As manufacturing, processing, and assembly industries return to pre-pandemic operations, factories, workshops, and plant owners look for opportunities to recoup losses generated in 2020 by mandatory facility shutdowns. While many industries were able to successfully transition to remote operations, it isn’t easy operating machinery and processing raw material over Zoom.

Stakeholders and operators are looking at the shop floor as a prime location to cut costs and increase productivity, but this tried-and-true approach has evolved. To really optimize shop floor operations, stakeholders need to look to their ERP first – and make it do the work for them.

Below, we will take a brief look at some of the ways an effective ERP solution can help optimize shop floor efficiency:

1. Enhanced Inventory Management

Optimizing shop floor efficiency begins with advanced inventory management. Manufacturing ERP solutions provide state-of-the-art inventory applications that automate inventory tracking, predict the flow of goods through a facility, and simplify routine operations.

The right ERP inventory management systems accumulate data for generating thorough and accurate inventory histories performing intelligent analytics that integrate complex contextual factors into the analysis. The results are more precise analytics for shop floor managers and other facility leaders for better decision-making.

2. Improved Work Environment

Shop floor managers devote a significant amount of time and effort to monitoring individual worker performance and productivity. ERP solutions can augment this activity, helping managers track productivity by employee, task, or job.

By providing better insight into floor operations, manufacturing ERP highlights opportunities to improve personnel levels, team member training, and employee assignments. ERP solutions even give managers metrics to evaluate individual team member performance and ensure that the right people are tasked and trained appropriately, boosting employee productivity, both on the shop floor and in the office.

3. Advanced Bill of Materials

Shop floor production lines depend on thorough Bills of Materials (BOMs), detailing all necessary raw materials, assembly steps, and parts needed to manufacture an end product. ERP solutions help manufacturers develop multi-level BOMs to streamline workflows and optimize turnaround.

With multi-level BOMs creating clear production hierarchies and specific instructions for each step, manufacturing errors occur less and less. Configurable BOMs generated using an ERP solution also reduce the amount of work effort required to maintain product structures. This lets manufacturers produce finished goods at a quicker pace with shop floor efficiency.

4. Administrative Automation

One of the biggest advantages of implementing a manufacturing ERP solution is automating routine administrative tasks. When managers are focused on administration issues, they aren’t focused on the floor. Manufacturing ERP reduces the amount of time that shop floor managers spend in front of a screen by automatically performing repetitive operations, often doing so with greater efficacy than the managers themselves.

Integrated with AI technology, manufacturers get powerful tools configurable for complex operations. In addition, ERP solutions consolidate disparate shop systems into a comprehensive application that ensures interdepartmental cohesion, cross-platform compatibility and facilitates communication.

ERP for efficiency on the shop floor
Increasing efficiency and productivity is a continuous effort driven by ERP systems with capabilities for analyzing data and better roadmaps for the next stage of business. Optimizing manufacturing operations comes from knowing what an ERP solution can do for a company, so understanding these capabilities is paramount.

By implementing practical manufacturing ERP tools, opportunities to increase shop floor efficiency are easier to identify, strategic planning is more effective, and maintaining consistent productivity levels requires much less managerial effort.

The Future with Sage

Business growth comes from understanding what your organization needs right now to make informed decisions to meet your evolving business requirements. Sage’s multi-entity architecture stands ready for your business expansion goals and process automation that grow in complexity as you grow in size.

Moving to a cloud solution brings superior features to modern organizations. Sage Intacct offers intuitive reporting and analytics, a better, more instinctive user experience, modernized integrations, and anywhere accessibility for companies on the move.

Are you ready to make the switch? Contact one of our business growth advisors, and we’ll make sure you have all the answers you need to decide.