Various manufacturers catering to diverse industry segments give a real-life account on how an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system made lives easier for them and improved various factors affecting their business.
50% Efficiency Improvement in Inventory Tracking & Scheduling
With a robust ERP system, a Wisconsin-based versatile manufacturer operating 4 different profit centers from a single facility observed significant improvement in their manufacturing operations. They could keep track of inventory right from its procurement till consumption. Using bar-code and labeling integration, they could trace its whereabouts within the facility and between warehouses. Proactive automated alerts helped them to replenish stocks, thereby reducing overall production time. Maintaining optimum inventory levels ensured reduced storage costs and allowed efficient management of purchase orders. An overall increase in production, enhanced visibility, and real-time inventory tracking ensured increase in on-time delivery to customers.
They have seen almost 50% improvement in inventory tracking & scheduling efficiency, lower lead times and decreased operating costs across all their profit centers.
Inventory Turns increased from 2 to 7 annually
An Illinois based, custom-metal stamping and insert-molding company using a cloud-based ERP pointed out that their company’s on-time delivery exceeded 99% with OmegaCube ERP. They also utilized Inventory Management capabilities to increase inventory turns from 2 to 7 annually.
Efficient Scheduling reduced precious man-hours and labor
Another Illinois based precision metal products manufacturer utilized ERP’s integrated EDI and scheduling to automate its dynamic 52 week scheduling window. Prior to this, schedulers would download schedule changes and manually update the company’s shop control system daily. But EDI integration helped them to automatically generate net change reports for schedules, eliminating manual intervention. Also, they had a realistic assessment of job being done on time. They could update individual work center schedules every 90 seconds, ensuring that their employees are always working on the most critical demand schedules at any point during the day. Daily scheduling adjustments, which previously took 2 people 8 hours a day, now requires one person 2 hours a day. This means, that labor can be routed to other critical tasks and ensure increase in production.
Material Savings jumped from 2 to 4%
Savings extend to materials as well. By grouping material grades and thickness, they were able to produce more effective dynamic nests. With ERP, they were able to manage work schedules to ensure that parts remain on-time. As per the company’s President, “With our visibility into demand schedules, we know which parts we can pull in to get a more complete nest, get better utilization of material and estimate our costs much more accurately. Similarly, when we have jobs requiring material of like-thickness, our ERP pools those together into a single work-center, making work-flow much more efficient.” According to him, their material savings are in the 2-4% range.
Emergency orders for materials and tooling decreased by 75%
A Wisconsin based precision CNC machining company lists Inventory Management, Manufacturing Management, Purchasing and Sales Management modules as the most critical ERP features for their business. They credit the instantaneous nature of information within these modules for a marked decrease in emergency orders and inventory levels by over 75%. Automation of manual processes provided access to real-time data, enabling them to take effective and timely decisions. Increase in process efficiency led them to business growth with no additional resources.
It is without a doubt that an ERP if implemented as per the requirements works wonder for manufacturing businesses and helps them function in a streamlined manner with tangible benefits.
