Manufacturing ERP solutions must be as flexible as the business model you choose to maximize profits. Today’s manufacturers must experiment with new techniques, processes, and ordering methods to make the best use of the equipment and resources available.
Many specialized ERP solutions, however, cannot accommodate the ever-changing demands of a busy manufacturing facility. They aren’t as flexible as your customers demand that you be. The result? Frustration and confusion, plenty of manual data entry and reports, and an ERP that works only half the time.
We have good news for you. There’s a manufacturing ERP solution that’s as flexible as you need it to be to accommodate actual workflows at your facility: Acumatica. Emerald TC offers a free white paper, How to Find a Manufacturing ERP That’s Flexible Enough for the Job, to provide you with more information on how Acumatica supports rather than hampers your business’ need for flexibility. Download it today.
Adaptability Key to Successful Manufacturing
Adaptability has always been the key to successful manufacturing. Slim margins, rising costs, and increasing customer demands for faster turnaround and lower prices forces manufactures to be creative when it comes to scheduling and workflow.
Many manufacturing ERP systems, however, cannot accommodate the ever-shifting nature of such a plan. A rigid ERP system can hold you back. You need one that takes a flexible approach to job estimation, workflow, and order management.
High or Low Volume, Acumatica Handles It Easily
Consider food manufacturing for a moment. It’s an industry that typically sees high volume with low customization. A bottling plant produces bottled cola according to a set formula. Packaging, labeling, and ingredients are standard and formulaic. The only thing that might change is order volume and ingredient costs, which can be easily updated in a simple ERP system.
Now take a small-scale resin casting facility. This manufacturer might produce a low volume of items in batch runs of 50 to 100 at a time. Each run may be a different custom color. Job estimation software must account for special orders of color powders, time spent mixing the powders, and added time to stop the run, clean the rotational casting equipment, reset the machine, and start pouring again.
Yet that same plant may also produce higher volume batch runs, depending on customer needs. Small manufacturing companies like the one described above must be flexible in order to win contracts and remain cost-effective choices for their customers. Recording each unique batch, keeping good records, and billing according to specialized requests takes a flexible ERP manufacturing software that doesn’t require a computer programming degree to adjust to your company’s needs.
Hard Goods and Process Manufacturing
It’s not just low/high volume situations that require customization. Discrete and process manufacturing require completely different approaches to billing, order taking, and more.
Our example above also works to highlight the differences between discrete and process manufacturing. Discrete manufacturers use BOMs (bill of materials) with fixed costs to prepare invoices. Process manufacturers like the resin company manufacture products with ever-changing formulas such as the types of resin poured into the molds or the colors added to each batch.
Some manufacturing plants might switch between the two types in one facility. Flexibility becomes a big issue. Many companies are now embracing “made to order” clients who need both high volume, low customization and process manufacturing. In these situations, an ERP system must be flexible and adaptable. If it’s too rigid, it will hold you back from achieving the sales and profits you need to grow.
Acumatica: As Flexible as You Need It to Be
Shopping for new ERP software should be done with the long-term needs of the company in mind. One of the most flexible manufacturing ERP software systems available is Acumatica.
Acumatica cloud ERP is the leading enterprise resource planning system for mid-sized businesses. Build-in project management, accounting, financial, customer management and distribution suites offer manufacturers an excellent base package of products that can propel business growth.
Download our free white paper, How to Find a Manufacturing ERP That’s Flexible Enough for the Job, to receive additional information on how Acumatica supports a flexible approach to manufacturing.
To learn more about Acumatica, visit Emerald TC or call us at 678-456-6919.