How manufacturing software solutions can streamline your company's activities

Manufacturers are constantly struggling to find new ways of reducing production costs so that they can offer their customers competitive prices.

This is because production processes have become increasingly complex and multi-faceted. Any business that designs and builds or produces a product, whether it is large machinery, auto parts, small household appliances, or software, can achieve tangible productivity and cost reduction benefits from the implementation or use of manufacturing software solutions.

Manufacturing software is a collection of comprehensive technology tools designed to improve the entire end-to-end process of designing and building a product. From engineering and planning through production and quality control, manufacturing software solutions provide businesses with the advanced technology to significantly increase efficiency, quality, and profitability whilst at the same time minimising overheads.

Sage UK is a leading supplier of business software and services to 6.2 million customers worldwide. It offers a vast selection of manufacturing software solutions to help businesses of all sizes overcome the day-to-day practicalities of running a business.

Steve Tattum, product manager, Sage ERP X3 & Sage Manufacturing, says: “A fully-integrated system can provide you with information management to plot trends, monitor quality, and respond to any failures that occur in the manufacturing process.”

There are several different types of manufacturing software but most provide a broad range of features, which have been designed to address the full range of production-related processes. These include engineering, which streamlines product design and configuration, and material requirements planning, which is used to balance supply with future demand.

Production management creates automated manufacturing processes and workflows with quality control enabling the implementation of proven, repeatable quality assurance processes.
Capacity planning is another type of software, which is used to identify growth trends. According to Tattum, this software is particularly useful for those businesses at the more specialised technologically-advanced end of the UK market.

“Capacity planning enables you to optimise the use of your resources,” says Tattum. “When you get into more complex scenarios you want to make sure that you are performing the operations in the optimum sequence to minimise the number of changeovers and to use the resources to their full capacity.”

Many companies today use mixed mode manufacturing software packages, which provide the flexibility to stay competitive, address customer needs and grow business.

With the market changing rapidly, in the UK in particular, it is important for companies to choose a system that can handle mixed mode manufacturing without putting undue load on the operators.

“Flexibility is absolute key,” says Tattum. “It is important that you are able to configure the product to work in the way that you operate as a business.”

Pointing to the software, Tattum says it too must be very responsive. “The software needs to provide information in an easy to digest manner. Gone are the days of huge 500-page reports that prop the doors open. If you see a trend, you do not want to run 400 reports to find out what is causing it. Information management, dashboards, and portals are crucial.”

Manufacturing software is continuously changing to keep up with modern technology. According to Tattum, Sage UK is tracking a number of trends in both manufacturing and software.

“We need to look at how information is being delivered and what the next generation of consumers is actually used to using,” he says.

In today’s society, with iPads and iPhones being the most sought-after presents this Christmas, information is mobile and portable. “We need to recognise this and deliver information to the users in a manner that is easy-to-use and easy-to-digest,” Tattum states. “Usability is really big.”

The manufacturers that will benefit most from the use of manufacturing software are those who currently use manual processes to manage key production-related activities such as demand forecasting, scheduling, and materials management.