Manufacturing pain points

How ERP can solve them

Manufacturing companies of all types of products face a number of unique challenges. With a dated ERP system (or no system in place at all!) managing and adapting to these challenges can be very difficult.

If you are a Manufacturer, no matter what your product or service, chances are you have a demanding customer at the end of the assembly line. Therefore, your product needs to be the best in the industry, manufactured perfectly to spec, error free, must be ready and delivered on time…all at the lowest possible price. Easy right? Not without an integrated solution, that provides visibility in real time of what is happening on the production floor. Manufacturers aiming to keep up must look to new technologies that integrate all angles of the business and ensure productivity and efficiency, otherwise, the below challenges that manufacturing organisations face will forever hold you back.

Manual Data Entry consists of transferring and entering data, which can cause numerous problems and blockages in a business. Entering information manually is very time-consuming, no matter how fast one can type or process information, which will eventually lead to a delay in data availability. Human error is also a problem when it comes to data entry as misreporting on production lines may result in product complications and a misrepresentation of your production floor. Therefore, automation from an integrated software solution is the way forward to increase efficiency and reduce the margin of error.

Without correct manual data entry, managing inventory becomes a tricky task and can lead to frustrations later down the line.

As a manufacturer, you know that Inventory control is vital to the success of your business. This is because you need to be able to maintain the right balance of stock in the warehouses. If this is not done effectively, this can lead to profit losses as they could end up with too much inventory etc. However, managing inventory levels in a cost-effective and revenue- driving way can be very difficult. This is because keeping track of inventory by hand is very time-consuming and information heavy, therefore, uploading the correct data in real time is impossible. This will most likely result in the over purchase or lack of inventory causing delays, money and eventually dissatisfied customers if you can’t meet their demands. An effective manufacturing planning software needs to be put in place to help automate these inventory mishaps and give you real-time insights to available inventory.

Lack of inventory insight often leads to materials not being in place when needed. This could also be due to inaccurate sales forecasting.

With no visibility into sales forecasting, it will increase the chance of having shortages by having out of date raw materials, or none at all! Forecast accuracy is crucial to the bottom line as inventory investment is tied to it. It’s as simple as, without the raw materials to create the product, the production of goods stop. Customer deadlines are missed, therefore leading to unsatisfied customers. The sales and production teams need to work together but also need the tools such as accurate sales forecasting that filters through to orders.

Sales forecasting is important so that you can have the right levels of raw materials and stock in without leaving customers with massive lead times on products. Without accurate forecasting, you are likely to make inaccuracies in your scheduling for orders, as you will not know what is required.

Inaccuracies in scheduling is a common pain point for manufacturers. This is because someone is spending a lot of time reconciling schedules with what is happening on the production floor and what is already in stock. Spreadsheets are a good way to maintain lists of information. However, they can’t react to changes to the production schedule that occur every day when new orders arrive, orders are cancelled or when the customer requested delivery dates change. With the frequent changes that occur daily in manufacturing organisations, a spreadsheet can’t react quickly enough and will cause inaccuracies. A real-time system to support your scheduling challenges is required to support this and keep up with demands.

Your staff need the tools to do the job correctly. All of the above challenges can be solved with the correct software to manage the quote to delivery process with accurate forecasting leading to accurate MRP and stock levels. Your staff can have years of experience in their job role, but unless the correct tools are available, you have already made them less efficient as employees. Investing in ERP system is an expensive project that changes the workplace but if done correctly can lead to an efficient workforce with the information they need, when they need it leading to lower costs, as stock is available when needed and not over purchased. Customer satisfaction is at an all-time high as products are delivered on time and insights into the movement of stock due to the traceability trail is made available.

Written by Medatech Marketing