3 Signs You Need a New Process Manufacturing ERP

Process manufacturing can be a good world to live in. Business rolls along nicely for years, batch after batch, but then you begin to wonder if it could be better. Is it time for a new process manufacturing ERP? Here are a few clues that this might be the case.

Regulatory Compliance Becomes Burdensome

You deal with cGMP and HACCP. You still need to worry about hazardous materials and maybe even environmental inventory tracking. The old ERP was once perfect but your compliance needs have changed.

You will find the newer the system, the more compliance requirements are built in. You will also find today’s process manufacturing ERP have wonderful reporting capabilities that enable quick and easy preparation of data to meet any regulator’s wildest desires.

You Are Not Getting the Most out of Your Equipment

The equipment needed in a process manufacturing environment can be expensive. Your business depends on mixing, refining, and otherwise converting your recipe into your finished products. You want that equipment running all day, every day, giving you your money’s worth on your big investments.

You need to plan your jobs carefully to meet the order dates with maximum up time on the machinery. Time between process cycles must be kept to a minimum. Changeovers must be planned to delay costly clean outs between production runs. At the same time, you want to produce as much grade A as possible to keep revenues at the highest levels.

New process manufacturing ERP systems will come with planning and scheduling tools to enable the maximum production possible while at the same time ensuring all equipment maintenance is up to date. ERP can also connect directly to the equipment over your network, so the ERP knows in real time the status of production and the quality levels of the product so you can tweak the processes immediately if needed.

Your ERP Is Generic and Heavily Customized

When your current ERP system was new, the selection of software was much more limited than today. Your ERP might be a generic system that you have learned to work with. You might have had to heavily customize the system to meet your requirements. If either of these scenarios rings true, it might be time to start considering new process manufacturing ERP systems.

Right out of the box you will find features you have wished you had for years. Yesterday’s work around will become tomorrow’s work through. Not only are you likely to find a good ERP that was developed for your particular process manufacturing niche, but you will find that it can be conveniently and easily modified to each users preferences.