Sage ERP: The Best Choice for Discrete Manufacturing

Manufacturing comes with a lot of logistical challenges. From managing your supply chain and sourcing raw materials to filling orders for multiple customers, there are a lot of moving parts and responsibilities that shift between different departments or teams. It’s easy for information to get misplaced or forgotten, leading to delays in order fulfillment.

 

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software helps increase discrete manufacturing automation. This helps companies reduce waste and streamline their manufacturing process, which boosts productivity and improves the customer experience.

What is Discrete Manufacturing?

 

First, let’s at the definition of discrete manufacturing. Discrete manufacturing is the name for a production process where the output is counted and tracked as per unit numbers that are measured in terms of weight or volume. It’s the production of finished products. Examples of discrete manufacturing include cars, furniture, toys, and airplanes.

 

Discrete Manufacturing vs. Process Manufacturing

 

The main differences between discrete and process manufacturing involve how products are made and the type of products produced. Discrete manufacturing involves putting together smaller components that can be touched and counted to form the finished products. The finished products can also be broken down into parts, and the manufacturing process does not change the volume or density of items.

 

Process manufacturing involves producing products using formulas or recipes. Finished products cannot be broken down back into their raw materials, and the manufacturing process changes the volume, density, and mass of items. Examples made using process manufacturing include soft drinks, paints, processed food, and pharmaceutical products.

Benefits of Discrete Manufacturing ERP

 

ERP software offers many benefits for the discrete manufacturing industry. Benefits touch all parts of your company, from sourcing raw materials to shipping finished products to your customers. Sage ERP offers manufacturers an easy way to track and manage their discrete manufacturing process flow, from planning and scheduling to cost tracking and work orders.

 

You’ll be able to view critical operational and financial data from a single system. Best of all, departments and employees across your company will have access to the same data.

 

The Sage ERP Manufacturing solution provides:

 

• Cost Tracking – Cost tracking involves tracking and managing production costs. This includes the cost of direct materials, direct labor, and a portion of factory overhead costs. Your ERP system will display cost tracking in an intuitive, user-friendly format that makes it easy to manage production costs.

• Estimating and Quoting – Businesses use manufacturing quoting and estimating software to generate quotes for their customers. These quotes are based on the costs of materials, labor, overhead, and anything else that goes into the production process.

• Sales and Work Orders – In manufacturing, work orders are tasks or jobs for customers. A work order covers the work performed internally by the company, and it’s converted from a sales order. Sage ERP simplifies the process of generating sales orders. It also makes it easy to convert sales orders to work orders and to assign work orders to departments or employees.

• Planning – Planning is the process of ensuring that your company has the inputs it needs to produce finished products on schedule. This includes making sure you have enough raw materials, labor, and resources to fill sales orders. Coordinating between that many departments and tracking that many moving parts can be challenging without the aid of technology.

• Scheduling – Production scheduling involves allocating sufficient raw materials, resources, and processes to fill customer orders. ERPs help automate this process and make schedules visible across your entire company.

 

Internal visibility is good; visibility for your customers is better. Fortunately, Sage ERP has you covered there, too. A Sage ERP integration gives your customers better visibility into inventory and pricing information. Best of all, this data is synced in real time, so your customers always have access to updated data.

 

On your website, customers will be able to see:

 

• Price Codes

• Price Level Discounts

• Customer-specific Pricing

• Quantity Price Breaks

• Price Level Override by Product Line

• Pricing by Total Quantity

• Pricing by Category Group

 

 

Visibility into Real-Time Product Availability

 

In addition to pricing information, customers will be able to see real-time product availability on your website. Your customers will know what’s in your warehouse. This helps align customer expectations with your product timeline, so they’ll know in advance if any products will be delayed because they haven’t been made yet.

 

Easy Reordering

 

Customers will be able to log in to your website and view their full order history. They’ll see outstanding and past orders, all invoices, and any tracking information. Customers will also be able to easily reorder previously ordered items. This is a huge time saver for customers who may regularly place large or complex orders.

Signs a Discrete Manufacturer Could Benefit From an ERP

 

How do you know if your discrete manufacturing business could benefit from an ERP, or needs a new ERP?

 

1. Business Model Has Changed – If your business model has changed, your current software may not fit your new business model. If you manufacture a wider variety of products than in the past, or if you now use an engineer-to-order model. Supply chains have grown more global and more complex, and that means you need ERP software that can handle the complexity.

 

2. Lack of Integrations Hinder Operations – Not all ERP systems offer similar integration capabilities with other systems. No matter how awesome your ERP is, chances are that your business will need to integrate it with other types of software. Your suppliers or customers may want to integrate their ERP with yours for faster order processing. Some legacy ERP systems may struggle with integrations or require clunky workarounds. If your employees are spending more and more time struggling with your ERP, it might be time to look for new options.

 

3. Too Much Reliance on Spreadsheets – If your staff relies on downloading information into spreadsheets and doing data analysis there, it’s probably time for a new ERP. Manual data analysis is time-consuming and prone to error. Automating data analysis is easier for your employees, takes less time, and reduces error. It also makes it easier to spot trends that you might have missed when relying on manual analysis.

 

4. Missing Opportunities – If your discrete manufacturing business is missing opportunities, it might be time to look into new discrete manufacturing software. The right software solution will help you stay abreast of market changes and adapt to stay relevant.

 

5. Inefficiencies Hinder Growth – Is your business struggling to keep up with growth? If your business is running into operational inefficiencies that hinder growth, or struggling to keep up with orders, it might be time to look into new manufacturing ERP software.

 

6. Greater Insight – Greater data visibility and insight into trends will help your business identify and correct minor errors before they become huge problems. It will help you increase production profitability and manage resources more effectively.

 

Ready to get started? See how discrete manufacturing ERP could help streamline your business operations and provide better service to your customers.