intex textile MES
for SAP® S/4HANA

intex textile MES expands SAP® S/4HANA by supplying functions that are specific to the textile industry as a holistic Manufacturing Execution System including Production Data Collection.

intex textile MES for SAP® S/4HANA is the optimal solution for companies in the textile industry that already have SAP® in use or plan its implementation in the future.

A seamless integration

As the aim of Intex Consulting Group as a company is to set the global standard for textile specific production planning and controlling software, a partnership with the market leader of business administration software was a logic consequence. In opposite to the general decision it cost us quite a lot of effort, analysis, bilateral discussions. Plugging or Add-On to the standard SAP was a very thought and effort intense activity. With the support of the Management Research Center of the German Institutes for Textile and Fiber Research Denkendorf (DITF) we have developed the concept for the integration of intex textile MES to SAP ERP. After successfully implementing and supporting the SAP R3 and ECC 6.0 we have in May 2021 achieved the re-certification on the SAP S/4HANA release 2020 with our renamed software suite “intex textile MES for SAP S/4HANA”. In a nutshell: We have developed standard screens in the Sales and Procurement of SAP that are modified and optimized for the need of textile mills. Additionally we run more than 120 RFC (Remote Function Call) interfaces, that are booking transactions purely online. Take advantage of the best of two worlds – with intex textile MES for SAP S/4HANA.

Do you have a development management? Are all your product data stored in one system? Our Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) helps you to organize your product and sample development optimally. Apart from the development department, development processes usually also involve sales, the final customer, quality assurance, purchasing, and production. These activities require efficient planning and control.

Intex supports you from the initial idea, to the sampling, to development costing and quotation. This application combines the entire product knowledge in one system. Warp and weft patterns, templates, recipes, threadings and weave construction as well as all machine settings are recorded and saved.

Special algorithms determine the time and material required for the production, which ensures the accuracy of your data. Compared to an industry-neutral product, this master data structure reduces the administrative costs by more than 90 %. This is achieved by distinguish- ing between the actual master data of the article and its different characteristics such as color, design, finish, size and make up. These characteristics can be saved globally in so called “color cards”. The software then generates the appropriate master data on demand. In apparel production it is distinguished between model, outer fabric, and article and new combinations can be generated automatically. As a matter of course, sizing charts are sup- ported. The search for similar features or usage helps accessing the entire knowledge base of your company. In the end, you should know how much money you made from a development project. Therefore, offers and orders are linked to it.

The recipe archive is independent from the piece list of the article and manages all types of recipes. intex integrates established dyeing control systems.

When administering the process flows, conditions such as the width of a fabric or the weight of a yarn dyeing batch can be considered. This way, Intex enables you to use one collective process flow for a whole group of articles.The system then derives automatically, which machine setup and process steps are necessary for a particular production order. This reduces the administrative effort tremendously and makes sure that you always produce your orders according to the up to date standard, rather than to outdated process flows.

Do you know, which fabric batch has been produced from which spinning lot? It is a basic requirement of the textile industry, to be able to trace any production back to the raw material. Intex enables your company to do so, by labelling every bale, every box, every warp and every piece with an individual barcode, and scanning every movement using mobile online scanners. An exact usage record is possible, because not only the stock movements are being recorded, but also all movements during the production. Any batch can be traced throughout the whole company. If raw material is taken from the production back into the inventory, it is weighed and thereby assured that used quantity and inventory amounts are correct. The rate of Intex’s accuracy regarding inventory amounts is about 99.8 %. This accuracy is a basic requirement for a precise and correct statement regarding the company’s profit.

One special feature of the textile industry is that per inventory level, several quantity units have to be kept, e. g. cones, gross weight, net weight, commercial weight or run length. This has to be achieved without having to go through several dialogues. Besides the units, there is a number of other information that has to be recorded per production level. Intex keeps track of these in the background and re-allocates them for example, when a piece is cut.

In many cases, it is not the individual pieces that are moved, but palettes, carriers or A-frames. Therefore Intex also keeps a carrier stock level.

Linking Intex to an automatic stock system and steering of half automated inventories is possible as well as control over the forklift trucks. The software supports the batch-specific price valuation, this means, each lot is rated with its individual value.

Are your transport costs too high, do incorrect deliveries occur, or does the supply take too long? Logistics continue to become more and more global and therefore increasingly demanding. Short delivery times require an optimal dispatch control and data integration to the logistics company. Intex supports you by selecting the best or fastest transport route, by means of truck planning to determine the necessary loading meters and a forklift control to use your resources as efficiently as possible.

Intex includes inventory detail down to the exact store place. This is usually a feature which is only delivered by Warehouse Manager Systems. Picking is supported by either picklists or without printouts using transportation orders.

Every material movement is recorded by an online scanner so that your delivery will always be correct. The internationally recognized and standardized Serial Shipping Container Code (SSCC) is assigned to each package and electronically transmitted to the carrier, so that you and your customers can track the goods online. The customer receives the papers by e-mail, fax or electronically as soon as the truck leaves the property.

The maintenance management is split into two layers. The base layer is the management of spare parts from an availability perspective. Forecasting the spare part consumption per location, purchasing, stock keeping, relocating spare parts and accounting the spare parts consumption per cost centre and machine. Thereby already downtimes can be significantly reduced by ensuring spare parts availability and enabling immediate repairs. Additionally analysis of spare part consumption per machine is provided in order to at the earliest determine irregularities.

Based on the spare part management layer we offer asan optional layer the preventive maintenance. Here the maintenance intervals are defined per machine, downtimes integrated into the plan boards and maintenance orders system trigerred whenever there is the interval specific counter (e.g. after 20 million picks, 10.000 meteres, or similar) has been reached or a defined time frame is exceeded.

Do you have production issues because you are missing material, auxiliaries or tools? Are your setup times too high because the orders do not follow an optimal sequence? Scheduling is the key for optimizing the or- der sequence on the production machines. It helps reducing the setup time by far. Precise material steering is used to avoid machine standstills caused by missing material or missing recipes. Scheduling also makes sure that stock is not sitting idle in one department and the machine operator is aware of the planned sequence up front. Particularly in bottleneck situations, when other departments are dependent on one particular department, e. g. dyeing, Intex smoothly coordinates the production flow.

Intex includes an interactive scheduling tool, pictured as an electronic planning board. Orders can be planned and rescheduled by means of drag-and-drop. A traffic light visualizes availability of material and recipes. The scheduling also considers particular sequencing rules for an optimized production. These rules relate, for example, to the construction characteristics of the article (e. g. same warp, same width), the properties of the recipes (e. g. dyeing from light to dark) and the machine setup. Additionally the current production progress of preceding departments and combined processing in subsequent departments are respected.

Combining similar orders in one batch, has great potential for savings in the textile industry. This combination can be for one particular or multiple process steps. Depending on the processing, a particular setup has to match (e. g. the recipe), other conditions are related to the sequence (e. g. width). Intex supports the combination of batches by either scheduling or scanning. For an exact post calculation, the setup times are distributed to the individual orders. Also, recipes can be calculated for individual batches while being dosed in several calls.

  • Finite Capacity Planning
  • Pegging in all the stages
  • Network planning
  • Allocation of raw material
  • Scheduling with optimization
  • Warp related plan board for weaving
  • Multi panel orders in weaving and finishing with automatic
    combination possibility
  • Extended support for discontinuous machines
  • Fast due date determination and approval with highest reliability
  • Scheduling of Spinning
  • Scheduling of Warping
  • Scheduling of Weaving, Knitting, Non-Wovens
  • Scheduling of Dyeing
  • Scheduling of Printing
  • Scheduling of Finishing
  • Each scheduling tool is equipped with smart rule based algorithms which support optimization for cost or time related efficiency increase in machine sequence planning
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Do you really get the most out of your machines? We support you with a production data acquisition (PDA). Monitor and observe the operation of your machines and stoppage durations on your smart phone, on the road or when you are at home. So you can as well keep an eye on the night shift.

Increase your efficiency with Intex – by at least 2 % in weaving and up to 10 % in finishing. But this is not only about improving your efficiency by analyzing the downtime causes; but it is also about the interaction with planning, material flow control, maintenance and costing. Reliable planning depends upon a system that knows the current production progress. Only then, the material supply can be planned quickly and reliably. Especially the setup has high demands on the production data acquisition. This concerns target value displays, carrier tracking, lot formation at the machine, seam de- tection, recipe retrieval, defect detection, quality data acquisition, line cutting, shrinkage control and the entry of measured values, to name just a few.

Intex covers these issues and makes things easier for the machine operator. The searching for goods, manual shift book and double entries of reports can be omitted. Problems with articles and settings are transparent and can be eliminated. During preparatory, you not only capture the stoppages, but the insertion times as well. By means of the integrated goods inspec- tion module, we automate your product display. This en- sures that the customer-specific makeup, compensation and quality requirements are met and customer orders are delivered in the correct sequence. Customized labeling and printing as well as electronic transmission of the defect levels are no longer a problem.

Is your raw material inventory level too high or do you face delays because the raw material is not available in time? If so, your purchasing is using the wrong tool. Intex calculates a precise daily availability of stocks taking into account the current production progress and the projected completion. Not only does this calculation include all existing orders, but also the sales planning for 12 months, for example. This provides purchasing with a perfect tool to ensure an optimum price and accurate availability. In the short term, this means that you will be able to synchronize material supplies precisely with the demands of your production (Just in Time). The truck gets unloaded and, in the optimum case, the material is immediately taken to production. The stock of raw materials is reduced and delays are avoided.

When importing material, there can be quite a long time span between goods dispatch at your supplier and goods availability. Also, goods are not immediately available for production just because their reception has been booked. Intex’s material availability calculation takes this into consideration. Yarn contracts are often negotiated globally. However, one contract can cover different qualities and colors. The price is dependent on the quality- and color-group, as well as the amount. The actual ordered or invoiced amount is subtracted from the gross amount of the contract. However, not every color must be specified within the contract. When entering the order, the production batch can already be provided.

Because Intex has a textile specialized goods receipt function, the administrative effort is greatly reduced. Interfaces to the suppliers enable an electronic data transfer. In case the order is delayed, Intex automatically informs the planning department.

Functional additions to SAP standard:

  • Contract about article without colour
  • Contract with a global quantity and different articles
  • Pegging between purchase order and production order
  • Which order generated the requirement
  • Automatic mail alert to production planning in case of delays
  • Automatic allocation of the incoming goods to the
    production orders
  • Conditioned and net weight
  • Gross and net meter

  • Recipe management for dyeing, finishing, printing, washing

Do you know how much money you earned from an order? Intex All-in-One helps you with preliminary and final costing. The preliminary one is a direct costing, providing you with the facts that allow you to make a competitive price. The textile industry often uses sever- al variants of one material, e. g. the same article is be- ing sold in several qualities. Intex All-in-One therefore extends the functionality within the pre-calculation in such a way, that the manufacturing costs for each vari- ant and its particular included raw material variants can be calculated. The activity-based costing considers the significant actual cost drivers, instead of calculating with theoretically assumed values. The cost component split enables you to analyze what the proportions of energy or water costs are in the product. Activity-based costing makes the cost impact of lot size changes visible, which would otherwise be easily overlooked.

Controlling requires detailed data about the material consumption and production; otherwise, weak spots cannot be found and eliminated. Therefore, the production data acquisition and precise production material acquisition are integrated in Intex. With this information, Intex is able to recalculate a production order and identify deviations. This result can be accounted back to the customer order, which means included in the turnover statistics and contribution margin accounting. This allows our customers to significantly reduce the amount of orders that are economically unviable, which clearly increases their profitability. The product costing analysis also provides the data for the work in process (WIP) and the monthly result. Every month, accounted performances are accumulated for each cost center and can be compared to the actual costs. This allows for the quick identification of incorrect cost rates.

Intex includes an inventory valuation down to the piece or lot level with a monthly archiving and selectable valuations. These can be carried out automatically every month so that you don’t have to face write-offs at the end of the year.

Do your customers have high quality requirements? So do we! Quality in a product cannot be achieved by con- tinuous checks – the product has to be produced accord- ingly. This is why we not only support you with a sophis- ticated solution for your quality management, but focus on the whole production chain as well.

Quality can only be achieved, if the processes are trans- parent and carried out accurately. This starts with the automatic blocking and release of batches, but also primarily concerns the precision in production. For this reason, we make sure that only the proper material may be used and that all setting data are documented with target and actual values and confirmed by the operator, if possible. This combination of quality assurance, production control and production data acquisition allows you to easily iden- tify and quickly eliminate the roots of any problems that may occur. In addition to the laboratory control, quality data can be captured directly by means of the production data acquisition (PDA) at goods inspection and reprocessing can be initiated immediately.

The reason for the returned goods is recorded and can later be analyzed. This way, we can reduce the reprocessing rate usually by at least 30 %. Not only can a batch be traced over all stages back to the raw material; Intex also shows you all test values that were measured within this order network. The control chart allows you to analyze across colors, sizes and variants and can also provide multiple values in correlation. You can display the results for every yarn supplier or specifically search for a defective machine. To ensure that corrective measures are actually being carried out, Intex includes a complaint handling device based on the 8D-model. By the way, we as well reduce your inspection planning expenses because we can display your full range of products by means of a few check plans. Customized check plans and certificates are of course supported. The system even detects the final customer already during pre-production.

How much does a CRM tool help, when it doesn’t give access to the actual order situation, production status and stocks and all other relevant information? Not too much, to the best of our believe. Subsequent to this thought we developed a native and fully integrated CRM tool that forms a digital customer file. All customer related information is condensed and centrally maintained so that any staff in the sales teams has latest and overarching information about each customer. Ease of use is granted by transparent information from the shopfloor, product development statuses, order history, price lists – all information that the ERP provides!

Additionally it allows the creation of sales campaigns, analysing campaign success and budgeting, CTI / TAPI integration of telecommunication systems, direct customer interaction and many more functions, that improve the reactiveness and speed of information providance to the max!

  • The intex Sales APP is designed for mobile management of orders, both sample orders and bulk orders. The sales staff has online access to the ERP customer database and can access the actual customer data such as contact person and data, sales terms and conditions, price lists, etc.. Furthermore it is possible to create new customers and contact persons via the smartphone or tablet. Thereby you achieve the fully informed and vivid sales process with an innovative impression in the customer engagement.

Sample Management

  • Scan QR Code of sample
  • In which sample make ups is the article available?
  • Scarf, waterfall, sample book, sample box, swap, swatch, hanger, sample meter full width, etc.
  • In which colours and finishes are samples available?
  • Call prices by customer specific price list
  • Create offers by customer specific price & conditions

Exhibition management

  • Sales booked on exhibition campaign
  • Online transactions
  • Real-time reporting

  • Full text search including Test features, Textile norms, Certificates, Material compositions, Process details, applications, visual search, and many more
  • Real time access to stocks in the core system
  • No double data maintenance
  • Seamless integration from shop floor to web
  • Even actual production status visible to customer
  • Price request by customer price list
  • Customer specific conditions
  • High degree of autonomy for outstanding customer experience

  • No separate Excel files necessary any longer in production
  • +95% less effort to maintain the master data
  • +98% less mistakes in the data
  • Search the knowledge base to reduce the R & D effort
  • Automatic generation of the BOM
  • Unique condition-based automation of process flow creation & management with all machine settings
  • Recipe archive independent from the BOM and process flow
  • Design archive with picture and enhanced search functions
  • Screen management for printing
  • Patterns, repeat key, heading, pegging, selvedge construction

With the intex textile MES for SAP S/4HANA you receive a add-on package for the sales order entry functionality in SAP. Our standard add-on is an optimized interface for the sales and distribution of textile products.

Keen to have more information than what’s listed below? Please contact our sales team!

  • Collections, Colours, Sizes
  • Manual allocation against single pieces on stock
  • Pegging between sales order and production order
  • Visualization of the order status in production
  • Sales can give reliable information about delivery to the customer
  • The early warning system informs sales automatically about delays and re-processings
  • Automatic allocation of production to the sales order
  • Less work for the sales team
  • The system ensures that the order will get the right lot (no thievery)
  • Conditioned and net weight
  • Gross and net meter
  • Demerit points
  • Shade groups
  • Piece length restrictions
  • Cut planning and optimization for carpets
  • Sample room application

  • Piece tracing in all stages (WIP)
  • Tracing carriers with piece sequence / piece cutting in  production
  • Automatic adjustment of the order quantity to the (balanced)
    raw material like yarn to dye or warp length
  • Interfaces to dosing, monitoring, inspection, colour metric,
    automatic stock, transportation ..
  • Inspection solution with reference to the big roll
  • Monitoring
  • Balance solution with labelling and conditioning for yarn
  • Re-processing
  • Planned pieces in weaving, planned warps
  • Back flushing material and monitoring differences
  • Balance solution for the dye kitchen

  • Multi dimensions per stock item like length gross, length
    net, weight gross, weight net, width, width net
  • Stock keeping by mobile barcode scanners
  • Automatic labelling
  • Process specific booking functions like re-beamer
  • Function specific dialogs for e.g. piece cutting
  • Stock overviews by attributes like colour and make up
  • Up to 150 textile specific attributes per stock item like piece
    was woven on machine

Why intex textile MES for SAP S/4HANA?

intex textile MES for SAP® S/4HANA is the certified specialized textile industry solution for SAP ERP. intex textile MES for SAP® S/4HANA expands SAP® S/4HANA by many textile specific functions such as master data administration, standard and actual costing, cut optimization, maintenance, invoicing, and others. Also in other areas, such as sales, delivery, buying, production, quality assurance and controlling, intex textile MES for SAP® S/4HANA delivers additional tools tailored to the textile industries’ needs.

Additionally, intex textile MES for SAP® S/4HANA forms an entire manufacturing execution system (MES). It takes the current manufacturing situation on the machine and the finite capacity into consideration, by evaluating the live data being delivered from the production data collection (PDC) system. This increases the reliability of the delivery date and optimizes the production.

intex textile MES delivers a solution for all areas and takes care of the integration of different systems and technical aspects. All operative documents are pre-configured for you to start over immediately. We can also assist with the technical support of your server and supply a helpdesk for the users. Our support team is there to help you in a fast and efficient manner and the hotline at our different international offices makes it possible to contact the hotline almost round the clock.

intex textile MES for SAP® S/4HANA has been developed for the textile industry. Therefore costly amendments and complicated customizations are unnecessary. The system is pre-configured and ready-to-run when it is being installed. intex textile MES for SAP® S/4HANA is flexible. In case, changes have to be made at a later date, the configuration can be changed. We have taken care, that the effort for administrative maintenance is as little as possible.

In order to keep your system up to date, we regularly release new versions which can be downloaded over the internet. intex textile MES is the only pure standard software on the global software market dedicated to the textile production industry that remains always able to updates. The installation of updates is fast and easy. In case you have requirements that we currently do not cater to, we will be happy to extend the software according to your wishes. This enables us to keep your system up to date in the future.