Monthly Archives: January 2012

ERP for SME’s

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For any size business, choosing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software system is a challenging proposition, but that’s particularly true for the small to mid-size market (SME). All the major software suppliers want to sell million dollar systems to multi-nationals. Their offerings to the SME market are either “dumbed down” versions of their larger programs, or they just put their label on a package supplied by a third party developer. Either way, an SME buyer can wind up paying top dollar for a package that wasn’t designed for their unique needs, or they have technical issues that take forever to get resolved.

We represent a company that provides an ERP solution designed specifically for small and mid-size businesses and targets their unique needs. You get to deal directly with people who have over thirty years of experience in this market and understand the need for flexibility, reliability and low risk. In fact, they’re the only company in the industry that offers a full money-back guarantee on the software and implementation!

The first thing to consider if you are thinking about a new ERP system is to write down your specific business reasons for buying a new system. Most people get too many quotes and get overwhelmed. If you don’t have a plan going in you could easily lose track of what of you need and buy what someone is trying to sell you rather than what you need.

Some of the most common reasons to upgrade:

You’ve outgrown your software – Many SME’s start with Quickbooks, Simply Accounting or some other generic package. They’re good products, but as you grow your business and expand your capabilities, you will outgrow them.

Multiple Software Systems – As holes developed in your capabilities, you added software to address each particular need. Now you have several systems that don’t talk to each other, aren’t used across departments and it’s increasingly difficult to get the information that you need, when you need it.

Month-ends are getting longer – Related to the last point, accounting takes longer and longer to get all the information together to close out each month as they reconcile different software systems and spreadsheets.

Your clients want more – Are you losing business or not making profits because you don’t have access to current information about your products, or does it take too long to get it? Is your inventory system not current, leading to delays? Worst of all, are your customers starting to comment that you’re not performing as well as you used to?

The solution to all the above is an Integrated Business Solution that will give you current access to all the information that you need to run your business in real-time, without having to wait for a month-end process. Using an integrated solution allows you to track accounting, multi-warehouse inventory, a planned manufacturing system, purchasing and inventory as well as giving your salesforce immediate access to current pricing and inventory levels in multiple currencies so you can respond to your customers quickly and reliably.

If you feel like you’re spending more time trying to work with your existing software than you are on actually doing business, it’s time to look at a new ERP solution!

Some satisfied clients talk about the benefits of our software:

“We needed the tools to obtain accurate reports, better processing, efficient inventory management, better sales tracking… your system not only fit the bill, it did it easily…so we noticed right from the start… an overall increase in the clarity of our mission…”

VP, mid-size manufacturer

“Ours is a high-volume, high inventory rotation environment. We receive raw materials by the trainload, and deliver to scores of customers throughout the state. I wanted great software and I wanted to make sure that it was easy to use, I recommend it for any size business.”

Operations Manager, distributor

“Absolutely critical to our operational control is the ability to track supply chain distribution from start to finish. We assessed quite a few possible software solutions, but it was your system that fit the bill. Through its batch tracking capabilities, we gain the advantage of reliable identification of product and component batches – so critical for HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) in the manufacture and processing of food products.”

VP Operations & Planning, food processor

Contact us today to find out how we can help your small or mid-size business become more efficient and profitable!

Increase Productivity and Overall Equipment Effectiveness

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Operational and Enterprise Intelligence solutions acquire data in real-time and provide enterprise-wide visibility, including key operating data, consumption, profitability, efficiencies, capacity and cost data. These systems are easy to deploy, asset agnostic and have payback periods of only a few months.

When a leading manufacturer of quality packaging materials in North and Central America wanted to improve plant performance and reduce operational costs, they faced two main challenges. The first was transitioning to an automated  data collection process without significant downtime, the second was to translate the automated data into a measurable value that could tie-in with their operator’s incentive program.

Our OEM provided a real-time reporting and analysis solution that was rolled out to nine plants in total. Management was provided with real-time reporting and analysis capabilities that provided visibility into operations to support planning and strategic decision making. At the plant level, they provided real-time visibility of equipment performance to each operator with an LED display located above assets on the plant floor which empowered the operator to take immediate action to improve machine performance as issues occur rather than after the fact.

Installation of the equipment in each plant was easy and completed in only half a day with virtually no downtime. According to the client’s project manager, “The product was highly intuitive and within a few hours our operators were trained and interfacing with the system without skipping a beat”.

As a result of the implementation, the client achieved their goals of improving plant performance and reducing costs. Make ready times were reduced by 36% and run speeds increased by an average of 23%.  This was accomplished with significantly reduced operator involvement as there was also a 65% reduction in labour required for reporting.  “Eliminating our manual data took out the guesswork. We no longer question the reliability of our machine data so we are able to make production decisions with confidence”, according to the project manager.

The client had incentive programs in place where operators received bonuses based on individual accomplishments. With the new system installed the company was able to assign accountability and identify key contributors to reward them appropriately during performance reviews. As a result, operators aspired to higher levels of operational excellence, promoting a culture of continuous improvement.

“Our operators are more proactive and better equipped to improve the output of their machines while supporting our productivity goals. At the same time, our management team is able to make better and more informed decisions based on real-time equipment information. Within the first few weeks of installing the system we identified a significant amount of unused capacity on our die cutting machines. Knowing exactly where to focus our efforts, we increased our Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) by 40%. With this additional capacity, we deferred the purchase of additional equipment, saving us millions of dollars in capital investment” according to the client.

The client’s project manager said  “We are truly leveraging the skills and knowledge of operators with this system. It has elevated us to a whole new level of productivity and we are closer to our vision of manufacturing excellence”.