Priority provides a powerful platform for project-oriented industries such as Aerospace and Defense. The Project Module, which is fully interoperable with MS-Project, manages the entire project life-cycle: from the loading into Priority of RFI and RFP requirements to the linkage of requirements to project activities from within Priority; and from the definition of project milestones to the generation of cost estimates and timetables. Every aspect of the project is interconnected with the entire Priority system, including purchase planning and requisitions, engineering and production control, delivery schedules and shipments, contracts and billing. Coupled with strong security capabilities, Priority is an ideal solution for medium-sized Aerospace and Defense contractors whose needs extend to complex BOMs and global supply-chain interactions, tight engineering and rigorous QA cycles.
- Industry Targeted Functionality
- Priority Aerospace & Defense Industry Customers
- Issues & Solutions for the Aerospace & Defense Industry
Industry Targeted Functionality
- Requirement management with load capabilities from original RFP documents to Scope of Work (SOW) documents
- Automatic generation of price proposals into Word templates
- R&D project management with stage gates and issue management
- Strong project management coupled with powerful budget and P&L capabilities
- Resource allocation including calendar scheduling synchronized with MS-Outlook
- Tight integration with MS-Project including version control
- Project-oriented production and inventory management with prototype deliveries
- Serial-number tracking with advanced inventory-management functions
- Testing and approval capabilities attached to any transaction in the system (WIP Inventory and others)
- MRB (Material Review Board)
- ECO management
Priority Aerospace & Defense Industry Customers
Following are some of the customers using Priority in the Aerospace & Defense industry:
- B.V.R. Systems Ltd.
- Cyprus Airways Cater. Dept.
- Hashmira-tech
- Hatehof Ltd.
- Orad Group
- Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd.
- Transtech Control
Managing Inventory Using Manufacturer Part Numbers
Priority allows you to manage a sales opportunity as a "sales
project." A sales opportunity consolidates the various tasks that need
to be completed by the different units in your organization.
The sales BPM utility directs the progress of the opportunity through
its various stages, and ensures that relevant personnel are notified of
the opportunity status, as well as any delays that may occur, in an
organized and methodical fashion.
The likelihood of closing the deal is updated according to the odds of
closing defined for each stage of the process, and company managers
receive up-to-date information on the pipeline,
in terms of the
financial scope of the deal versus the odds of closing, per sales rep,
customer, and/or product.
Sale of configurable items
In the sale of items that are configured from multiple components, e.g., computers or machinery, Priority enables you to stipulate which components are included in the final product when preparing a price quote or sales order. You can base the quote/order on the basic product, and disassemble it and add or replace parts as required. Priority calculates the sum total of the parts and generates a price and cost for the parent. You can open a warehouse assembly document directly from the order, which will be transferred to the technical team for follow-up, up until delivery to the customer.
Integrating Technical Design and Data Management Programs with Priority
When engineering data is maintained in CAD and PDM systems, data exchange with the systems used by your organization for operative processes is crucial.
Various projects in Priority interface with CAD and PDM systems, such as Smart Solutions, OrCAD, and Agile.
Use of these interfaces enables a continuous flow of engineering data, such as part numbers, part parameters, manufacturers, BOMs (including electronic component designations), and part revisions, to Priority.
In Priority contains a program that enables you to preserve the original price quote number, and to save multiple versions under that number, including the option to view previous versions.
Serial Number Tree GraphsSerial Number Tree Graphs: Necessary for tracking serial numbers in the configuration of medical appliances, machinery, or other equipment.
During production, or part replacement through a service call, Priority enables you to designate a serial number as a child of the parent part's serial number. For example, you can attribute the serial number of an engine to the serial number of a parent part, such as a car or machine. There are reports that display the resultant tree graph of serial numbers.
Interfacing With MS ProjectYou can create project plans in MS-Project, import them into Priority, and update the Priority project with imported data. MS-Project files are imported from within the project. The program imports the hierarchical activity structure (WBS), including start and end dates, human resources assigned to each activity, and additional details. In Priority's Projects module, you can link activities to planned resources, such as work hours and materials taken directly from the Purchasing and Financials modules. This integration enables the production of Planning and Execution reports at all levels of the project, as well as the Revenue and Profit per Project report.
Automatic Preparation of Project Invoices
Priority enables automatic creation of invoices for projects. Project customers will be billed for:
- Project payments whose due date has arrived and that have been released for collection
- Reported hours flagged as billable (work hours and reported expenses)
- Customer shipments for projects flagged as billable
- Service calls for projects flagged as billable
- Payments due for service contracts for the project
You can record payments that a customer owes for a project in a special form. Payments can be linked to WBS activities flagged as milestones. When reporting 100% completion of an activity linked to a payment, the payment is released for collection. When invoices for the project are automatically prepared, the program will prepare invoices for the released payments.
Engineering Change Orders (ECOs)
Priority enables you to track engineering change orders (ECOs) issued during part production. For each ECO, you can record a date, description, parts modified, etc. You can also attach an ECO to a part revision and/or BOM. The system will track the revisions, and related work orders, that are affected by an ECO.
RoHS Compliance for Electronics Manufacturers
Following adoption of the Directive on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS) by the European Union, a need arose to maintain separate inventories of components that are RoHS compliant and those that are not, even though it is actually the same part. One solution is to define two part numbers - one for the component that is RoHS compliant and one for the component that is not. Instead of doubling the size of the part catalogue, Priority distinguishes between the two component types by their inventory status, making it simple to identify balances of RoHS compliant parts, as well as those that do not meet that standard.
Outgoing Shipping Costs
The Outgoing Shipping Vouchers module provides two main
functionalities:
- Tracking the outgoing shipment process (from a logistics perspective)
- Allocating outgoing shipment expenses (e.g., shipping, insurance) to the relevant customer invoices, in order to obtain the part's true profitability in sales reports
Tracking the Export Process (From a Logistics Perspective):
The general idea is to enable management of all information that is relevant to the outgoing shipping process within a single module, for maximum data control and accessibility.
This module allows you to track and record:
- Shipping data (sender details, dates, etc.)
- Formal shipping documents
- Sales and purchasing invoices related to the specific outgoing shipment
Data Privileges: How to prevent two users with identical form, report and column privileges from accessing data that they are not authorized to view, such as sales data for another branch or salesperson, or confidential accounts.
The solution to this issue is a data privileges utility that enables you to hide confidential data from users, even if they are authorized to work in the relevant form. Priority supports data authorization by branch/sales representative, as well as the definition of secured accounts, customers, and vendors.
Reporting Hours to a ProjectPriority enables you to link reported work hours to specific sales orders, projects, and customers. Hours can be reported from the user's office PC or via the internet. In each project to which hours are reported, you can monitor the planned hours for an activity versus its actual status at the push of a button.
Project Costing
Priority enables you to record planned costs of human resources and materials for each activity, which are updated automatically from system documents such as journal entries, orders, shipments, invoices, etc. In addition, every activity displays its cumulative cost (the total planned cost of its sub-activities), which is calculated by a special program.
Managing Customer Requests for a Proposal (RFPs) in the Projects Module
Before planning a project, record the customer's objectives as you understand them, or as recorded in the RFP document you received with the Scope of Work (SOW) document. The SOW document consists of a numbered hierarchy of requirements and sub-requirements, which can include extensive remarks explaining each requirement. Each requirement can also be linked to its own final product, where the price of the product determines the price of the requirement (e.g., how much a specific development activity in the project will cost).
During project planning, you can link each activity to the requirement it is intended to fulfill, and thus calculate the requirement's projected cost and profit. If you are working with planning versions, you can then create sub-activities automatically from the sub-levels of the linked requirement.
SOW documents can be imported from MS-Word files provided by the customer. You can maintain versions of each SOW document, as well as versions of the remarks recorded for individual requirements.
Project Payment by Milestones
Priority allows you to determine project milestones by flagging project activities (WBS) as milestones for payment. Once 100% of a given activity is completed, the planned charge is released and an invoice is created billing the customer. This invoice, which is created as a draft, undergoes a separate authorization process.
Service Contracts for Parts or Machinery Sold to Customers
If your operation is of the "made to order" type, building customer-specific machinery, instrumentation and the like, then, once you have planned and completed a project in Priority for building the part, and once the part has been supplied to the customer, Priority is capable of automatically opening a service and maintenance agreement, using the specifications recorded in the part's building project.
Profit & Loss Analysis for Projects
Priority's Projects module is integrated with all forms and documents in the system, enabling you to view a form displaying the current profitability of any project, including projected profit. This form takes into account all actual and projected revenue and expenses recorded for the project.
Malfunction Analysis of Parts Sold and Serviced by the Company
By using Priority's Customer Service module to manage malfunctions and service calls, your company gains access to a wealth of statistical data regarding the parts it services.
Analyses include:- Mean Time To Repair (MTTR)
- Mean Time To Assist (MTTA)
- Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF)
- Frequency of resolution usage
- Number of malfunctions per serial number
- Number of malfunctions per part
- Part availability (uptime)
- List of manufacturer malfunctions
- Service calls opened for similar malfunctions
Project Planning and Execution
Priority's Project Management module enables you to calculate planned costs of a project at the activity (WBS) level, including material and labor costs, and subcontractor costs. Total planned costs of all activities are collectively added to the projected cost of the project. As the project progresses and resources are invested, you can receive a continuous report of how well its actual execution conforms to its planning, from the project level down to its individual activities, so that if there is any deviation, it will be recognized as soon as possible.
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