Produce Plus' six major traffic light indicators - Production, Quality, OEE, Performance/Efficiency, Costs, and Labour Performance - make it possible to compare current results with previously defined targets. The indicators were selected to concentrate on the most important production information for managers.

The traffic light colours provide a quick overview of the current status of a business: Green means "good" or "better than expected", amber is "acceptable" and red is "unacceptable". If a potential problem is identified, the user can access more detailed reports from Produce Plus's Global Reports Menu. From here, many more detailed reports can be viewed on screen and printed, to identify the area where problems may be occurring.

Produce Plus has many key features that are useful to any manufacturer, but are especially vital to many SME's. The main Produce Plus functions allow you to accurately cost line manning, total production, individual products and proposed new products.

It can provide managers with accurate ex-factory costs for each of their products at specific work rates and labour compliments. This cost takes into account raw materials, packaging, direct and indirect labour and allocated overheads. This function alone can be critical in assisting a company realise its true costs of production.

The software can hold information on different types of production, not only for products that are manufactured on a hand or machine line, but also for continuous or intermittent batching processes.

Produce Plus collates data on work rates for different processes and allows you to enter validation records for each work rate. The software will tell you how many samples should be taken to ensure a high degree of confidence in the calculated work rate.

Produce Plus is integrated with the PHAROS - Business Navigator. PHAROS provides the user with a general overview of business performance, whereas Produce Plus provides a more focused look at production and efficiencies.

Produce Plus is a unique practical training tool and is included within specific training courses developed by Mike Dillon Associates Ltd. The Introduction to Performance Measures course covers the methods of how to calculate:

· Overall Effective Efficiency
· Effective Line Performance

· Line Running Efficiency
· Line Utilisation

· Labour Performance
· Overhead Recovery

· Standard Labour Cost and Compliment

These concepts are then explored using the Produce Plus software tool within a factory or with case study data.

Courses are also available on the software and data collection methods alone, without covering the background to the calculations. The software can be provided with or without these training courses, as requested by the purchaser.

Produce Plus provides a business with an industrial engineering capability in a simple and easy to use tool. The software is an excellent training tool that can be used to raise the awareness of production management.