What is PiQ, who does it serve, and where is it going in the future?

PiQ will be an entire suite of Business Process Management tools in the future, however, we will release it as a limited product intended to serve a specific market segment: Small manufacturing companies with little or no Information Systems to run their business.

If you use an accounting program to maintain your invoicing and financial reports, but you manage your orders and production manually (white board, spreadsheets, paper in folders, etc…) you’re about to make a huge leap in order and production management!

The first phase is designed to serve single-stage manufacturing companies with higher-volume production runs.  If you have several machines that produce the same part all year, other machines that run a part for a shorter time, and even some single-day runs, PiQ is for you.

In following development stages, we will add multi-stage production with a Bill of Materials and process mapping to manage your production in a pull system from end to end.  Multi-stage producers can benefit from PiQ immediately, however, by managing end-stage fulfillment.

Other modules are in development, including a time clock and a real-time quality management system to facilitate Statistical Process Control of production.

As we move forward, we will integrate more sophisticated operations management tools, including a real-time flow of materials and parts moving through your facility and a detailed understanding of cash flow. Project-based production management will help those customers with large projects, and that will eventually lead into process management for non-manufacturing companies, such as IT project management and customer service management. A complete ERP and financial management system will then be added to make PiQ a complete business solution.

Many new modules and improvements will be added to your basic subscription, others will be add-on modules with an additional monthly fee. Follow our blog to keep up with new developments!