So, how many of you have updated the estimated cost of material and labor in your ERP system recently? ……Hmmmm. That’s what I thought.

Do you have any idea how accurate those numbers are? Are you making business decisions based on estimates that are completely inaccurate?

Consider switching from estimates to actuals. Furthermore, consider implementing an automated data collection system to make this easy. By collecting production and labor data real time, you can gain real insight into your business and you gain the ability to look at the profitability of individual jobs, projects and employees.

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

Cross Docking is the practice of immediately processing completed goods to fulfill ‘demand’ requests with minimal handling. Cross Docking automatically combines and performs Baan / Infor LN steps to fill demand and shortages at the time items are available. Shortages are sorted and filled by the oldest demand date.

Benefits of Cross Docking include:

• Direct and indirect labor savings resulting from operational efficiencies gains
• Increased inventory accuracy, reliable on-hand inventory information and improved data entry
• Increased productivity
• Increased customer retention due to faster, more accurate fulfillment

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!

1. Identify the key metrics. You need benchmark data so you know what realistic goals are, then track them and publish your performance along with a brief comment from time to time on how things are trending and how you compare with others, particularly your primary competitors. The best thing about this is that it is a system that develops a life of its own.
    
2. Measure it. Automatically, people start to think about improving things. Then the fun part, stuff begins to improve by itself. Once in place, the system just hums along and the benefits appear, because it has motivated people to think about it, and figure out what they can do to make it better.
    
3. Communicate it. Publish your numbers, and explain to people how what they do affects the company as a whole and its success/failure. Once they see the numbers, employees quite often start to modify their behavior for the better.

Optimize Your Manufacturing Today!