SMB Manufacturers Gain the Most from Their Technology Through ERP Integration

The wonder and inspiration of Industry 4.0 and the associated disruptive technologies and outstanding innovations–the advent of the 5G wireless technology, the power of IoT, machine learning, artificial intelligence, robotics, additive manufacturing, emerging developments in WiFi and Bluetooth technology–means the companies who stay abreast of technology and integrate it into their organizations stand to be leaders in their fields.

It’s not good enough to go through life remaining static with any technology. Consider the advances made since the 1980s when bag phones and mainframe computers were the way of life. Business technology advances as well, at jaw dropping speeds. Winning strategies include focusing your efforts on your most important goals, staying up-to-date with the most current software available and integrating ERP software throughout your organization.

ERP Integration

We view an integrated ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system as a highly collaborative and efficient method of gathering and moving data throughout the digital nervous system. A solid ERP system should sift, sort and manipulate the data into information that is clear, concise and necessary for every individual’s continuous need throughout the company.  Connecting the ERP software to other systems outside of ERP, (point solutions) like CAD software, sales tax solutions, IoT, etc., ensures information easily flows and is available throughout your company. Without ERP, companies operate in segmented, walled-off, siloed compartments. The sales department operates autonomously from operations, which operates separately from accounting, warehouse, shipping, production and so on. They don’t operate as a unified team and lots of wasted manual, redundant work occurs. The entire process is time consuming, confusing, wildly inefficient and expensive to sustain.

Introduce and integrate ERP into your manufacturing business processes and you have a system of interconnected business applications. Integrated ERP manages your enterprise and automates many back-end business functions and departments such as accounting, human resources, inventory management, payroll, scheduling, customer relationship management (CRM) and more. The right ERP system will minimize the time and resources wasted on manual, repetitive tasks that consume profits. The better approach is to focus that time on improving and growing your business.

Here is the best part. The added efficiency gains enable you to grow the business without investing another dime in your personnel resources. The key is to harvest the redundancy that is consuming time in your current level of business and refocus it on new business.

A powerful ERP solution that manufacturers choose is Infor CloudSuite™ Industrial (CSI/SyteLine) ERP. It minimizes the wasted time, and allows you to make personalizations or adjustments to the software that allows the software to adapt to the nuances in your business. CSI/SyteLine is scalable, easily supporting companies from small to enormous, from single location to dozens of locations, from national to global. The flexibility of the software allows your company to grow tremendously without replacing the ERP in industries like Industrial Machinery & Equipment, Metal Fabrication, Precision Machining, Medical Devices and more. Those companies all benefit from the automation and efficiency that covers all aspects of operating their manufacturing companies; from accounting to shop floor management, and from prospects and customers to vendors.

Aberdeen Research, in a recent report, points to some of the integration benefits and capabilities of ERP among industry leading companies to include:

• Real-time collaboration across departments and divisions
• Operations integrated and coordinated with customer service, logistics, and delivery
• Ability to share and integrate data with the extended enterprise (suppliers, customers, distributors, etc.)
• Ability to quickly change business solutions to react to business change
• Full visibility into quality data.

Indeed, manufacturers stand to benefit from ERP business integration. 

Takeaways

As Aberdeen urges, “All companies that are planning for the future must start now to develop an integration strategy that accelerates time-to-information and decision processes that need to happen in real time.”

Improve visibility and communication across the entire organization particularly with a solution like CloudSuite Industrial which is flexible enough to be personalized to your business your standards, your process and procedures, will help you get the most out of your technology.