IMCO Software

EnergyMax, Plan360 and FactoryAI in brief

Manufacturing software from IMCO Software is built for factories and shop floors. Its tools include EnergyMax, Plan360, FactoryAI, CIMAG-MES and a quality management application. The company says it wants to help plants see, measure and steer what happens on the shop floor, with configurations set by each client's parameters and business requirements. It says its tools are developed for manufacturers of many kinds, particularly those whose energy spending is a large part of the budget.

Quality management in one application

The quality application brings the whole quality function into one system, from supplier checks and internal audits to risk and related HR matters. It brings these functions into one system so that a plant can track them together. The company presents this as the foundation for its wider range of shop floor tools.

EnergyMax, water and carbon reporting

EnergyMax tracks energy consumption per item, machine and operation, so that costs and prices can be calculated accurately. It runs what-if analyses that show how energy sources could be optimized and production balanced to reduce overall cost. The same approach helps control water consumption and report the carbon dioxide footprint. The site also lists headline targets, such as a 12 percent gain in energy efficiency, a 35 percent improvement in lead time and a 27 percent rise in annual inventory turns, which the company presents as results its software can deliver.

Planning, inventory and maintenance tools

Safety stock planning works out how much stock each item should hold so that demand spikes are covered, at a chosen level of certainty, using usage, variability, lead time, replenishment frequency and supply reliability. Plan360 covers long, medium and short term planning, including demand, production, capacity, replenishment and scheduling. FactoryAI uses artificial intelligence and records of past machine failures to decide when preventive maintenance is needed, separately from the equipment maker's guidance. CIMAG-MES is a manufacturing execution system aimed at machine uptime, scrap, rework and traceability. For smaller firms, Fishbowl Inventory and Manufacturing is said to be fully integrated with QuickBooks and can also link to CIMAG-MES.