Cut Costs and Boost Cash Flows with Production Scheduling Software

Do you want to find out how leading manufacturers optimize their production resources and processes to become successful? Do you ever wonder how your competitors manage to cut costs, boost cash flows, and still satisfy their customers? How do they avoid all “those things” that prevent your organization from achieving “that” sought-after competitive advantage? You know…“those things” - such as high inventory levels, excessive waste, low yield, and poor delivery performance.

Do we have your full attention now? If yes, then we'd like to share exactly what you need in order to optimize production processes, cut costs, achieve new levels of efficiency, and last, but not least, increase your profit margin. This secret is a production scheduling software module, a module that needs to be a part of your ERP solution.

Production Scheduling Software – Is It the Answer You’re Looking For?

Also referred to as enterprise resource planning (ERP), production scheduling software is one module of many that can help manufacturing owners manage different areas of production, inventory, supply chain, quality, and even service management.  Supplemented with modules that satisfy other areas such as sales and financials, the software is able to centralize your operations by communicating with these other departments, while providing clear visibility throughout your company and assisting you in managing your business efficiently via one system. The next seven points illustrate how a production scheduling module can help your organization:

1. Managing Inventory: A production scheduling software module, such as Microsoft Dynamics AX (now Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain), includes an inventory optimizer, which helps you cut down costs by grouping inventory items according to the attributes you select; identifying the excess inventory that tends to become obsolete.  This tool notifies key personnel and suppliers regarding stock levels, tracking lead time and inventory performance, while also projecting future inventory levels.

2. Practicing Cost Accounting and Lean Manufacturing: Embedded with a powerful and transparent cost accounting software module, Microsoft Dynamics AX(now Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain) can revalue inventory based on recession-influenced changes in labor, material, and overhead costs. You can also enhance your operations with a work-in-process variance analysis, which will evaluate expenses and identify unrealistic time to decrease manufacturing costs. On the other side, lean manufacturing, including special features, such as cellular manufacturing, batch size reduction, product leveling, value mapping, and visual management, delivers an effective tool that aims to reduce your manufacturing costs by 30 percent.

3. Accessing and Re-Accessing Planning: Forecasting based on experience or, even worse, gut feeling is a risky practice. Production scheduling software helps you avoid guesswork by accurately predicting order creation, production scheduling, capacity planning, and load balancing. Accurate prediction optimizes your throughput, balances resource constraints, improves productivity, and reduces waste. The software also assesses initial time and cost estimates to determine the most profitable manufacturing methods. When the most convenient solutions are found, you can use the same software to implement and communicate changes across your organization.

4. Improving Purchasing Efficiency: Unlike an obsolete manual data entry system that may negatively impact your business by indicating inappropriate purchases, an ERP solution facilitates electronic data interchange between you and your suppliers, improving purchasing efficiency. Furthermore, the software tracks purchases, stock levels, and associated costs in real-time to help you make the most profitable purchase decisions. 

5. Implementing Process Control: The production scheduling software can be used to control the manufacturing process for purchased services. Based on job orders, the system provides a report that defines the necessary operations, specifies the tools, and even establishes the characteristics of the parts you need. By checking this report, you can order the necessary materials, machinery, and tooling to complete certain operations.

6. Boosting Financial Savings: With an ERP solution, you can optimize the use of receivable functions, which helps you improve consumer collections and credit management. Additionally, the accounts payable integrated feature is very useful in controlling purchases and price variations, analyzing vendors, and identifying supplier discounts.

7. Communicating with the Supply Chain: Based on cost and time metrics, the production scheduling software provides a basis for objective dialogues between you and your suppliers. After selecting the most advantageous offer, the software focuses on cost reduction and process improvement strategies.

A Microsoft Dynamics AX(now Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain) software solution also includes meticulous post-op examination features, double-checking quote accuracy, process time, convenience, and routing to identify more opportunities for cutting costs and boosting cash flows. Furthermore, the system is complemented with customer relationship management (CRM) functions to help you get more leads, close more deals, and save even more money.