data between units/departments, supporting fast, accurate management and operations. Each department/user position will have its own interface and data designed to fit each user's role and duties.

1. Purchasing department

SIS ERP software helps control and optimize purchasing activity to meet the fluctuating requirements of production activity. It also helps control loss in purchased volume and cost when purchasing input wood/wood-chip material. Thanks to a price-lookup and transaction-history tool by material/goods, by supplier, the department's purchase decisions become faster and more effective. The software also reduces the workload of setting up and storing Purchase Records.

2. Weighbridge

SIS ERP software connects weighing data and camera data directly to tightly control purchasing via the scale. It also shares purchased-volume data so the material warehouse reduces data-entry workload while increasing data accuracy.

3. Sales department

SIS ERP software provides a tool to update and manage operations arising in the sales process with customers and other operational departments in the Enterprise. It carries forward and views finished-goods inventory data to optimally support the sales-execution process. It also carries forward information on the packing and shipping process and tracks the customer's delivery and payment execution process.

4. Statistics – Production department

SIS ERP software helps compile daily production statistics and provides Company Leadership with the most overview and timely information on the production situation at each Plant.

5. Warehouse department

SIS ERP software helps the Warehouse department stay proactive in receipt/issue work thanks to data linking and carrying forward directly in the software. It effectively supports management and assessing the warehouse department's operating effectiveness and reduces operation time to improve warehouse-management effectiveness.

6. Accounting department

SIS ERP software reduces re-entering data arising at other departments due to data carry-forward, and raises accounting's control role. It maximally supports operations requiring high accuracy such as calculating cost of goods, calculating product cost price, and analyzing and aggregating the systemwide production-business results.