ERP Solutions

Competitiveness and efficiency are more important now than at any time in the history of the manufacturing industry. Manufacturers are pressed to keep prices low while coming out with new products that excite the marketplace.

To be successful, suppliers to manufacturing companies have to transform their businesses to become lean operations that are driven by demand and are focused on lowering the overall costs of their products. They need to create operational transparency necessary for reacting quickly while sharing the information that supports the entire supply chain while meeting the OEM’s needs. In many cases, there is also a focus on supporting the aftermarket channel efficiently by delivering products to dealers and retail outlets, often at greatly improved margins. Plus, many suppliers must pay close attention to the ever-tightening government regulations and environmental standards that demand strict accountability.

To meet these challenges, suppliers have to continually improve product quality while lowering product costs. One way to do this is to increase the flexibility of your design, manufacturing, financial, and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions. With the right technology in place, you can run these systems in ways that will improve operations within your own walls, open visibility in the supply chain, and increase your competitiveness.

Smooth supply chain operations

Efficient supply chain operations are a crucial element to profitable manufacturing. And creating efficient supply chains depends heavily on the IT systems that companies have in place.

With the use of familiar desktop software, advanced technology solutions can help you see into your customer demand signals and coordinate with suppliers to ensure fast and accurate deliveries. Agile, open systems also enable electronic kanban throughout the supply chain, delivering more effective real-time reporting and reduction of waste.

The right technology can also deliver the visibility required to understand current demand and see deeper into the supply chain instead of working from inaccurate forecasts; collaborate globally in real time on product changes that directly affect manufacturing; and integrate deliveries into production systems with the assistance of technologies such as RFID and bar code systems.

Streamlined engineering

A flexible and integrated IT infrastructure helps manufacturing companiesand their customers improve and streamline the key tasks in designing new products and getting them to market quickly. By extending enterprise collaboration, integrating workflow, and implementing information standards that work across an organization and in tandem with suppliers’ systems, you can expedite the design and delivery of new products.

Consider, for example, cross-company collaborative design and engineering. At one time this was difficult to achieve. Today it’s a reality that helps engineering teams and partners work closely together on technical specifications, 3-D drawings, and new product designs so they can reduce product development cycles and shorten time to market.

Meanwhile, integrated workflow complements and enhances collaborative design and other activities by reducing or eliminating the inefficiencies caused by slow communications and poorly connected islands of information. Integrating engineering with manufacturing operations, purchasing, and sales can also help you quickly move from design to manufacture of a new product.

Responsiveness to market demands

More than ever, manufacturers and suppliers have to respond quickly to the tastes and demands of their customers. They can accomplish this with a flexible, secure infrastructure that links suppliers and manufacturers together to deliver greater value to a more demanding and informed consumer.

For example, if the manufacturer sees customer demand in a new model accelerating, integration of suppliers’ systems enables a faster response leading to rapidly increased production. To meet these goals, you need a comprehensive view of the customer and your suppliers in order to assist in customer choices, help customers through service coordination, and enable integration of customer relationship management tools with quotations, billings, and manufacturing.

To meet these goals, you need a comprehensive view of the customer and your suppliers in order to assist in customer choices, help customers through service coordination, and enable integration of customer relationship management tools with quotations, billings, and manufacturing.

E3 Consulting stands poised to present your business with the overview and operations assessment to ensure that your business processes are efficient enough to maintain your profit margin while competing effectively in the global manufacturing market.

Call us today for a FREE business assessment to be sure your manufacturing or distribution company is competing at the top of the market and that your profit margin is sustainable.