Manufacturing / ERP Integration
Vertically Integrate Your Enterprise
Manufacturers waste hundreds of thousands – even millions – of dollars year after year due to inaccurate and incomplete information about their operations. Immediate gains in many areas of a business can be realized by integrating your company’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system with the operational systems to give the right people (and systems) the right data at the right time to optimize business decisions, reduce manual efforts and errors and improve overall operations.
Lack of Data Sharing is Expensive
For example, the inability to quantify material consumption quickly at the end of a production run or batch can:
- Create delays in your supply chain
- Add inventory costs
- Increase labor costs
- Add friction to your processes
- Tie up working capital
Improve Data – Improve Operations
If your operation is not reporting material consumption automatically, then assumptions are likely being made to fill in the blanks based on the allocations defined in the bill of materials or recipe. These assumptions can create inventory inaccuracies resulting in excess material or stock outages which can stop production.
Many manufacturers address these issues via manual inventory checks and backflushing at the end of each run or batch, but this approach has critical inefficiencies:
- Produces lags in your daily processes
- Adds operating costs
- Reduces accounting accuracy
- Delays releasing orders if accounting procedures require the value of material consumed to be accurate before an order can be shipped
- Ties up working capital in finished goods inventory
This same idea also applies to quality specifications and quality result information. Next to safety, there is nothing more important than product quality. In an ideal environment, the master product quality specifications flow seamlessly from the ERP system to the production assets and personnel at the beginning of a production run or batch to ensure the correct quality parameters are matched to the product that is to be produced.
Then, at the end of the run or batch, the quality results are sent back to the ERP system and become part of the historical record for the order. If required, the certificate of analysis (COA) is generated automatically. Automating these procedures reduces manual efforts and the errors they inevitably produce.
Integrating ERP Systems is Essential
These concepts of seamless information flow can be extended to production order execution. Electronic communication of orders from the ERP system to the production floor, and the status of the production orders back to the ERP system, is an essential practice for any world-class operation.
If you’re currently using paper or white boards to communicate the production schedule or need to have timely and accurate information as to the current status of your orders, ERP integration is the enabler you’ve been looking for.
Lastly, no track-and-trace system is complete without vertical integration between the ERP and the production floor. This is especially important in the food and beverage and life sciences industries. Electronic integration between the ERP system and the production assets:
- Eliminates error-prone and inefficient paper systems
- Adds a level of granularity to provide greater accuracy
- Reduces recalls
- Satisfies regulatory agencies
Integration between the ERP and operational systems will reduce operating costs, protect your brand and take your business to the next level. MAVERICK has the experience, expertise and project execution capabilities to make this happen in an incremental and evolutionary fashion. MAVERICK is ready to partner with you to define ways to improve your business outcomes. Contact us for a holistic, platform-independent view and analysis, and start getting the gains you need to stay competitive.
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MAVERICK is ready to partner with you to define ways to improve your business outcomes. Contact us for a holistic, platform-independent view and analysis, and start getting the gains you need to stay competitive.