Smart Manufacturing Needs Adaptive Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) to Complement It

Data is the new master key that can solve any problem or any issue. Smart Manufacturing is all about getting real time data with the help of technology and utilising the same to take an informed decision either by Humans or by Machines, and ERP is the backbone of this decision support system. Gone are the days when ERP was just a transaction processing system used mainly for compliance or to do post-mortem analysis. The ERP of 22nd century is rapid, adaptive, agile and effective. It takes data from various input point, be it in the production line, supply chain or even the product demand shared by marketing and sales to give meaningful insights and help take right decisions.

How does new generation adaptive ERP complement Smart Manufacturing?

It’s at the centre of all collaboration: The new generation ERP systems can process mammoth heaps of data coming through thousands of connection points to help users across the organization have access to relevant data in real time and initiate actions based on it. It also allows them to instantly communicate and collaborate with other team members and people outside the system. Be it the Planner, Material Handler, CXO, Customers or Suppliers it provides meaningful data for everyone. For instance it can take inputs from the production line and give information to the planner, on the production levels or machine downtime helping them to take corrective measures to meet the production targets. It can create a work order for the maintenance engineer and send him alerts if the machine is down or malfunctioning. ERPs can send alerts to the Material Handler in the warehouse and help raise a requisition if there is a material shortage or the parts received are faulty. It can provide Supplier Performance Reports, Customers schedules and demand performance and lot more.

Provides Agility: The modern ERP systems are agile and can integrate with most add-ons or third-party extensions. These are architectured such that it can take care of the present and future needs of integration with any system.

It’s all on mobile: The big words like smart manufacturing and huge chunks of data makes one believe that we need large computer screens to access an ERP system. Well, that’s a myth. ERPs today are capable enough to bring the data from smart manufacturing to the mobile devices providing flexibility and facilitating decision making on the go.

Asset Light: The on-premise vs on-cloud debate is dead. The low upfront investment of the Cloud based ERP system give companies more option to invest into their core focus areas or smart technology to gain competitive advantages. In the world of Mergers and Acquisitions, the cloud based ERP can be extended to the new team supporting easy and rapid on boarding and ensuring the best practices and core models are implemented at all locations.

By Mr Debajit Roy, Country Director, QAD India