Business Planning and Control System

Business Planning and Control System (BPCS) is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software designed for an OS/400 system.^[1] BPCS is a series of software programs that are the largest software supplier for AS/400.^[2]

BPCS, the acronym for the software, is pronounced as "Bee picks".^[3]

Overview

BPCS was developed by Chicago-based System Software Associates (SSA), which later became SSA Global Technologies^[1] (which was then acquired by Infor Global Solutions), and is used to control the operations of manufacturing companies. BPCS includes MRP logic to manufacturing operations, provided there are high standards of data validity such as engineering specifications and inventory accuracy. It runs on several systems, with the IBM System i (previously named IBM AS/400 and IBM eServer iSeries), being most popular. It is written in AS/SET CASE tool, RPG, SQL and other IBM languages supported on the System i.^[2]

Many of the BPCS modules are stand-alone,^[1] in that companies can choose to implement only the financial applications for example, and none of the manufacturing.

SSA began developing BPCS in the early 1980s; by the mid 1990s the BPCS programs were used internationally.^[2] Inc. magazine ranked SSA as the 23rd fastest growing small public company in 1988^[2] and Business Week named it as the 25th best small company.

BPCS Applications

BPCS Applications are very dependent on BPCS software version release, because SSA enters into partnerships with different specialty suppliers of applications such as Data Mining, Bar Coding, etc. and suppliers that integrated with a particular version.

The BPCS Application suite includes:

Financial 12

Costing CST
Accounts Payable ACP
Accounts Receivable ACR
Billing BIL
General Ledger GLD
Cash Management CSH
Multiple Currencies MLT
Currency Translation CTR
Financial Assistant FIN
Fixed Assets FXA
Payroll PAY
Business Modeling
Data Mining

Planning

Most planning functions can be used in either Distribution or Manufacturing.

Forecasting FOR
Master Scheduling MPS
Material Requirements Planning MRP
Capacity Planning CAP
Distribution Resource Planning (inter facility) DRP
Planner's Assistant PLN
Simulations
Just In Time JIT

Distribution

Most planning functions are used in both Distribution and Manufacturing.

Inventory INV
Purchasing PUR
Customer Order Processing ORD
Billing BIL
Sales Analysis SAL
Promotions and Deals PRO
Performance Measurement PRF
- such as supplier quality and on-time, company performance in supplying customers, internal quality control
Multiple Environments, Companies, Divisions, Facilities, Warehouses, Locations.

Manufacturing