Best ERP for Manufacturing 

Despite the global market for ERP investment slowing down – reporting 8% growth since 2022 – it is still acknowledged that a good ERP system forms the backbone of any successful manufacturing firm.

It is also no secret that vendors remain keen to sell you their latest products. But what should you be looking for in your next ERP purchase?

With the growth of platforms such as Cloud, Software-as-a-Service (Saas), and financial and HCM Solutions set to further accelerate, manufacturers need to act now to find out what technologies and capabilities will be important in five or 10 years.

While it can never ascertained for certain what will transpire down the road, any forward-thinking manufacturer looking to increase efficiency should look for:

• Industry focused solution
• Real-time analytics
• Out-of-the-box system
• Easy to integrate the platform

Industry focused solutions

For ever-smaller niche sectors, ERP companies are becoming increasingly flexible in what they can offer. Think brake manufacturers, rather than general automotive makers. To give a company the edge over its competition, a specialist, tailored solution is required.

Manufacturers have often made the error of believing a vendor telling them their business doesn’t need a tailored solution, as the ERP product can already do everything. While this may be true, it costs the manufacturer both time and money as it waits for the implementation teams to configure the product to its needs.

Pre-configured or specialist solutions will save time and give a manufacturer what it needs. Pre-configured or specialist solutions will save time and meet a company’s needs, albeit not for a company diverging from its core business line.

Analytics

Analytics systems are designed to track the transactions across your business so that you know what is going on. But what manufacturers should be investing in is a knowledge solution that reports what you need to know at the time you need to know it.

Real-time analytics in ERP systems are improving in quality and given the emergence of cloud software, will become more important over the next few years. Moving ERP to the cloud can bring flexibility to your back office.

Cloud-based analytics can add real-time decision support that allows you to convert flexibility into efficiency, shortening production cycles, adapting to disruptions, and responding to customer demand before the customer even asks. Here lies an area where new solutions can have the greatest impact on a company’s competitiveness.

Companies that are looking to set up new ventures in new territories need to get up and running quickly. ERP cloud vendors are integral to achieving this.

Seamless integration

Companies either actively involved or planning in a series of mergers or acquisitions should consider how to cope with merging the ERP systems once this has been carried out. Vendors are offering several ways to do this.

The best use of international standards to access each ERP system and provide an integration layer. Some of the cloud vendors are moving towards Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offerings that perform this function. If M&A is important to a business strategy, then an ERP system with seamless integration built-in must be considered.

A manufacturer from a highly profitable prime company recently said the worst-case scenario of badly organised ERP is the breakdown of the business. In summary, the implementation of effective ERP is as crucial as the products in a manufacturer’s output.

Conclusion 

In closing, selecting an ERP system to propel operational evolution requires manufacturers to gaze further than immediate requirements and consider forthcoming technological trajectories plus lasting strategic ambitions equally. Rather than just reactively addressing transient discomforts, proactively partner with providers dedicated to holistically reinventing processes through specialised domain acumen. Seek solutions ready to synthesise real-time data signals into actionable direction. Demand integrable platforms poised to weave an increasingly complex value web with customers, suppliers and channels. Allow the flexibility of cloud-based architectures to future-proof ROI against inevitable industry fluctuations or corporate restructurings.

The responsibilities now shouldered by manufacturing’s digital backbone expand continually from not just executing transactions but actively informing decisions plus unlocking innovations. As global competition intensifies alongside rising consumer expectations,operations must synaptically link to insights that precipitate tremendous breakthroughs rather than incrementalist improvements. The stakes for selecting adaptable ERP systems ready to effortlessly incorporate emergent capabilities while securely upholding foundational activities accelerate exponentially. Programs that fluently speak the language of both machines and people will reshape what gets built as well as how modern makers reshape themselves. By resolutely raising standards on what solutions warrant consideration, the sector can realise visions of tech-charged strategic differentiation.