3 Distribution ERP Features That Promote Business Growth

1. Order Management Workflow

A distribution ERP can provide workflow suggestions that are developed from parameters unique to your business. If an SKU is low-cost and you know from experience you will receive orders for it regularly, you could set up the parameters to allow the ERP system to suggest a purchase order sufficient to supply all the expected demand for the next several months.

Perhaps your top customer just placed another order today. That customer always wants the entire order delivered complete when the last item is on hand. A useful distribution ERP feature in this case would be the ability to ensure these sales orders to default to “ship when complete” so there is no request to pick the order until all items are on hand. These are examples of quicker and better decision-making enabled by a distribution ERP.

2. End-to-End Reporting Processes

Your distribution ERP should have transaction records going back years. Your system can use that data in many ways to help the business to grow and profit. Which customer is the most profitable? Which one orders the greatest volume? Your distribution ERP can break the data down to show the customers spending the most, the ones placing the most orders, and the ones placing the most lines as required.

Your distribution ERP should have transaction records going back years. Your system can use that data in many ways to help the business to grow and profit.

Your distribution ERP could also identify which supplier is the highest cost , it might not be the one you are thinking of. Other useful distribution reporting might cover the fastest moving SKU or the easiest bin to access. The same data could be combined with external data from any source to provide the information needed to create the most profitable growth in the most efficient manner.

3. Slotting & Cross-Docking Automation

Are you cross-docking products every time you get the opportunity? Or do you only identify these opportunities when it is too late? A distribution ERP can help you to match incoming supply orders with outgoing customer shipments and trigger a cross-dock every time.

Recommended Reading: find the right distribution ERP for you with these seven steps to distribution ERP selection success

What about slotting? Is every SKU in the optimum bin for today’s shipments? Too often we fail to keep up with the day-to-day changes that are difficult identify, missing out on the opportunity to make workflows run smoothly and with less cost.

Today’s distribution ERP systems will have these advanced features and others already built in and ready to help your business, but it is your responsibility to find the system to match your requirements.