Enterprise Software Focus: Industrial Manufacturing and Distribution ERP Systems

Posted under ERP on Monday, 12 April 2010 by admin

Based on our experience with industrial and consumer products manufacturing and distribution firms, this industry has unique needs that are not effectively addressed by all ERP software vendors. Product configuration, job costing, and serialization are just a few of the challenges that make the manufacturing and distribution industry unique.

Below are some of the factors we tend to focus on when evaluating ERP, MRP, and other enterprise software for our clients in the manufacturing and distribution industry.

Industrial Manufacturing and Distribution ERP Software Systems

Demand forecasting
Advanced manufacturing resource planning (MRP)
Automatic scheduling
Standard costing
Product engineering
Product lifecycle management (PLM)
Engineering change notices (ECN’s)
Online product configurations
Inventory management
Consignment inventory
Quality control

Not all enterprise software solutions are able to handle these complex requirements, so it is important to conduct an enterprise software evaluation that objectively compares potential vendors’ ability to meet these needs. Companies that fail to select software that can handle some of these complexities often end up spending significant amounts of money on software customization, manual process workarounds, and sub-optimized business benefits.

To better understand potential options of enterprise software solutions in the space, you may be interested in viewing our comparison list of leading enterprise and ERP software solutions for the manufacturing and distribution industry. Our 2008 ERP Report also outlines leading ERP solutions and implementation results for manufacturers and distributors.

Finding the enterprise software that best fits your unique needs is the first step toward an effective ERP initiative with a strong return on investment.