Top 9 critical features for discrete manufacturers
From smartphones to high class SUV and as basic as electric toys, most items that we use in our daily life are produced through the process of discrete manufacturing. Most of the items we use today are a complex of various components that manufacturers assemble to make a ready product.
The manufacturing process of discrete products is one step more complex than the manufacturing of items made from the assembled important components. To address the unexpected demands of the production and customers, a discrete manufacturing business should have reliable and powerful software that supports them with impeccable planning and execution.
To ensure everything is one track and managed with execution, discrete manufacturers have started embracing advanced technology-driven approaches like - discrete manufacturing ERP software to address the demands and fulfill the orders accordingly.
If you’re a discrete manufacturing business owner and seeking a powerful solution to address the unexpected demands of your production and customers then this blog is for you.
Here we’ll help you get acquainted with the power of the discrete manufacturing ERP system and how it can establish efficiency, precision, and productivity in your discrete manufacturing workforce.
What Is Discrete Manufacturing?
A discrete manufacturing process creates specific, individual products that we can see and count. Those products are typically made of several components or sub-assemblies – for example, toys, cars, and airplanes. However, small elements (like nuts, bolts, or plugs) are also included in the discrete manufacturing category since they are created as separate, countable items.
What Is A Discrete Manufacturing ERP System?
At its core, a Discrete manufacturing ERP software is a revolutionary highly-advanced interface that supports manufacturers to track and control the visibility of every aspect of their production process like- inventory management to keeping track of customer information and making it accessible and accessible for the organization.
Reporting and analytics are never easier when information is updated in real-time. With one integrated source of information, discrete manufacturing ERP systems cut down on redundancy and errors while promoting integration and efficiency.
Benefits of Having Discrete Manufacturing ERP Software
The benefits of implementing a Discrete Manufacturing ERP system are far-reaching. This powerful interface shares a unified interface powered with advanced tools that establish efficiency and visibility in your workforce. Here, we've listed some significant benefits of having Discrete ERP software, including-
Powerful Automation
The Discrete Manufacturing ERP system provides accurate information and makes it accessible to everyone in the company. Organizations can use the automation module to automate and streamline core business processes prone to error if performed manually.
Improved Decision Making
ERP systems are powered with a robust analytical feature that predicts the stored and previous data records, ensuring your discrete manufacturing company can stay on top of market conditions with forecasting and insights.
Cost Savings
An ERP will help you reduce costs, handle manual, time-consuming processes, improve productivity, minimize personnel and labor costs, and ensure lower error rates and product issues. Inventory control and market forecasting handle supply and demand challenges. Production planning ensures your warehousing is under control.
9 Critical Features for Discrete Manufacturers to Stay Competitive
Inventory Management
A robust and cloud-based ERP inventory management module will let you know your stock safety, reorder levels, and cycle counts in real time. This real-time information will help you plan your production per the demand requirements.
You can track the status and location of every inventory item. Inventory management systems will also bring any potential shortages to your attention so that you can correct them before they occur.
Supply chain Management
A supply chain management software system provides alerts and notifications when actual or potential disruptions occur or opportunities are available. Supply chain software is integrated with other ERP modules to help with complexity. Supply chain management determines what materials are needed and when you need them.
Advanced Planning & Scheduling
Advanced planning & scheduling management systems help manufacturers click and drag to move the production of an item from one planning to another production planning. You can easily interact manually with the schedule to make changes and then push out updates to the production staff.
With the help of advanced planning & scheduling, you can take complete control of your account business objectives, forecasts, demand, and capacity constraints to know how much product they make, when and where to make it, and what materials and resources are required for an optimized production schedule.
Shop Floor Execution
Shop floor execution allows supervisors to see the production status from anywhere using any mobile, laptop, or desktop device. When operators log in, they can all see their assigned work and report on the status of jobs as needed.
The shop floor execution ERP module allows managers to assign workers to specific machines on which they are perfectly trained. You can also determine the productivity of each shop floor worker and see how long they take time to complete a task.
Quality Management
Manufacturing ERP quality management system allows you to see the data information in real-time on how many items were made, and you can set a quality standard so that each product passes through quality standards and produces qualitative products.
You can keep track of all raw materials, work in progress, and finished goods. A suitable ERP quality management system will execute inspection production plans and checklists and control quality tests against products, equipment, and people.
Material Requirement Planning (MRP)
Material requirement planning modules will always help during production. It can consolidate demand, production, scheduling, and inventory requirements. It uses sales orders and patterns to forecast inventory and calculate the accurate raw material quantity needed for production. The material requirement planning feature helps define the operational capacity of prior resources and distribute the workload.
Job Costing
Job work management ERP systems provide data from different ERP modules, such as inventory management, procurement, and shop floor execution, to determine accurate job costs. Real-time information allows you to calculate the cost of each job.
Manufacturing ERP solution allows manufacturers to quickly examine estimated costs by personnel, department, work center, material type, operation type, work orders, and more. You can also analyze the difference between standard and actual costs by date range, work order, sales order, lot number, etc.
Production Management
The production management module includes a Bill of materials and material requirement planning feature to complete a list of materials and resources needed to complete a job. Production management can manage the procurement process of raw materials or services, including automated quality control checks.
In production management, BOM revisions can be tackled or alternate ones created to make sure the updated documents are associated with the correct production run. Production management allows you to set specific machine tools to monitor performance, prevent out-of-spec production runs, and maximize profit capacity.
Business Intelligence & Analytics
Business intelligence and analytics in Absolute ERP systems reveal the pattern so that they can lead to actionable data. Manufacturers can improve their cash balance visibility and sales performance using Absolute ERP analytics and financial Business Intelligence. It can also forecast future outcomes and discover opportunities and areas needing improvement to guide strategic business plans.
Conclusion
So the bottom line is that there isn't no one size fits all solution as different ERPs offer different features. Hence, it's crucial to know your company's goals and needs before implementing any ERP system. Your short and long-term goals will help you to determine what you’ll need.
Absolute ERP functionality can play a vital role in your business and also helps to improve your overall business performance. The key is to find a suitable ERP partner to work with and a modern system that can meet your business requirements now and in the future is difficult, however you can invest your time on research and choose wisely.