A business is made from numerous building blocks; from Finance to Manufacturing, Purchasing, Marketing and they must meet their individual and collective goals to meet company overall goals where the ultimate success is how well they synchronize within and beyond!

How to select the right ERP solution for your manufacturing enterprise! A business is made from numerous building blocks; from Finance to Manufacturing, Purchasing, Marketing and they must meet their individual and collective goals to meet company overall goals where the ultimate success is how well they synchronize within and beyond! As any business grows, data that is to be processed and mange increases grow. On the other hand, complexities of workflow rise and becomes difficult to manage with pen and paper. Many companies who have initially functioned with spreadsheets and email already found out the difficulty to manage data/information with the existing outdated technologies and time-consuming processes in place. Moreover, the inability to keep up with the booming customer demand could derail any business sooner or later. Information being the most valuable resource of any organization, data processing and timely disseminating accurate information to relevant parties across individuals in a particular unit, between different units, departments, plant or even outside the organization has been identified as the key for the success of any business.

This is where ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software comes into play! Investing in an ERP is a vital decision to any organization, and it is often regarded as the DNA of a business! However, once you get to know the pros, letting an ERP manage your business resources would be an easy decision for you to make.

Apart from the main use of an ERP which is, bringing together disparate activities under a single integrated application, increasing operational efficiency which ultimately ensures customer success, there are ample benefits you get on your way to becoming #1 such as, increased measurable value for investment, data security, streamlined processes, superior scalability, enhanced employee efficiency and of course high customer satisfaction!

As many ERP solutions claim different benefits, it is important that you smartly choose the perfect ERP solution to suit your business. So, here’s a few factors that you need to take into account;

• Type of manufacturing (high volume/low volume or discrete/process).
•  Level of training.
• Operational simplicity.
• Coverage of core functionalities.
• Financial availability.
• Flexibility in adapting to different manufacturing situations (project, job shop, batch, mass).
• Future vertical and horizontal expansion strategies.
• Ability to adapt to short- and long-term goals of the company.
• Ability to upgrade with new technologies for improved functionalities, increased effectiveness, and efficiency.
• Security and privacy.
• The number of users allowed.
• Personalized dashboards for a greater experience.
• Additional functionalities it provides.
• Ability to integrate with other software and platforms.
• Proven track record in the industry as well as other industries.
• The flexibility of hosting methods available.

Again, considering these elements only will not be effective if your service provider cannot fulfil and cater to the needs of your company effectively. Thus, we need to review and appraise their knowledge and comparison knowledge in multiple industry-leading ERP vendors. Another important thing to consider is the stability and experience they have catering to your industry, related industry and beyond the industry. A good ERP partner would be transparent and provide accurate as well as independent opinions about their ERP products which help you to take correct decision concerning the benefit of both parties.

Most importantly the ability to provide long term commitment which extends from implementation of a system to aftersales will help your company to operate without any bottlenecks.