ProductVision Formula Management (FM) Module is the ultimate Product Development software available to the food and beverage industries.  ProductVision FM streamlines formula management with automatic calculation of all nutrition property and costing information.  Query Features allow you to easily find existing recipes that may meet new requirements.  FM also offers the most versatile formula development, costing, and laboratory analysis tools in a scalable client/server environment.  Formula Management gives your R&D department the competitive advantage.

Manages the Entire Product "Life-Cycle"

ProductVision FM is a rapid product development tool that manages all aspects of creation of a product from initial concept through retirement.  All recipe revisions are automatically maintained.  Product development tasks can be tracked and controlled using the Projects and Workflow Modules.  Nutrition labels and ingredient declarations may be created automatically in the integrated Nutrition Labeling Module.  Detailed change tracking is available using the Auditing Module.  Approved formulas and raw materials may be “locked” to prevent accidental changes.  Historical formulas may be archived to separate them from your production recipes.

Increases Formulator Productivity

FM greatly reduces the effort required in creating new products and enhancing existing recipes. New raw materials and recipes may be copied entirely from existing items. Or you may create new items by "dragging" parts of an existing item with your mouse to the new raw material or formula. The flexible recipe editor allows freeform entry of an unlimited number of lines, including unlimited levels of intermediates. Instruction text may be inserted anywhere in the recipe to enhance readability.

Multi-level "where-used" and global component replacement features allows rapid and accurate substitution of obsolete ingredients. FM automatically performs all property and cost calculations quickly and accurately. Formulators can focus on what’s important -- creating and enhancing products for quicker release to the marketplace.

Developed Exclusively for Process Manufacturers

FM was designed to meet the special needs of food and beverage manufacturers. It efficiently manages input of all raw material information required for formulation. FM includes flexible formula entry, detailed product cost analysis, plus nutrition properties for ingredients and products. Features include formula re-bulking, user-definable units of measure, and automatic conversions between weight and volume.

Designed for Immediate Productivity

If you are comfortable using other Windows™ applications, you are ready to start producing recipes in FM. Common Windows features such as Windows Explorer, "drag-and-drop," and right mouse button short-cut menus are used to increase productivity and reduce the learning curve. The on-line help even incorporates "live" video clips to provide detailed demonstrations of system features.

Streamlines New Product Development

An unlimited number of alternate formulas can be created and viewed on-screen. Selected property values can be graphed for convenient visual analysis. Experimental formulas developed using "What-If" can be saved to the permanent formula file for future use.

Improves Customer Response Time

FM’s powerful query tool allows you to quickly locate existing products that match or approximate specific customer requests, thus allowing you to provide better service. Internally, queries save time and money by rapidly locating resources that can be substituted for others, formulas that can accept re-worked materials, or items that meet any user-selected combination of property, cost, or component criteria.

Provides Detailed Product Costs

ProductVision FM helps you get a true picture of your formula costs allowing you to price products for maximum long-run profitability. With line-by-line as well as overall formula losses, formulators can clearly define product costs. FM’s cost simulation feature helps you quickly analyze the effects of anticipated cost changes by allowing you to make temporary changes to recipe compositions or costs.

Enhances Flexibility and User Control

Throughout ProductVision FM, you will find extensive user-defined features for maximum flexibility. You decide what characteristics that should be tracked for your raw materials and recipes. Multiple descriptions may be entered for items to allow entry of location or language specific information.

Extensive Security Controls

A combination of password protection and multi-level user access rights ensures complete control over access to FM functions. Access to the recipe database is controlled through a two-pass login procedure that prevents users from accessing the recipes outside of ProductVision FM. Individual recipes may be secured by assigning security "types" which prevent unauthorized users from viewing or editing them. Approved recipes and ingredients may be "locked" to prohibit further changes.

Links to Other World-Class Software

FM ingredient and recipe information may be shared with most popular Manufacturing Resource Planning, financial, and plant and lab automation software packages. This eliminates duplicate data entry, reduces time to market, and improves information accuracy.