Is anything more important to your manufacturing process than securing materials, managing orders, and payments, and having the right staff to run it all? I don’t think so. Thankfully, these are three specific areas where an ERP can help even the most advanced manufacturer.
Let’s dive a little deeper into each to see which ERP modules and tools might give you the biggest enhancement:
1 – Integrating Supply Chain and Production
Disruption to inventory, raw materials, and other supply chain elements can bring the manufacturing floor to a grinding halt. Thankfully, your ERP can help you with this and remain vigilant in identifying any further problems.
Using functionality such as purchasing and supply chain management modules, will allow you to see your operations at product and component levels, by looking back through suppliers and at your current demand. You can adapt schedules when there’s an interruption, or if the platform notices an increase in sales or other resource utilization.
ERP can help you track and record transactions from factory to factory, the modes they travel, customs management, and much more. It’s useful whether you run your manufacturing at every point or if you outsource different elements in different locations.
Want to avoid duties or other costs by having the final assembly in the country where you’re selling your products? Your ERP is there to help.
2 – Clearcutting Your Silos
Manufacturers have a lot of moving parts, no pun intended, because they often work in multiple roles. When you provide supplier services, but you are also a customer in the same product’s supply chain, things can get confusing. Many older software choices will keep these two functionalities separate, making your team export and import data manually or through old (and often clunky) custom integrations.
Modern ERP is designed to handle this through order-to-cash support on the supplier side of things which is integrated directly with procure-to-pay operations when you’re in the role of the customer. That significantly reduces your manual labor requirements and removes data silos so that everyone is working off the right information in the easiest way possible.
In some cases, ERP will also streamline your order and fulfillment processes, giving you a clearer picture of your operations in a single dashboard. It’s not common for these silos to still exist, but we have seen them alive in the wild.
It’s a smart way to gain increased efficiency and removal of outdated software that most of today’s companies demand during the ERP selection process.
3 – Helping Your People
Even in the most automated warehouses in the world, people still make all the difference. Human talent and resources keep your operations going smoothly. Your ERP will likely come with a variety of related modules and features that help you control payroll rates, track benefits packages, and even calculate new pay rates and associated costs when giving your star player a raise.
Most HR modules can be likened to quality assurance tools, helping you understand how each team member is performing. This simplifies decisions around training, managing shifts, and even what certifications you may want to require to get your team where they need to be.
Picking a smart ERP gives every manager and shift leader the tools they’ll need to schedule the right people to handle your production lines.
