I don’t think there’s any modern manufacturing business which can grow beyond a certain size without having an ERP system in support. But how important is it that the solution you use be a full-suite solution?
The Role of ERP in Modern Manufacturing
As a business grows, more and more things need to be tracked, not just for records and analysis but as part of BAU; more materials in and out, more staff at work and therefore more paycheques to look at, more orders coming in (usually getting more complicated).
Any legacy spreadsheet is going to strain at this growth. There are three key reasons for that:
-
Legacy spreadsheets have to be manually updated. The more information needs to go in, the more time that takes – and the higher the risk of mistakes being made.
-
Spreadsheets aren’t designed for BAU purposes. Their main job is to retain information for later reference. There are lots of tricks out there to make them work for BAU tracking, but they’re pushing software in a way it’s not intended, and it can fail.
-
Many legacy spreadsheets are designed to be updated by only one person at a time. If you have multiple locations which need updates, you run the risk of data loss as team members save over each other’s work.
ERP systems are purpose-designed to provide businesses with the digital tools they need as they scale.
Full-suite ERP systems like IFS provide a business with a single hub for everything – production, warehousing, sales, HR – with a single database system at the centre. So when information is updated automatically, it stays consistent across the system.
So how important is a full-suite ERP to a modern manufacturing company? These systems provide the easiest and most reliable solution to a whole set of problems, and they reduce the risk of errors and the time taken to monitor and record data into the bargain.
To me, that’s a no-brainer.
If you’re looking for the experts you need to make a success of your ERP requirement, get in touch with the team here and we’ll be happy to help.
