Have you been asked to research an ERP solution for your manufacturing business? The very first thing you need to know is the manufacturing ERP features you need. And how they would impact your business. While each business would always require certain specific features, there are a few common features that most manufacturing companies need. These are also the features most popular ERP products are likely to offer out-of-the-box.
On the other hand, Industry-specific functionality is what differentiates ERP products. If you are looking at larger solutions such as Microsoft Dynamics, SAP S/4 HANA, or Oracle ERP products, these last-mile features might be provided by add-ons (built by system integrators). Because these products are meant to be slightly technical in nature. And designed for larger companies. Unless you have a very large IT team (as well as a budget), your best bet would be to find an industry-specific ERP where most such features are provided out-of-the-box for specific industries.
The main difference between manufacturing and the rest would be the natural support for BOM layers, scheduling, and costing. With the ability to report fixed and variable overhead separately for machines and operations. The non-manufacturing ERP would not have the costing layers with all the overheads. The manufacturing ERP systems will also likely have features such as replacing a component across all the BOMs. Or swapping out an operation for all the BOMs. The other ERP systems might take forever for such functionality. The manufacturing ERP, on the other hand, can perform them with one click.
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ERP Features for Manufacturers
Manufacturing
The manufacturing features are likely to differ most in ERP systems. While several ERP systems might claim (or pretend) to be manufacturing ERP systems, genuine manufacturing ERP systems typically have a tighter correlation between the materials and operations. As well as the operations and skill sets. These correlations help manufacturing companies have precise control over their operations. As well as reporting.
- Bill of Material (BOM)/Formula
- Material Requirement Planning
- Production Order Management
- Labor and Material reporting through mobile
Finance
- Accounts Receivable (AR)
- Accounts Payable (AP)
- General Ledger (GL)
- Cash Management
- Currency Management
- Multi-entity Accounting (If you have more than one location or entity)
- Fixed Assets
- Tax Management
- Financial Reporting
Inventory
- Inventory Management
- Warehouse Management
- Barcode Reading Capabilities
Order Management
- Salas Order Processing
- Purchase Order Processing
- Purchase Approvals
- Customer and Vendor Management
- Pricing and Discount Management
Conclusion
Knowing these standard features and what differentiates ERP solutions is critically important. In order to establish accurate selection criteria as well as priorities. Otherwise, you may end up selecting the wrong ERP product, which typically results in failed implementation and budget overruns.
