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IFS Applications offers market-specific solutions that help you manage the entire process successfully—from the design/build phase and product delivery to full lifecycle support. After all, that’s where a wealth of opportunity lies, whether you’re a direct or indirect supplier to the armed forces. Throughout it all, IFS provides you with information management and decision-support tools that help your operations run lean—eliminating non-value-added processes to contain costs and bring up profitability. Plus, you get lots of flexibility. Given IFS Applications component-based software architecture, you can easily integrate any solution with other applications you may already be using, such as CAD/CAM systems or third-party financials software. With IFS Applications, coexistence is built-in to protect all your software investment. Project Management
As a prime or sub-prime contractor, you essentially face the same issues. Granted, development and manufacturing cycles may differ in magnitude and duration, but your basic goals and constraints are the same—building and delivering quality products that satisfy your military customers and doing so efficiently to stay within the timeframe allotted and cost margin projected. IFS Applications can help you manage all the pieces that make up the project puzzle. That begins in Engineering. IFS lets you create and manage complex (serialized) product structures and share this information online with government representatives for faster approval cycles. All associated technical documentation can be stored and revision-controlled by the system as well. For government reporting, the IFS system lets you efficiently track government-owned inventory as well as all labor and material costs. As for overall time and cost management, IFS provides scorecards to measure performance and progress. You can also use OLAP cubes for more in-depth analysis.
Manufacturing and Product Delivery
IFS Applications offers a complete product data management (PDM) solution that easily integrates with many COTS CAD solutions. That means less data entry and more accuracy. Once design and engineering are complete, the IFS system lets you easily convert the as-designed structure into manufacturing bills of material (BOM’s) and start the manufacturing process. Aside from project-integrated, standard shop-order functionality—with work centers, routings, cost roll-up, etc—IFS Applications provides valuable tools for lean operations. On the supply-chain side, the system gives you full visibility into future demand, allowing you to significantly shorten lead times and reduce on-hand inventory. Plus, you can optimize the way you load your critical work centers. Speaking of workforce management, you can also keep taps of your employees’ skill sets, certifications, and training to ensure the highest standards of workmanship on the floor. To help you measure the quality of work, IFS provides quality management tools. Experience has shown that Lean initiatives do make a big difference in defense manufacturing, bringing projects in on time and on budget. IFS Applications can get you there. In fact, the solution gives you a graphical modeling tool—IFS Business Modeler—that lets you reengineer your business processes for greater efficiency wherever you may see a need.
Aftermarket support
With product handover, the manufacturing project is complete but business opportunity does not stop here. Why just make a name for yourself as an expert shipbuilder or innovative avionics manufacturer if you can capitalize from your knowledge through ongoing lifecycle support? Fact is, nobody knows the product better than you. Fact is, too, that the armed forces are increasingly looking for ways to outsource in-service support to industry partners. IFS can help you gain a foothold in the lucrative asset lifecycle-management market by offering various solutions—for fleet management; maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO); and supply chain management. The product you built is now called an asset. But everything else is really the same. The configuration data is already in the system, vendor relations are established, and your workforce is fully trained. Plus, you get valuable usage data for possible design improvements.
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