If your manufacturing is process based, you must focus on few things before selection of an ERP system. The system must be made for process based manufacturing. Production part should be the strongest part of the software. It should be easy to implement and configure with less or no customization. Linking of manufacturing with inventory, subcontracting, purchase and other modules should be good and effective.
After implementing the process based ERP, your manufacturing process will give you the optimum results. You can improve your manufacturing process to make it more effective. It will save your precious time and improve your production capacity with better control on inventory, subcontracting and planning. Organization can take all decisions on the basis of information not on assumptions or predictions. All reports will be online, on a click of button you will get information of raw material, WIP reports, material lying in which process, material required by particular process at what time etc.
ERP for process based manufacturing work on the simple concept of integrating all the tools, machines and resources to optimize the efficiency of the manufacturing processes. In this type of system, production part must be the best part of the software. If production part is not a strong part in the software then you have to do lots of customization to meet your requirements. If you will involve in more customization software will not run smoothly and implementation time will increase. Most of the companies are charging on a man-month or man-hour basis for implementation, customization, training etc. In this case, cost of implementation will be very high.
Process based manufacturing ERP will reduces the inventory, reduce lead time for production, shorter production cycle, and reduce lead time for subcontracting and automation.
In process based manufacturing ERP, manufacturing processes work out of required materials for the manufacturing processes with unwanted materials not finding a place. This type of system will advocates smooth flow of information between all stages of the production cycle. It also ensures less probability of errors in subsequent stages of production and reduction in lead time. Every manufacturing process aims to produce 'A' quantity of product within a given time. A company can easily achieve this by shortening the production cycle time with the help of appropriate software. Automation is an inherent feature of almost all the process based manufacturing software. Integrating all manufacturing processes ensure that the chances of errors due to human intervention are minimized.
There are many challenges to implement process based manufacturing ERP in an organization. Firstly, the business owner or key person like MD must do well to manage the change in the organization without impacting the performance of the manufacturing process. Involvement of business owner or MD is essential in implementation. If it is not managed by the business owner, it may result in a lot of employee dissatisfaction. Secondly, the selection must meet the business line. If you are choosing wrong system then it will be pain for you for a long time.
