Formula Manufacturing Software Proves Effective for Chemical Manufacturers

BatchMaster Software, Inc. has provided process manufacturing software solutions for over two decades with more than one thousand five hundred installations worldwide. BatchMaster’s customers can be found in every formula and recipe based industry segment, including food, beverage, cosmetic, personal care, paint, coating, nutraceutical, pharmaceutical, and specialty chemical. Some of the key benefits of using BatchMaster software include keeping accurate inventory, lot traceability and lot recall, regulatory compliance and just-in-time manufacturing resulting in lower production costs and improved customer service. Flexible, easy to learn and use, and scalable to grow with a process manufacturing business, BatchMaster is the definitive solution for the challenges facing small to midsize process manufacturers. BatchMaster team consists of over a hundred professionals, bringing on-going innovation to product offerings and serving customers as trusted advisors for all process manufacturing and supply-chain challenges.

Specialty chemical companies require ERP functionality with the following key product features:
• Laboratory and Formulation: Conducts laboratory analysis with formula revisions.
• Compliance Reporting: Creates MSDS and other shipping and material storage compliance reports.
• Quality Control: Integrated QC in purchasing, receiving, sales shipping, and in any stage of production.
• Production Scheduling: MPS schedules production in order to maximize capacity while fulfilling shipping promises.
• Materials Planning: MRP manages inventory, reducing holding costs without the risk of shortages.
• Lot Control and Tracking: Tracks lots from vendor to customer; features must include expiration date, vendor lot number, quarantine date, and material attributes.
Laboratory and Formulation: According to Dr. Sahib Dudani, president of ERP provider BatchMaster, "Very few ERP systems provide a laboratory module." A system that does, he says, "reduces man-hours spent on tedious, error-prone manual calculations, and delivers useful information quickly and accurately." In BatchMaster, "raw material specifications and formula physical properties are user-definable, so users can perform calculations in the most familiar methods," Dudani notes.
"Formulas can be easily sized by weight or by volume to lab- or production-sized batches," adds Doug Miller, lab manager for Weyerhaeuser Corp.'s Specialty Products Division, and a user of BatchMaster. "This feature enables chemical manufacturers to keep complete records of all versions of a formula, with who, why, and when it was changed."
William Stoltz, controller and information technology director of Alpha Chemical Services, Inc., also uses BatchMaster. "The solution is versatile in its reporting potential, with a virtually infinite range of customizable reports," he reports. "We have been able to produce information with pinpoint accuracy for our management."
In an exclusive for Managing Automation, manufacturing journalist TR Cutler, profiled the specific needs for Chemical manufacturers. According to Cutler, “Quality control throughout a chemical manufacturing operation must also include purchase receipts and sales shipments and be available at any stage of production. Critical reports for the specialty chemical industry include certificates of analysis (COA), bills of lading, and material safety data sheets.” The full feature can be read at: http://www.managingautomation.com/maonline/exclusive/read/The_Unique_Needs_of_Chemical_Manufacturers_16482305