Foundry ERP software: what Fond/Wise is and how it works
Fond/Wise is RC Informatica’s vertical ERP for ferrous and non-ferrous foundries. It integrates every process in one system, from casting technical data to quality control and from production planning to costs and margins.
Why a generic ERP is not enough for a foundry
A generic ERP thinks in parts, bills of materials and standard routings. A foundry thinks in heats, alloys, charges, patterns, cores, yields and scrap. When a generic ERP is adapted, these concepts end up in custom fields, parallel spreadsheets and manual procedures — exactly where errors are born.
A vertical foundry ERP has these concepts built in. The foundry’s technical data becomes the foundation for scheduling, traceability, quality and costing.
Origins: in the foundry since 1994
The first versions of the software date back to 1994, when a working group of foundry managers, metallurgical engineers and software engineers was formed during the computerisation of a foundry. At the same time an important collaboration began with ASSOFOND, the Italian foundry association, giving RC Informatica insight into the organisational and production issues of many member foundries.
That experience produced FOND/WEB, a specialised, integrated and intuitive program that “speaks the language of foundries”. Fond/Wise is its evolution: the same process know-how on modern Microsoft technology.
What Fond/Wise manages
Technical data for castings, patterns, core boxes and routings; alloy management with spectrometer import; weekly and daily production planning and MRP; MES for shop-floor tracking; traceability from raw material to shipment; quality, non-conformities, scrap statistics and certificates; standard and actual costs and contribution margins; customer orders, split price lists, purchasing, warehouse, subcontracting, shipping labels and invoicing; OLAP, business intelligence and machine learning, PLC integration.
Technology
Fond/Wise is built on Microsoft technology and runs on PCs, tablets and smartphones. It supports the main cloud platforms, such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS, as well as classic on-premises installation, and natively integrates machine-learning and IIoT connectivity for Industry 4.0.
How a project starts
Every project starts with an analysis of the foundry’s processes by consultants who know the sector. It continues with migration of existing data (parts, patterns, customers, suppliers), customisation, training for offices and shop floor, and go-live, with ongoing support.
Because the product is vertical, in RC Informatica’s experience start-up and implementation times are far shorter than with traditional ERP platforms.
Fond/Wise modules
Technical data, patterns & dies
One technical master for castings, patterns, cores, dies and tooling, linked to production, quality and costing.
Learn more →Production planning
Scheduling of moulding, pouring, cores and finishing against the real capacity of lines, furnaces and flasks.
Learn more →Heat & casting traceability
From furnace charge to shipment: every casting linked to its heat, analyses, temperatures and inspections.
Learn more →Quality, scrap & certificates
Inspections, non-conformities, scrap cause analysis and automatically generated certificates.
Learn more →Costing & quotations
True cost per piece and per kg, consistent quotations and margins by part and customer.
Learn more →Orders, price lists, warehouse & logistics
Orders and deliveries, split price lists, purchasing, warehouse, subcontracting, shipping and invoicing.
Learn more →Alloys & chemical analysis
Components, chemical elements, melting loss, price trends and analyses imported from the spectrometer.
Learn more →MES & production tracking
Open and close orders on the shop floor, times, quantities, scrap and operator notes.
Learn more →Dashboards, IIoT & Industry 4.0
Dynamic dashboards, PLC, scale and barcode integration, and machine learning for Industry 4.0.
Learn more →Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between FOND/WEB and Fond/Wise?
FOND/WEB is RC Informatica’s original foundry ERP, created in 1994. Fond/Wise is its technological evolution, built on Microsoft technology and usable on PCs, tablets and smartphones, in the cloud or on-premises.
Which areas of the foundry does Fond/Wise cover?
Fond/Wise covers all foundry operations: engineering, production, quality, costing, orders, purchasing, warehouse, logistics and invoicing. The link to your accounting system is defined during analysis.
How much does Fond/Wise cost?
Cost depends on modules, number of users, architecture (cloud or on-premises) and customisation. Contact RC Informatica for an assessment of your foundry.
Want to see Fond/Wise running on your foundry’s data?
Book a demo with the RC Informatica team — foundry software specialists since 1994.