Being able to meet the constantly evolving demands and expectations of customers, managing statutory/regulatory compliance, staying abreast with the competitive industrial environment, planning and stocking inventory and most importantly, manufacturing quality products consistently are some of the prominent challenges faced by manufacturing and assembly companies. IQMS® addresses all these aforementioned issues, as well as other challenges, faced by businesses operating in the manufacturing industry. IQMS takes great pride in offering its suite of highly scalable, flexible and faster ERP solutions for the manufacturing sector.
IQMS is a privately held, global software company based in Paso Robles, California with offices across North America, Europe and Asia, built by and for manufacturers. Born on the shop floor, its enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is tailored exactly for the manufacturing environment. It understands manufacturers’ challenges and delivers quality solutions that allow customers to run their businesses better. Designed on accountability, the IQMS system combines ERP, manufacturing execution system (MES), and manufacturing software to advance all aspects of a manufacturer’s business, providing a comprehensive end-to-end suite that is supported by real-time performance and scalability.
Fascinating Leaders of IQMS
Randall Flamm, Founder of IQMS, began his career in 1973 as a Maintenance Engineer at a Northern California based molding facility. Due to the lack of commercially available manufacturing software, Flamm began developing a program that targeted the information needs of the plastics industry. As his new quoting software was embraced and implemented at the company, so did his desire to expand it to encompass scheduling, inventory control, and production reporting. In 1989, Flamm founded IQMS and started evolving the ERP product with new features and functionality across numerous industries. With Flamm’s retirement in 2015, Gary Nemmers joined IQMS as the CEO and President of IQMS.
Both IQMS corporate leaders saw the same opportunity: a manufacturer’s success was contingent upon the shop floor’s procedures and processes. With the outline of automation and information technology oversight and management for the industry, shop floor operations could increasingly become more efficient and cost-effective with the right system in place.
Superlative Solutions with Great Services
IQMS solutions are quite apt for discrete and batch manufacturers of auto components, consumer products, electronics, machinery, precision products, plastics, steel and various manufacturing and assembly plants. Specifically, IQMS’ ERP solution is perfect for process manufacturers of leather, cement, dairy, food and beverages, chemicals, plastics, steel, etc.
Developed specifically for mid-market repetitive, discrete and batch process manufacturers, IQMS delivers robust capabilities for addressing strict customer and regulatory certification and compliance. IQMS achieves this by supplying traditional ERP functionality for accounting, sales orders, material requirements, inventory and purchasing, plus extended native features for customer relationship management (CRM), human resources, production scheduling, shop floor control, warehouse and quality modules.
Within the ERP market, the company is seeing debates on the merits of the cloud versus on-premises implementations. IQMS believes that its customers should be able to choose the deployment that best suits their needs, so the company has formed its Choice is the New Cloud™ program.
Through this program, IQMS offers options for deploying software that confirms robust protection and disaster recovery for its customers, but without the cost of maintaining a remote data center. Instead, customers can install the IQMS system through one of three deployment approaches:
(1) As a cloud-based subscription service,
(2) As licensed software managed in the cloud by IQMS, or
(3) As an on-premises implementation of licensed software.
With these three deployment options, manufacturers have the flexibility to choose the right solution for their company and their budget.
IQMS’ competition tends to emphasize traditional “back office” ERP functionality; whereas, with IQMS, its focus is on the manufacturing shop floor where “the money is made” by fulfilling orders on time with quality products while minimizing costs. The company makes it a priority to ensure that manufacturers are meeting quality strategies and standards while accomplishing short delivery times, saving time and money.
As technology progresses, so does IQMS’ software. From wireless and mobile capabilities to the ever cumulative requirement for instantaneous visibility, collaboration and communication, IQMS Enterprise IQ software will continue to protect a strategic place in manufacturing as the only total, enterprise-wide solution.
New Approaches and Cutting-edge Solutions
IQMS believes that previously the manufacturing industry was focusing on low-cost components, relying on long, complex and unreliable supply chains in order to achieve increasingly lower price points. However, today, the manufacturing sector is reshoring to the countries where the final product is made, enabling short supply chains that can be relied upon to produce quality parts on short notice. IQMS sees manufacturers building additional plants close to their end consumers to ensure this ease of doing business. With multiple plants in place, manufacturers are relying heavily on automation along with production and process monitoring to deliver quality parts on time to specification.
In the most advanced manufacturing regions, industry regulations are on the rise, and these requirements are being pushed down the supply chain. Mid-market manufacturers are seeking information and equipment to measure and document regulatory compliance. Therefore, the need for ERP systems with integrated quality management functionality is on the rise. Through its Implementation by Design™ process, IQMS certifies that manufacturers can migrate to a fresh ERP system within three to six months.
Making Clients a Top Priority
At IQMS, there are three teams dedicated to client relations:
First, the frontline Customer Support Group, which is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, directly answers its customers’ product usage and support questions, ensuring their systems continue to run efficiently.
Second, its Professional Services and Education Group provides ongoing training so that customers can continuously receive additional value from their ERP systems. With a solid team of project managers, solution architects, and subject matter experts in place, the Professional Services team offers assistance from planning and implementing the new ERP solution through full adoption and ongoing maintenance of the solution with training, shadowing, mentoring and change management support.
And third is the Customer Success Group, which works proactively with customers to extract maximum value from their IQMS products and services. Team members from this group collaborate with customers to recognize their uses of and experiences with the software, identifying any gaps. Centered on their findings, the team will offer recommendations and work with their IQMS Support and Professional Services counterparts to provide customers the training, knowledge and resources to maximize their operational efficiency and effectiveness, ensuring customers reach their business goals and objectives.
What most stands out about IQMS is its Implementation by Design™ approach for getting customers up and running successfully in a predictable timeframe. Importantly, its implementation approach parallels the manufacturing process. This accelerates understanding and buy-in among customers about the people and processes required to get an enactment into production effectively and on schedule.
Remarkable Impressions of Employees behind the Successful Journey of IQMS
IQMS appreciates that company employees are vital to its success. The company stats include a 25% improved headcount over the past year alone. IQMS is known for its extensive 120-day training and evaluation program. New hires undergo 90 days of core hands-on product training followed by 30 days of shadowing and mentoring, concluding with both written and verbal testing on product knowledge and soft skills. IQMS fosters a participatory management style, beginning with open door policies and engagement across all levels of the organization in strategic planning, process creation and strategic direction of the company.
While articulating about its company team, Gary Nemmers says, “Not only do IQMS team members work hard, we play hard, too. Associates enjoy a ‘Google-like’ environment, filled with company provided snacks, ongoing staff mixers and company-sponsored events. In addition to giving back to our associates, we also take pride in giving back to the local community. Over the past year, IQMS donated nearly $200,000 to local non-profits, including $40,000 in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) scholarships to eligible high school students. We even provide opportunities for associates to volunteer several hours a month at local non-profits while on the clock.”
Future Outlook Holds Significant Opportunities
IQMS attributes its success to placing customers first through its manufacturing shop floor focus and world-class support. The company realizes that its success is linked to their success, which is tied to their ability to ship quality products on time with minimal costs.
IQMS sees that the manufacturing industry is developing, which means customers will be looking for process enhancements to become more proficient and productive. In addition, IQMS knows that the sustained adoption of the internet of things (IoT) and the use of big data to perform predictive analytics will make manufacturers more productive and more reliable, ensuring better quality while cutting operational and labor costs. As a company that places the goals of the shop floor and manufacturing first, IQMS will continue to prove itself and its value in the marketplace, providing ERP total system solutions to its current customers as they grow while expanding its current customer base.
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