Enterprise resource planning (ERP) helps manufacturers simplify their manufacturing and deliver a quality part on time, every time. An ERP system allows for the integration and management of a company’s core business functions, including production, shop floor management, purchasing and sales. The system leverages automation and real-time data analysis to improve overall performance. Its main purpose is to allow accurate and best practice management throughout the company.
ERP systems vary in size and complexity, so there are plenty of options to choose from. Regardless of a company’s reasons for pursuing an ERP system, choosing one requires a big commitment as many companies use their ERP system for years.
Here’s what Global Shop Solutions’ customers identify as the top 10 reasons they continue to rely on ERP software and technology.
1. Move parts through the shop faster. When parts move through the shop faster, customers will order more and the shop will be more efficient because:
- Schedules are efficient and accurate, based on true capacity
- Machinists always know what to work on now and next
- They know exactly what they have in inventory and where
- They instantly know the status of all jobs in real time
- Quality issues are corrected in real time instead of afterward
“Machinists no longer waste time hunting down routers, drawings, BOMs, POs or inventory lists. This adds up to a 100 percent increase in logistics efficiency.” – Advanced Plastiform
2. Schedule and deliver on time. Efficient, accurate scheduling lets shops deliver on time, manage change and uphold promises to customers. They can:
- Correctly estimate lead times
- Know the true capacity for machines, work centers and personnel
- Identify production bottlenecks in real time
- Instantly see how inserting a job into the schedule will affect other jobs
- Know the status of all jobs in real time
“Thanks to Global Shop Solutions, Becker Electronics Inc.’s on-time delivery rate has nearly doubled from an average of 50 percent to a consistent 99 percent. They attribute the remarkable increase to two key factors – the improvement in scheduling and production processes and the visibility of data throughout the system.” – Becker Electronics Inc.
3. Achieve quality ratings. Consistent, near-perfect quality makes it easier to win more jobs and earn and maintain ISO and other quality certifications. Engineers and machinists can:
- Always work off the correct document versions
- Identify bad parts as they are made rather than during or after shipping
- View in a single dashboard
- Take and document cause and corrective actions in real time
- Trace every part with 100 percent accuracy as it moves through the shop floor
- Easily produce quality documentation for ISO and other compliance auditors
“Last year, we achieved a quality rating of 99.67 percent (blended rate based on returns and in-process deviations).” – QTA Machining
4. Grow sales. ERP software provides a hidden return: sales growth from delivering a quality part on-time every time and knowing bids are competitive, profitable and margin-true. Sales can:
- Accept sales and have work orders sent to the shop floor within minutes
- Answer any customer question in a single phone call from a single screen
- Know job costs and margins to enable precise estimating and quoting
- Access an entire sales history instantly by customer or part number
- Take on more work without increasing administrative overhead
“Since implementing the software, our sales have grown by 600 percent with only a 300 percent increase in our workforce.” – Louis Industries
5. Know job costs. When a shop can trust the costing process, they know how much each job costs. Fast quoting and accurate pricing bring in new customers and bring back existing ones. The shop can:
- Track direct labor down to the penny for each job and job sequence
- Track material costs in real time as jobs move through production
- Compare actual versus estimated costs while the job is in progress
- Know exactly what they have in inventory and what it cost
- Know margins are correct by knowing true costs
“Prior to Global Shop Solutions, we couldn’t absorb our labor, manufacturing and overhead costs. They were all just part of total expenses. Now we have actual costs for every job, which enables us to make informed decisions about our production and installation processes.” – Spindle, Stairs & Railings
6. Maintain accurate inventory. Knowing jobs are never late from lack of materials or more expensive than they should be reduces risk. Precise inventory management features provide:
- Lot bin tracking that enables complete traceability of parts
- Physical inventory counts that are fast and accurate
- Barcoding of all material to know exactly what is in inventory and where it is
- Rarely paying expedited shipping charges for incoming material
- Having jobs that are never late due to lack of raw materials
“We know in real time the exact location of more than 4,000 items across three manufacturing facilities, and what’s in transit between them.” – Advanced Plastiform
7. Control labor costs. With ERP software, shop floor operators can log on and off jobs and job sequences without leaving their work stations. Collecting time and performance metrics becomes fast, efficient and accurate, which allows reduced and controlled labor costs. Shops can:
- Track labor down to the minute for jobs and job sequences in real time
- Reduce indirect costs by holding operators accountable for their time
- Track the number of hours in each job in real time
- Cut administrative overhead costs by simplifying and automating back-office processes
- Minimize overtime by reducing rework, overdue jobs and waiting for parts
“We’ve doubled our revenue since we’ve gotten Global Shop Solutions but have only added two office staff to the operation, and that’s the biggest statistic of all for us.” – Pazmac Enterprises Ltd.
8. Provide great customer service. ERP software lets shops stay one step ahead by anticipating customer needs and having all the information when they ask. Shops can:
- Access all customers from a single dashboard
- Drill down into any information about a customer from a single screen, from PO history to WIP
- Automatically alert the shop or customer when critical events happen
- Have customers answer questions about orders (such as WIP or shipping status) from a mobile app with the shop’s branding
“Without question, Global Shop Solutions has improved our ability to respond to customers. We get a lot of business by being able to quickly provide customers with a price and then sticking to it. We can do that because Global Shop Solutions makes all our costs visible.” – Conveymor
9. Gain competitive edge with technology, customization. ERP technology lets machines, systems and devices do much of the work employees do, allowing them to focus on decisions, thinking and improving the business. Shops can customize into the system what is special about their manufacturing. With Global Shop Solutions’ ERP system, they can:
- Have TVs throughout the shop floor broadcast TrueViews so employees know job status in real time and what to work on next
- Use tablets at each work center make collecting labor info easier and more accurate
- Move material faster using RFID, labels and handheld scanners
- Have all systems, from expense collection to machines and tooling, integrated with the ERP system
- Get rid of manual spreadsheets to store data because everything is in the ERP system
“Global Shop Solutions takes care of all our purchasing, scheduling, work orders, shop floor controls, new order entry, accounts payable and receivables. You name it and the software can do it.” – Alaska Roteq
10. Keep all company data in one accurate system. Shops can make better decisions and manage proactively based on data they can trust to be true. They know right away when something critical happens in the business, like a new deal, completed shipment or accounts paid. They can:
- Easily find jobs that were well below margins
- Review dashboards that show real-time shop, inventory and labor data
- Use KPIs to learn whether they are meeting, exceeding or lagging behind industry standards
- Improve accountability throughout the shop floor
- Justify price increases to customers by showing costs
“The visibility of data in Global Shop Solutions is superb. We can quickly find the information we need. We know it will be accurate and up to date, and we can format it the way we want to see it.” – Jensen Metal Products
