ERP system for production and manufacturing

Materials management covers the entire material flow of a company and ensures that all required materials are available on time, in the required quantity and at the right place. This includes the procurement of direct goods that are necessary for production (raw and auxiliary materials, semi-finished products, etc.), merchandise for resale and indirect goods (spare parts, office supplies, etc.).

Materials management has interfaces to many other areas of the company, such as controlling and financial accounting. The connection of materials management to purchasing enables, among other things, the efficient processing of orders, goods receipts and supplier invoices.

Manufacturing companies need efficient production planning that can be quickly adapted to changing product ranges and customer requirements. The type of production that predominates in your company plays a major role. Different types of production present companies with different challenges, whether it is individual, variant or series production.

High time pressure, complex products and networked processes must be able to be mapped. In addition, rush orders, delivery delays or other disruptive factors affect day-to-day business.

Functions such as scheduling and resource planning with a graphic planning board, company calendar with a flexible shift model, standard work plans using standard work processes and operational data collection to compare target and actual times help with this.

Once products have been manufactured, they must also reach the customer. Regardless of whether you are a series manufacturer or a special machine builder, both internal and external logistical processes must work together smoothly. From the warehouse to the goods dispatch, through customs to the construction site, transparency is required as to where the products are and what condition they are in.

Important functions here include warehouse management, automatic printing of shipping and return labels, customs clearance, batch and best-before date management, and shipment management.

Defect-free products, delivered on time and at competitive prices, that is the simple formula for satisfied customers. An ERP system helps to reliably ensure the quality of your products and processes – starting with the development process, through the material process, to the accompanying processes.

From complaint processing and analysis with suppliers and customers, test planning, recording and evaluation, action management, retention sample management, FMEA, audit management to the connection of test equipment and measuring machines, there are many functions that an ERP system can help with to ensure quality.

The development of product variants is made much easier by CAD software in conjunction with ERP software. Developers can simply access the existing data. Bills of materials do not have to be constantly adjusted manually. The connection to the warehouse means that it is always clear which items are still available to produce a new specification and which need to be reordered.

Discrete manufacturing companies mainly work with bills of materials. Bills of materials are lists that contain all the parts of a product. This means that it is always clear which items and materials are required to produce the end product. All actions and process steps for production are also recorded here.