According to the Manufacturers’ Outlook 2018, a publication put forth by Grant Thornton, more than half of senior executives in the manufacturing industry are expecting orders and sales to increase and profits to rise. The report also found that the top challenges facing the industry in the year to come are: controlling costs, pressures on prices and improving productivity.
With such growth in the industry and the trade’s current challenges in mind, it’s safe to say there’s a clear need for modern software solutions that streamline and organize manufacturers’ business operations. In this part of our “What is ERP?” series, we want to go into a little more detail on what Manufacturing Management ERP software is and how it can take your manufacturing business to the next level.
(For an in-depth discussion on the benefits of ERP, read the first part of this “What is ERP?” article series, for more information on ERP financial tools, check out part two and for details on distribution management ERP software read part three.)
Manufacturing is the process by which raw materials are transformed into finished products. In order to accurately manage a manufacturing process businesses’, need a collection of technologies and methods to defined how products are to be manufactured. When management of manufacturing is not effective, it can result in inferior quality, defects, and safety issues in products. Poor manufacturing management can not only affect your bottom line but could ultimately put you out of business.
Because of the constantly-changing nature of the industry and the various moving parts, manufacturing management needs to be dynamic and adaptable. For example, if your company is competing on price, your manufacturing has to focus on cost reduction and may implement lean manufacturing methods. A key to maintaining agility and establishing excellence in production is to adopt innovative technology when it helps achieve specific company goals.
Manufacturing ERP software, like Acumatica, solves many challenges and provides invaluable benefits to manufacturers seeking to reduce costs, manage growth, streamline processes and gain a competitive advantage. ERP increases efficiency and productivity by helping users navigate complex processes, preventing data re-entry and improving functions such as production, order completion and delivery. Further, an effective ERP solution allows manufacturers to proactively manage operations, prevents disruptions and delays, breaks up information backlogs and helps users make decisions more quickly.
Selecting an ERP manufacturing management and accounting system to run your business is a decision that will affect your company for many years. There are plenty of distribution management systems on the market, but only one is right for your business. The ERP you choose must support the technologies that enable faster access to more useful data to facilitate efficient, agile and automated processes.
Cloud solutions, such as Acumatica’s MRP ERP solution, give you the ability and flexibility to take care of business whenever from wherever (check out the Acumatica Roadtrip as an example). These solutions also provide real-time data from a configurable dashboard, customization, and updates from your software vendor to stay up-to-date on new best practices and regulations.
When picking the perfect manufacturing ERP solution for your business, consider the following requirements:
We’ve discussed what manufacturing management is, why it’s important for your business and some categories to consider when selecting one for your enterprise. Now, let’s take a look at what makes Acumatica Manufacturing Management Suite the most effective manufacturing management solution for your business.
The Acumatica solution is a complete, multi-site manufacturing control and planning system that integrates your production planning and shop floor with customer management, sales orders, inventory, purchasing, accounting, and financial reporting to provide real-time coordination of activities across your entire business.
Acumatica’s embedded manufacturing solution, (Formerly known as JAAS Advanced Manufacturing Software (JAMS)), is built within the Acumatica framework and includes many critical features for manufacturers. The multi-level Bill of Material (BOM)/Routing module presents both engineering and financial views of the product structure, while efficiently planning and managing your inventories, costs and manufacturing processes and maintaining full revision control. The Materials Requirements Planning (MRP) module is a powerful planning tool that enables your organization to satisfy customer requirements while maintaining optimal inventory levels.
FSC Lighting Inc. began as a fluorescent lighting manufacturer and later expanded to include LED lighting with an emphasis on controls, automation, and energy efficiency. For decades, the company ran on processes established in 1990 and Sage DacEasy, which wasn’t set up properly, lacked accountability and couldn’t scale as the company grew. FSC needed a solution that would help them scale their business as they transitioned from a very manual operation to an automated operation. FSC chose Acumatica for its flexible, scalable, cloud-based ERP and excellent value.
Before implementing Acumatica, the warehouse manager kept all sales orders, purchase orders and other paperwork out in the warehouse, and would match the paperwork with inbound receipts. Now, the manager can access the Acumatica dashboard and see items instantly as they come in and receive orders right into the warehouse. Another benefit for FSC is that they have been able to cut their invoicing time from as many as five days to a mere 20 minutes. Finally, Acumatica’s ability to handle multiple entities also allowed FSC to use the software with its joint venture partner in Taiwan. Overall, FSC lighting is incredibly pleased with all aspects of Acumatica.
“Acumatica and the processes we are developing are helping us double our sales without doubling our staff. The idea of being handcuffed to tribal knowledge is also going away. Before we had a hard time keeping up with growth, and now we can meet increasing customer demand.”
– Chad Treadwell, Vice President of Operations, FSC Lighting
Leading manufacturers are realizing that the many changes in the industry are influencing their profitability. Because of this, they have turned their focus to finding fresh ways to provide innovative products and exceptional service by adopting cloud solutions such as Acumatica and MRP ERP.
Looking for information on industry-specific ERP software solutions? Check out these posts that are part of our What is ERP? article series: