When considering a manufacturing ERP software, there are must haves and nice to haves. Considering the ability to or having a production order is an obvious must have. Some sort of printable batch/production ticket to make sure the production team knows what to do every time, accurately, is also a must have. These are very core and base level things you should have to match your business needs, but what nice–to–haves should you reframe as need-to-haves?
Integrated with Financials and Order Management
With the rapidly changing environment of inflating costs and material sourcing pricing instability, having the ability to track your production costs accurately is more important than ever. Sure, you could always do this manually in an excel spreadsheet, but can you really afford to take the time to do that when an integrated system could generate that information for you before, during, and after your production order?
Integrated Inventory Control
Accurate inventory is obviously critical for any business. When a single production transaction consumes 20+ different raw materials in varying quantities, can you afford to delay production because we don’t have enough of one single material? Even if substitutions for this material exist, how do you track that properly? How do you track the quantity of that substitution and accurately remove the quantity from your ERP? Having all of this integrated directly into your manufacturing ERP to automatically tell you what you are low on and what can be substituted will save time, headache, and having to tell your customer you have to delay their order.
Integrated Quality Control
We like to pretend that we make the best products every single time, but eventually something will go wrong. Even worse, what happens when you discover something went wrong AFTER the product was already sent to your customers? Being able to track lots/serial numbers (who they went to, when they went out, how much they got etc.) to recall the product can be critical. Even better having in process batch/production QC in place can catch these mistakes before they even get to having to recover bad product from a customer.
Production Scheduling and Material Planning
This almost comes as a phase 2 for an implementation if you aren’t already running this type of thing in your current software. These more advanced features aren’t used by every business, but you should plan to if you want to maximize your production turnaround and minimize dead time on your production floor. Knowing how much material you have vs how much you will need for the coming week(s) will be key in optimizing productivity.
Effort and a Good Partner
Implementations are always a lot of work, and to do them right, manufacturing ERP systems are paramount in getting things just right. This is going to require effort from your team, good data, and a good ERP partner to help you get things configured just right. A manufacturing ERP isn’t any good if you have to change your business to work with it. You should use your ERP partner to help the system fit what your business needs are. With a rich history in manufacturing, Xcellerated Solutions would love to have a discussion with you on how we can take the steps into the next evolution of your business.