Elixir Functional Detail
Elixir Functional Scope
This quick-reference guide supports the Elixir Functional Scope diagram used in MAJIQ’s presentations (see below). These descriptions give a high-level view of the functions that our Elixir brand software provides. For more detailed information, please contact MAJIQ or contact your Account Manager.
Forecasting + Budgets + Contracts
Elixir provides a multi-level, multi-version forecast management capability, which is distinct from forecast generation. Elixir also provides a heuristic demand plan generator. A demand plan is a multi-month machine load plan. Elixir provides functions to turn this machine load plan into a block schedule. The forecasts, budgets and contracts can be used to manage allocations to ensure that customers are properly balanced during oversold conditions. These same tools permit tons to be distributed to sales offices, sales reps, customers, and even grades. Elixir is designed to receive any level or version of forecast. Thus, external forecast generators can feed Elixir. Using the same interface, external systems can feed Elixir machine load plans.
Elixir provides tools to compare any two forecast versions. Since the orders are simply the “actual” version of the forecast, order deviation is monitored. Elixir is slated to view forecasts in terms of future pricing for revenue projections and to be tied into costing and the bill of materials to do cost and material requirements projections.
Logistics
Elixir provides real-time views of inventory and transportation across all locations in the enterprise. This real-time view is integrated with Order Entry so that orders are fulfilled and no opportunities are missed. When inventory needs to be maintained, Elixir evaluates the supply chain and recommends implements, and manages replenishments. The logistics information integrates with the ATP and CTP functions.
Optimization
From the high level scheduling and logistics to fine planning, trimming, dynamic assignment and shipment planning, Elixir provides the ability to help optimize the process and the functions. Together with partner solutions, Elixir is a critical part when optimizing your supply chain.
Order Entry
The order entry process converts customer demands for products to be delivered at specific times to plans that can be executed by mills, warehouses, subcontractors, and carriers. The order is also a financial transaction in which pricing, customer creditworthiness, adjustments, and profitability figure prominently. Order entry brings these factors together into a cohesive unit so that the order fulfillment processes can be orchestrated and monitored to assure customer satisfaction.
Pricing and Terms
With one of the most comprehensive and complete Pricing modules, Elixir handles any pricing scenario, including rebates, discounts and up-charges. Using a Base-Price plus ‘price-considerations’ philosophy, the management and visibility of your pricing has never been easier. Base prices are managed by Date, Product, Customer, and Region/Market. A rich assortment of price units are provided as well as weight limits to create pricing tiers. In order to add flexibility while reducing the number of prices to maintain, Elixir provides hierarchical price search. Products can be organized in a hierarchy of price groups and pricing can be performed at any level of the hierarchy. If a number of products are priced similarly with a smaller number of exceptions then a price can be defined on a high level product and the exception prices defined at the detailed level. Similarly, customers can be organized hierarchically so that specific prices can be maintained for distant Ship-to customers but more generally applicable prices can be maintained at the Sold-to or even corporate levels. Regional/Market pricing afford another level of generalization that can further reduce the number of prices to maintain. Of course Elixir provides that ability to specify prices at the order line level or even at the shipment line level.
All prices can be modified. The price can be adjusted so that on the face of the invoice or on an order acknowledgement only the result is visible or the adjustment can be explicit and shown as a calculation on the face of each document. A searchable database of price adjustments permits complete control of your pricing and adjustment needs. Adjustments can be based on accrued freight, percentage of product value, or on any price unit of measure. Adjustments can be organized by level so that subtotals can be created to meet the needs of even the most complex agreements. Adjustments are hierarchical as well and detailed adjustments can override more general adjustments. It is also possible for adjustments to compute values not shown on the invoice but communicated to the accounting system for processing or to capture reservations there.
Credit
The system verifies the credit of the Sold-To customer, and optionally, that there are no unconditional credit holds. If there are none, the system verifies that the change in order value would not cause the customer to exceed the current available credit. If it does, the conditional credit hold will be evaluated. First, the system verifies the Sold-To customer, and then it verifies the Corporation customer. If any of the credit checks fail, a warning is issued. Should the warning be ignored, a notation is made in the audit log indicating when and who overrode the warning.
The system checks the credit status of an order at several points in the order life cycle. These points are order entry, block scheduling, and shipping. The system warns the user or prevents the attempted action based on settings configured for that order’s customer. A user with sufficient privilege can force an otherwise prevented action. The system also offers a view of a customer’s credit position for a given range of time, known as Time Phased Credit. Credit Date Range filters offer the user the option to display orders and invoices for a specified period of time, as well as the customer’s Risk Class and payment terms.
Global Inventory
The system provides the visibility of inventory across all locations in the enterprise being managed by Elixir. This includes inventory that is in-transit between locations.
ATP & CTP
Elixir brings together Customer Orders, Inventory, and Replenishments to present and assure Availability to Promise. A time-phased view of inventory is computed for every location in the enterprise. Elixir scans this view to compute the earliest date that inventory will be available to meet the customer requirement. This search can be configured to not perturb other commitments or for critical needs to identify raw stock levels.
Elixir supports concurrent Stock and Make to Order operations with its Capacity to Promise capability. The Block Schedule created during the Cycle Planning Process is scanned by Elixir to find the most appropriate manufacturing resources to meet customer and replenishment requirements. Elixir assigns orders to blocks and provides real-time visibility to remaining capacity. Graphical tools allow blocks and their orders to be moved, adjusted, and reassigned to meet changing conditions.
E-Commerce
Elixir continues to evolve as e-commerce technology evolves The Elixir Process Integration and Control (EPIC) system exposes large portions of Elixir’s comprehensive functionality in order to facilitate traditional EDI, manage master base data exchange, automate numerous supply chain activities, and support integration of 3rd party tools and data. Elixir’s numerous connections with disparate systems empower the supply chain. Elixir now provides many web services to ensure robust, real-time access to key business features like Order Entry/Status, MAJIQ Trim and scheduling, Load Planning, Production, and Shipping. Traditional interfaces also support forecasting, demand planning, block scheduling, replenishment, 3rd party freight rating and transportation planning, order acknowledgements, BOLs, manifests, invoices and other financial information. Elixir’s web services are WCF based and secure. Elixir’s road map call for transitioning all interfaces to a comprehensive set of web services so that Elixir users can offer their customers not only great products but unprecedented levels of transparency and integration.
Cycle Planning
Rough Planning module manages paper machine, sheeter, and coater machine schedules based on production rates, efficiencies and loss factors relevant to each machine for that product chain. Integrated block scheduling between paper machines and your converting equipment makes sure that base stock is available when you need it. Capacity to promise based on integrated real time trim data allows for better order status estimates for your customers. Plan your paper machines and other resources weeks or months in advance, centrally or at each mill. Ensure minimum waste and downtime. With Elixir, you control customer expectations while optimizing run specifications.
Machine Scheduling
Fine planning tools on all machine types designed for the unique constraints of each with optimization and planning functionality to help to organize efficient runs. Real time estimated completion times that feed all the way back to customer service and down to shipping. Dynamic order assignment so as the businesses priorities change the machine floor can react without complicated re-work and re-scheduling. Adherence to plan reporting tools to let you know where the plan changed and why.
Unit Level Inventory
Elixir maintains all inventories at the discrete unit level with visibility to all quality data and history. Even product that has shipped to the customer is still maintained at the unit level for easy access to quality and history which helps in any claims processing. The only exception to unit level tracking is when you are running the Pulp module in “bulk mode”. In the case, we do not track individual units by definition.
Transportation
Elixir supports a thorough freight route and rate structure, so you can select the optimal mode of transportation and carrier. This module also helps to control shipping costs by tracking unit level freight accrual costs as a component in estimating order profitability, providing key information for customer support decisions. Accumulate and report on freight costs so you can reconcile against carriers invoice or just pay them what Elixir calculates and let them reconcile.
Shipment Planning
Manage every aspect of shipment planning in Elixir with its advanced shipment planning functionality that handles pick-ups to vessel bookings and everything in between. Load plan at order entry, on the fly, or through automated tools. Manage multiple ship dates within the same order or order line. Plan, edit and ship loads while ensuring the quality/quantity/weight of shipped products. Control shipping costs by tendering loads and tracking carrier freight accruals. Elixir enables the tracking of on-time deliveries. The shipping module includes an extensive ‘trailer pool’ management set of features enabling optimization of your transportation logistics. Elixir automatically creates all appropriate shipping documentation and allows for the printing, faxing, email, or other electronic method of delivery of the documents to the correct location.
Material Requirements
Know what packaging materials you need before you need them. Time phased ATP view of material requirements for your converting operations let you know before your ready to schedule it that you will have the materials that you need. At run time material requirements and locations are available via Elixir truck mount/hand held solution.
Grade Run Specs
Specifications can be defined at the manufacturing grade, grade machine, and customer grade levels to adapt to your requirements. Revision history stored for the life of the grade. Products points back to the specifications that were active when they were made making for powerful claims research tools.
Trim Optimization
Elixir comes with an unsurpassed trim optimization module. The Majiq Trim engine automatically produces a number of alternative winder patterns to a particular mill-scheduling problem. You select the solution that best meets your run criteria: e.g. solve for optimum machine trim efficiency, minimum under/overruns, hot-loading orders (low order-spread within the block to free up loading bays), on-time deliveries, etc. Increase profits, facilitate customer service, and manage inventories. The trim solution engine is also available stand-alone as a MAJIQ-hosted web-based service.
Paper Making
Backtender visibility, run list details, real time make up and overrun calculations put everyone in the production chain on the same page. Elixir captures production starting at the reel turn-up. With interfaces to the most popular real-time process & quality historians, Elixir uses and stores that positional quality data for the rest of the production process so individual finished goods can have their unique quality attributes. This allows Certificate of Analysis (COA) documents to be easily created at shipment time from the mill as well as from remote warehouses for the specific units in that vehicle.
Materials Inventory
Elixir provides full warehouse, inventory and purchase order management for your converting materials. Scan material shipments in when they arrive, confirm quantities against the PO and set them into warehouse locations all via our fort truck / hand held radio functionality. Perform and manage physical inventories of materials with potential interfaces back to your A/P system to make month end a little easier. With converting schedule material requirements visible on radios showing warehouse where materials are at drivers spend far less time looking for materials.
Quality
Quality applied to the reel and proportioned to the rolls and on to converted products as well. With interfaces to the most popular real-time process & quality historians, automated lab equipment, as well as manual lab data entry Elixir handles your quality entry needs. Elixir’s Quality module monitors quality information for both paper and pulp. Winder roll quality is calculated from CD and MD scan averages from each parent reel. Operators can make informed winder run decisions before beginning set production. Elixir provides ‘quality matching’ to the predicted Customer order so changes can be made prior to making the roll when quality is not up to the Customer specification.
Finishing
Integrated wrapping functions ensure customer packaging specification, label requirements, and tolerances are managed accurately while measurement equipment information is passed back into Elixir for accurate weights and measures. Conveyor routing and AGV functionality available as well.
Converting
Folio and Cutsize Sheeters, Off Machine Coaters, Salvage and Production Rewinders, Re-reelers, and super calendars are all integrated in Elixir. Scheduling, production and warehousing tools are all designed to allow to you manage their differences as well as where they are managed the same to reduce user and cross training time.
Production Statistics
Elixir can standardize the way that production stats are calculated across your organization with a fully auditable set of production and inventory statistics. Standard reports as well as fully open data access allow you to build your own reports with guidance to what the numbers should be.
Downtime scheduling
Scheduled downtime that integrates into the rough and fine planning components of Elixir to ensure customer, production, and shipping visibility to what is ahead.
Bill of Materials
Elixir provides a comprehensive package to specify your packaging material requirements. A flexible, hierarchical definition permits specifying and organizing materials. A global set of Bills of materials (BOMs) can be defined to cover almost all of your needs. Where there are equipment and vendor differences, mill specific implementations of the BOM can be provided. Some machines require specific materials and Elixir allows you to configure the materials so that once scheduled on an appropriate machine, the proper material needs are promulgated and the right materials are consumed during production.
Machine Interfaces
Interfaces with automated or semi automated roll handling systems, palletizers, and balelines providing real time customer packaging and labeling instructions and making load and bay assignments dynamically. Elixir includes PLC drivers for virtually all PLCs, including ControLogix, Allen Bradley, Modicon, and Siemens. These interfaces also gather statistical data and update values used to more closely predict required production minimizing overruns and underruns. Other interfaces include scales, lineal measure systems, core cutters, and slitters. Quality systems interfaces can gather and send reel turn ups, scan data, and lab data eliminating the need to enter the data by hand. Because Elixir supports a variety of quality systems and protocols it is often used to transfer data between disparate quality systems within the mill.
Downtime Reporting
Highly efficient work flow process for entering downtimes against all production, converting and wrapping/packaging machine types that help operators simply and reliably enter the information you need. With an OEE compliant dataset that allows for long term trending and analysis of uptimes, problem areas, and operational versus market driven downtimes.
Mill Inventories
Detail and summary inventory views provided using a wide variety of user configurable criteria. Tools and rule sets to help you plan, visualize, and manage your inventory. Elixir provides cycle counting and physical inventory tools to help keep thinks accurate. Configurable FIFO rules and work processes in Elixir help to cycle through aged inventory as standard practice looking at both put and take away.
Loading Planning
Elixir provides visibility of upcoming shipments using the criteria important to your unique shipping requirements to ensure that everyone knows what the plan is. See what’s available to stage, load and ship, and what is scheduled to come off the machine when, all in one place. Maximize loading operations by prioritizing driver’s tasks.
Loading and Staging
Keep your drivers in their seats with simple and efficient truck mount/hand held Elixir functionality that provides for a wide variety of easy to access and utilize information needed to stage and load your products. Scan products onto loads or staging areas for accurate manifest information. Online pick lists allow drivers to see locations of product by age, search for stock or alternative sources for products that is loading when you happen to damage one. Configure commercial documents to automatically print based on events being completed.
Shipping
Elixir’s shipping module enables you to precisely control every aspect of transport shipment planning by helping you plan, edit and ship loads while monitoring and controlling the quantity and weights of shipped products. Because the shipping module is tightly integrated with Elixir order and production information, shipments are error-free and can easily be traced.
Shipment Documentation
Elixir provides consistent commercial documents across your enterprise to ensure that you communicate to your customers in a reliable and predictable way. Elixir automatically creates documents when products ship, or at other points in the supply chain that you designate. Configurable by customer with easy to set switches supporting metric vs. imperial values, customer product translations, as well as multilingual document sets.
Vehicle Management
Manage complex vehicle spotting requirements via PC and wireless radio tools. Integrate with the spotting service, manage rail switches, truck dock and yard management with tools all integrated into Elixir to eliminate double entry and reduce mistakes.
Warehouse Inventories
Have confidence about the status of your warehoused product whether it is rolls, cases, pallets or bales. Full mill inventory details and bay management are provided by Elixir, even for external warehouses, distribution centers and port docks. Use Elixir on lift truck and handheld RF terminals with laser scanners, or use RFID/DFID core tags. You’ll have detailed information on all inbound, outbound and in-transit shipments and the product in those shipments.
Warehouse Load Planning
See Load Planning. Same functionality provided for remote warehouses as well.
Warehouse Loading and Staging
See Loading and Staging. Same functionality provided for remote warehouses as well.
Remote Shipping
See Shipping. Same functionality provided for remote warehouses as well.
Remote Shipment Documentation
See Shipment Documentation. Same functionality provided for remote warehouses as well.
Vehicle Tracking
Track container and truck pools including vehicle condition and yard location. Define demurrage rules by carrier to track demurrage costs and use the oldest vehicles first.
Invoicing
An invoice is a list of goods shipped which specifies the price of the goods and the terms of the sale. An invoice is associated with a customer, an order and a load. Elixir has the ability to generate customer invoices with all associated adjustments, commissions, freight, credits and deliver the documents to the customer and your financial system.
Claims
Any continuous improvement must have a feedback loop and measurement points. The claim and customer feedback modules effects loop closure. The claim capability permits customers to provide information in their own terms (such as customer PO, rail car number, or roll id) and then have the system retrieve/cross-reference mill specific information that will facilitate analysis and correction of identified problems. Free text notes are provided to document each step of a claim’s process from initial customer comments, to assignment of the investigation, to resolution of the problem and customer follow-up. Claims are automatically created in the event that individual product is return from a customer shipment.
Non-Product Sales
Elixir offers the ability for you to generate a shipment with the required documentation for non-paper products (chep pallets, chemicals, etc.).
Additional Functions
Pulp
Manage market pulp production and quality based on pulps unique requirements not the software you use to manage it. Flexibility is essential to pulp production and Elixir enables the tracking of pulp using a variety of methods – by individual bale, units, lots, ship marks and up to entire warehouses. Rolled pulp and specialty cellulose are also handled with their unique roll dimensions and pulp characteristics (Air Dry, Brightness, etc.) You can view quality information as pulp lots are split or merged during warehousing and shipping. Elixir can make assignment suggestions or can automatically assign pulp to specific customer orders based on quality and order timing data as pulp is produced.
Demand Planning
Combine sales forecasts , sales order history’s, replenishment plans, and standard grade runs into a powerful dataset to create your paper machine demand plan on a per machine, site, or enterprise basis. Manufacturing grade sequence and frequency tables allow you to define the best case scenario for grade runs on the machines so that you start from the best plan possible. Elixir allows you to create and manage block schedule creation as far into the future as you would like allowing for better visibility and availability to promise for customer orders or replenishments planned for in advance. As your sales forecast gets clearer and your plans more firm iterative re-planning features in Elixir allow the schedule to meet the new requirements while staying true to promises already made.
Tissue Converting & Finishing
Manage the entire converting, finishing, case packing and palletizing processes. Track (multi-ply) finished product back to parent rolls from which they were made. Package and label cases according to customer order-specific requirements. Since converting operations are integrated into the order scheduling functions within Elixir, it is possible to effectively manage inventories while improving customer service. By incorporating scheduling, production, materials, inventory tracking and shipping functions, Elixir is able to handle all requirements for tissue, towel and non-woven cartons, skids, SKU case packaging equipment, whether in-line or standalone converting facilities. Elixir’s powerful integration functions enable tracking the genealogy of product based on either set factors, time factors, or both. Advanced production line tracking provides you full control of the process from order entry through invoicing and all points in-between.
Off Machine Coating
Elixir manages the entire off machine coating process. Stand alone or integrated with paper machine production where Elixir trims the coater and creates and manages parent roll demand on the paper machine, either fully trimmed or in the required block to be ready when needed. Powerful run scheduling tools tailored to the unique constraints of off machine coaters allowing you to create runs that reduce waste and maximize efficiency. With interfaces to the most popular real-time process & quality historians Elixir merges the quality data of the coated rolls with quality data from the parent paper machine.