Guide to Succeed with Supply and Demand and Manufacturing ERP

Growing manufacturers rely on balancing supply and demand. As a manufacturer, you know too little or too much inventory is bad for business. Optimizing inventory levels to minimize costs while maximizing opportunities is the key. Of course, it’s not easy to know what’s the right amount of inventory to predict what you are going to need when you are going to need it. This is especially true when you struggle with manual processes and disconnected systems. Successful manufacturers have learned over the years to invest in technology to help. Keeping your supply and demand in balance with automated integrated tools eliminates the errors associated with human related redundant data entry and other manual processes.

If you run a specialty food manufacturing business, you know you have unique requirements and must maintain the highest level of food quality standards to remain competitive. If you are a larger specialty food manufacturer your company produces 1,000s of tons of food monthly. Your company supplies thousands of retailers across North America. You carry a wide array of products and manage 100's of employees working in multiple manufacturing facilities, distribution centers and sourcing inputs from 100s of suppliers. Needless to say, your food business is highly complex.  

Download "The Future of the Supply Chain" eBook

Supply chain logistics is a rapidly evolving industry with a diverse set of requirements. Modern ERP software such as Dynamics 365 can solve so many dysfunctions in your operation. To compete today and in the future, you have many options to streamline operations such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, analytics software and big data. An ERP system is a good starting point to integrate your data and communications between sales order, CRM, eCommerce, inventory management, manufacturing, and shipping. The eBook "The Future of Supply Chain" is a 27-page guide to the new technologies that will move our manufacturing and supply chain to compete in the global marketplace. 

The supply chain of the future integrates all  functions and processes with modern ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software. Your investment in modern ERP software accelerates and streamlines your processes and reduces the risk of human error. Thereby, you are in a better position to cut costs and increase profits. You have more options and many are more affordable than in the past thanks to cloud technologies lowering the cost of ownership.  

Choosing new manufacturing ERP software that includes great general ledger, accounts payable, cash management, etc., is fairly easy. Decision makers should look for features like easy inter-company transactions perhaps for a complicated process, great reporting and drill-down capabilities. The manufacturer has a much greater challenge. In the last 20 years I have been selling manufacturing solutions and nine times out of ten, the business leaders are not concerned with how the GL or any of the financial modules work. They ask if the software has financial modules and do they work. Often our demonstrations end with financials, or we schedule them for another day, since really what the prospect wants to see is how the software will handle their manufacturing operations.

I came across this whitepaper by Nick Castellina, the VP and Research Group Director at the Aberdeen Group and thought I would share some of the results of a survey focused on manufacturing leaders: What do Manufacturers Look For in an ERP Solution? I have been following Nick's work for a long time. He provides insightful information for the manufacturing and distribution industries.

This article is going to try to sell you something and I do hope that if you are a small to mid-sized company you don't let that turn you off and read the rest of this article.  I have been selling business software to manufacturers and distributors for 20 years.  If I am selling into the small to mid-sized companies, I often find that the reason they need new software is because they can't function on their old legacy system. These systems can range from a custom database for operations, and QuickBooks for accounting, or software that even I have never heard of.  The focus of the business has been developing a customer base and ensuring plant equipment and inventory as the top priority.  They are talking to me because they are in pain due to the lack of the tools needed to do business in today's world.  Why not start with a decent software solution at the before your huge growth cycle?  This really has not been possible until now with the cloud ERP solutions like Acumatica a FULL featured business software that can be used on ANY device.  Please read on...

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6 Manufacturing Problems ERP Solves

Manufacturers face various challenges every single day. The challenges may vary from one manufacturer to another. However, there are common problems facing all the manufacturers alike. Some of these issues can be addressed using personalized company policies or well-designed SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures)  while others can be addressed by implementing a good integrated ERP system.

An ERP system is designed with numerous business applications which are then integrated within the system, but with each individual tool managing specific operations of the organization. Here are the six manufacturing problems that can be solved using ERPs: