When is the last time you took a hard look at your production lines?

• How are we moving product through our facility?
• Do we have work instructions / drawings available where needed?
• Do we have frequently used inventory available at the line?
• Where are the bottlenecks?
• Are processes automated, where possible?

Taking a hard look at your processes and procedures may reveal some interesting results. Don’t assume that everyone is doing things the same way. Some may be superstars, and others may need some mentoring. Some processes may be outdated and costing you time and money, while others are extremely efficient. One area of the business may benefit from how others operate. Take the time to review and analyze your findings. Your company may benefit greatly as a result.

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

Such lofty goals you had when you implemented your ERP system. It was going to be like pressing the “Easy Button”…  then it wasn’t.

What happened? In some cases, decisions were made to implement the system “just like we used to run our old system”. Great idea? Not so much. Your business changes, and your business software needs to change as well.

Have you looked at streamlining your processes?Are you using the ERP system, but everything seems cumbersome and takes more time than its worth? Ask yourself these questions:

• Can you automate a step or two and eliminate some manual keying?
• Can you add barcoding to avoid keying in some information altogether?
• How about automating the printing of some reports?

Now is the time to sit down and really review the steps required to complete the task and think out of the box a bit. Soon you can develop your own streamlined process to get the job done quickly and efficiently.

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

OPERATIONS: Update, Cancel or Remove Outbound Order Lines

FINANCE: Currency Differences Accounts

TECHNOLOGY: Advantages of Data Replication

Instead of sharing tables through logical linking, you can replicate table content between companies. This approach allows certain non-key attributes of a record to vary by company. For example, if you replicate bills of materials rather than sharing them, each company can associate a different warehouse with the same bill of material. This way, the bills of materials are consistent across companies, while the warehouses can differ.

Replication also enables selective availability of records in other companies. For instance, when replicating items, you might limit which items are available in a sales company based on their item group, only including end items. You can further refine replication to specific subsets, such as particular item groups.

Keep in mind that replication requires any referenced tables to be either replicated or shared as well.