Why choosing the right light Manufacturing ERP is crucial for your organisation

Australia’s manufacturing sector is currently booming; expanding at its fastest pace in 15 years, according to a recent article by Business Insider.

In August, the latest Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) from the Ai Group jumped by 3.8 points to 59.8, leaving it at the highest level since May 2002, according to the article.

As a light manufacturing business, success in this sector relies on you being as productive and efficient as possible. You need to have clear, uninterrupted visibility over your supply chain – with the ability to see where inventory is at any given point, and you need real-time data to make fast, accurate decisions. You also need to have streamlined processes and controls, so you can work productively, minimise costs, and scale up or down based on demand.

Plus, you need to have end-to-end business management in place; with integrated systems and solutions that enable you to gain an overarching view of your operation at any time.

All of this relies heavily on having a reliable and easy to use enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution in place. With the right light manufacturing ERP solution, you can optimise every aspect of the manufacturing process – including production planning, project management, process scheduling, compliance, and mobile supply chain management – shrinking your total manufacturing costs by using an integrated platform.

At Leverage Technologies, we specialise in helping manufacturing businesses meet their ERP needs. Whether your business focuses on the assembly, kitting, process manufacture, discreet manufacture, configure-to-order or engineer-to-order, we can help.

Based on our experience, here are three key reasons why we believe choosing the right light manufacturing ERP solution is essential for your business:

Supply chain visibility and insight

Your business is completely reliant upon the efficiency and ongoing reliability of your supply chain. To stay effective and make accurate decisions, you need optimal visibility and insight – around the clock.

With a reliable ERP solution, such as SAP Business One, you can manage the complexity of the supply chain process, while keeping costs down and efficiencies up.  You can bring together all of your business’ data, gain visibility across your supply chain, and make far more informed, data-led decisions that can help you increase profits.

According to SAP Performance Benchmarking, manufacturing businesses that use SAP Business One experience an 8% increase in plan adherence, as delivery dates are integrated with material availability and real-time manufacturing conditions. This can have significant flow-on benefits, including improved customer service and cost savings.

In fact, with a quality ERP solution in place, your business can more effectively:

• Plan your production – optimise yield and increase the efficiency of your production processes.
• Control suppliers – increase the visibility and control of supplier information, from component purchasing to stock management.
• Manage inventory – view and report on component supplies in production and finished goods.
• Order information – Improve visibility into sales, orders, pricing, and products in your warehouses and dispatch.
• Speed up supply – with shorter, more tightly managed manufacturing cycles.
• Reduce supply issues – contain corporate liabilities relating to product batch issues.
• Save money – with lower overall procurement and manufacturing costs.

Streamlined processes and control

With a reliable ERP solution in place, you can significantly improve processes and controls across your entire business, and you can use real-time analytics to ensure you are operating in the most proactive way possible.

VELUX, for instance, is a market-leading manufacturer of roofing windows, based in Denmark. They manufacture in 11 countries around the world and are known for the high quality and nature of their products.

VELUX has a two-tier ERP strategy in place. Data is integrated from SAP Business One to corporate functions in VELUX’s HQ, which is equipped with SAP ECC. This gives the business overarching insight and far greater control. Real-time data is used to streamline processes and enable much faster decision-making.

“We are a global company and with a global company we need to have global support and we need to have very good software that can help us to support our business around the world,” says Thilo Sterner, VELUX’s IT Business Partner.

“It’s very important to have good software in our business that can help us in our operations and our business that we can use to serve our customers in a good way…it’s stable and easy to use,” adds Kenneth Goth Nielsen, IT Business Partner.

End-to-end business management

To compete in a rapidly growing market, todays’ light manufacturers need to operate in smarter, faster and more connected ways. According to Business Insider, 70 per cent of retail and manufacturing companies around the world have now started a digital transformation project for their supply chain and logistics.

With a solution such as SAP Business One, for instance, manufacturers can bring together all of the disparate information from across their business, and manage it all via the one, central location. As well as significantly streamlining the overall monitoring and management process, SAP Business One can save enormous amounts of time by removing the reliance on manual comparisons and reports.

C.R. Daniels, Inc., for instance, is a light manufacturer based in Maryland, USA, and manufactures metal, fabric and plastic products. As well as making their own branded products, they also act as an OEM – supplying products to other, larger manufacturers. Since adopting SAP Business One, the business has been able to stay ahead of the pack – enjoying better control, and complete integration of their business processes. It has helped them build on their core products and up-size when new products are introduced.

“Using Business One has kept us at the head of the pack by allowing us to do business the way bigger companies do business,” says Gary V. Abel, President and CEO.

“It’s a complete package. It’s already integrated and we didn’t have to know how to do all of it on day one,” he adds.

Why choose Leverage Technologies?

Leverage Technologies has extensive experience in the light manufacturing sector. Whether your business specialises in assembly, kitting, process manufacture, discreet manufacture, configure-to-order or engineer-to-order, we can help. We’ve proven, time and again, that we can quickly and efficiently implement low-risk, best-practice ERP solutions, and that we can deliver a lower cost of ownership for our clients.

Plus, when you choose to work with Leverage Technologies, you gain access to a team with extensive, shop-floor experience, and we can also offer manufacturing guidance to help you enhance your overall operational efficiency.

To find out more about SAP Business One, book a free demo today, or give us a call on 1300 045 046.