How to Better Use Your ERP System?
Executives are struggling to keep up with inflationary raw material prices, elevated customer requirements, margin pressures, and the lack of people to fulfill key roles. Thus, they are looking to their ERP system and related supply chain technologies for answers. Given the lack of talent and the cost prohibitive nature of an ERP upgrade, CEOs are choosing to search for alternatives to support profitable growth. Thus, simply better utilizing your ERP system is quite attractive as it will turn an already-existing underutilized asset into a strategic advantage in the marketplace, supporting profitable growth.
How do you benefit from the Use of ERP / Systems?
Manufacturing
Manufacturing leaders will gain visibility into work center, staffing, and the master production schedule so that they can optimize production runs and minimize changeovers and costs. They will also gain insights, improve efficiencies, automate steps, improve quality control processes, and reduce inventory and costs.
Engineering
Engineering leaders will gain visibility into workload requirements to support drawings, customer approvals, and bill of material designs. ERP and related systems such as configure-to-order (CTO) quoting systems, PLM, and 3D drawings will speed up progress, save on engineering time, and improve communications.
Purchasing
Purchasing leaders will gain visibility into material requirements plans (MRP) and outside processing requirements so that they can work with suppliers proactively to meet customer requirements while minimizing cost. They will also gain purchase insights, improve efficiencies and streamline workflows.
Logistics
Logistics leaders will gain visibility into storage, warehousing, handling, picking, packing, shipping, transportation, returns, and equipment requirements so that they can plan accordingly. With WMS, TMS, inventory optimization, ASRS, AR, VR, and digital twins, they will gain efficiencies, improve quality & increase safety.
Finance
Finance leaders will gain visibility into sales forecasts, staffing plans, and inventory projections. Thus, they will have revenue, cost, profitability, and cash flow projections, and they will gain insights into customer and product profitability, improved processing efficiencies and business analysis and scorecard capabilities.
Sales & Marketing
Sales and Marketing leaders will gain visibility into their sales forecasts, quotes, and order backlog. They will also gain high levels of service for their customers with on-time-in-full (OTIF) levels, shorter lead-times, and high ratings on customer scorecards. They also will gain greater responsiveness and customer value.
Planning
Planning leaders will gain visibility into the demand plan, sales orders, quotes, replenishment orders, and work order status so that they can develop the best master production schedule (MPS) to optimize customer service, operational efficiency and working capital. They will gain high service levels and increased margins.
Blog posts for Better Use of ERP
Although the Supreme Court ruling changed how tariffs are implemented, it did not eliminate them. With new trade agreements taking shape and additional negotiations underway, manufacturers and distributors should focus on strengthening supply chain resilience, profitability, and flexibility to navigate the evolving trade environment.
In this Supply Chain Byte, Lisa Anderson discusses why manufacturers must align demand and supply at each step of the supply chain, using California’s oil and gas and refinery capacity challenges as an example of how reduced capacity can create ongoing pressure and an operational bottleneck.
Lisa Anderson explains why AI cannot replace a formal SIOP process. While technology can improve analysis and decision-making, successful planning still requires strong business processes, cross-functional alignment, operational discipline, and organizational accountability.
