The days when the postproduction shop floor information provided by legacy Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems being convenient for users are long gone. In today’s changing technological landscape, the data offered by antiquated ERP systems does not provide much opportunity to control the output and are no longer well suited for Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES). Therefore, CIOs are in need of best-of-the-breed solutions which are easy to implement, upgrade and which would support their motive to scale higher in today’s business scenario. Poised to help stakeholders of such firms, Plex Systems, a firm headquartered in Troy, MI, with its scalable, cloud-enabled system, bestows modern day manufacturers with maximum efficiency, productivity, and visibility, while supporting continuous innovation. “The ERP software from Plex takes a different approach as new features are added daily to single line of code, giving renewed value daily to our customers,” says Jason Blessing, CEO, Plex.

Plex MEX, the firm’s flagship product, is a cost-efficient solution, which empowers users to control the shop floor execution with end-to-end inventory traceability, closed loop quality, and real time production ecosystem. “Plex’s MES starts working where most ERP systems stop and delivers a unique synergy of real-time production management for up-to-the minute manufacturing data that enables end-to-end visibility of inventory,” remarks Blessing. With the help of the bi-directional connectivity and control of the solution, enterprises can wirelessly communicate with plant-floor machines and at the same time respond more quickly to the changes with a common, intuitive control panel that captures real-time production and waste data—at the manufacturing moment. Customers can also utilize work instructions and checklists directly at the workcenter for increased productivity and quality.

ERP software from Plex takes a different approach as new features are added daily to single line of code, giving renewed value daily to our customer

Alongside, Plex builds its products with an ultra-modern user interface that takes maximum advantage from cloud computing and at the same time has easy-to-use and easy-to-learn characteristics that set them apart from the rest of their counterparts in the manufacturing arena.

For example, Shape Corp. a full service, tier-one supplier that designs, manufactures, engineers and tests metal and plastic products, required a new ERP for their middle management to function more efficiently and approached Plex for assistance. “We built Plex walking between the shop floor and the boardrooms, after understanding, what is needed to track, measure, automate and then updated the software accordingly. This model of continuous innovation still serves as the foundation of Plex solutions today,” elucidates Blessing. The client utilized Plex Manufacturing Cloud capabilities across all its operations and also deployed a timescale which helped them to get new sites up and run with standard processes in just two weeks. As cross-operational data was so readily available, Shape used Plex as its sales forecasting tool that facilitated the firm to model and plan its capacity requirements for the future. The customer was also able to accomplish real, measurable performance that further rendered profits.

Cloud has become already become a new standard for enterprise software and in the days to come, Plex will continue to evolve and bring new and innovative solutions and support global manufacturers. “The cloud is becoming the core platform to rapidly integrate new technologies and achieve competitive advantage, to drive plant connectivity and process efficiency. We designed the Plex manufacturing cloud to help companies push the limits of what is possible and carry forward this vision into the future,” concludes Blessing.