Production Management Software
For every manufacturer, regardless of the company size and what you make, one of the biggest challenges will be production management. Manufacturing process automation along the production line using an ERP system will help you get more control and scale your business.
Production management and optimization is important for manufacturers. Let’s dig into how it can help you run a successful business and which tools can make this easier for you.
It’s essentially important to make it work for you the way you want. You can call it an optimization problem because the ultimate goal of production management software is to improve the efficiency of your shop floor and production line.
Production Management:
It refers to manufacturing operations management that involves planning, streamlining and optimizing the production line processes – converting raw materials into finished products.
The primary function of production planning software is to determine and achieve the right amount of quality products at a certain time and at the right cost. It’s all about achieving the desired manufacturing efficiency with the available resource and production capacity.
For this, you must figure out which manufacturing process will be a great pick for your business. Here’s a list of all manufacturing processes; you need to select wisely depending on what you make.
1: Discrete manufacturing: Producing different items based on an asynchronous model. You need to set up, change and modify the production/assembly line, depending on the nature of the products (parts or complete systems) to be produced.
2: Batch manufacturing: Producing the items in a specific quantity as per customer demand through sequential processing and testing across multiple stages (and often discrete facilities that follow a sequential model).
3: Continuous manufacturing: Producing items without interruption and in the same facility from start to finish – processing raw materials without hold time through a single, fully integrated workflow.
4: Repetitive manufacturing: Producing items in rapid succession. It involves ongoing production of the same item on a specific production line for an extended period using conveyor belts and employees/robotics.
5: Job shop manufacturing: Producing custom items using workshops and separate production areas – shop floors with distinct setup and manufacturing processes. Job shops typically involve small production systems to handle custom manufacturing.
The production management process includes any of the above manufacturing workflows which involve these key functions.
- Production scheduling
- Production monitoring
- Quality & cost control
- Maintenance of machines
Production management is essential for manufacturers to get more control of their business operations, but often it gets overwhelming. Therefore, it is highly advisable to find and implement a production management system that can help you automate and optimize these tasks.
Executing Production Management:
Implementing production management is mandatory to streamline and get more control over all your business aspects. For this, you need to make well-informed decisions at the following three stages of the entire process.
Production Planning:
Plan your production processes for shop floor and assembly line optimization. Here, you will need to decide why, what, when, and where to start the production and who will be responsible for the entire process.
Production Control:
In this phase of production control services, you will need to focus on product quality, manufacturing costs, and shop floor management.
Production Methods:
For improved production management, you will need to develop more efficient methods to produce and deliver the required goods and services.
Importance of a Production Management System:
Production Management System
Production management isn’t only recommended to optimize certain areas of your manufacturing business, but it is mandatory for business growth and sustainability.
If not implemented and properly placed in order, you will keep struggling to streamline your production line, and thereby failing to meet orders and losing customers. Here’s what you, as a manufacturer, can accomplish by comprehending the importance of an ERP production management system and its integration into your business model.
Achieve business goals:
By implementing production management processes and performing the detailed analysis, you can easily accomplish your business objectives. You can increase your manufacturing efficiency through effective and timely production of goods, meeting customer demands and expectations. This will result in having more satisfied customers and, in turn, you will be having accelerated sales and growing profits. And, this is the ultimate goal of every single business – profitable growth with sustainability.
Decrease manufacturing cost:
Production management is the backbone of lean manufacturing and its most essential function is to optimize your manufacturing throughput. A flexible production management system in place will help you reduce the waste (of time, materials, machines, and resources) and therefore, you can expect a lower manufacturing cost. When everything related to your production is optimized and automated, you don’t have to worry about the workers sitting idly because each resource will be best utilized. Moreover, you can easily manage your inventory without material waste.
Strengthen market reputation:
With properly executed production management, manufacturers can boost their brand image. With production analysis, you will be in a better position to raise your market reputation and get ahead of the competition as a business that manufactures and delivers quality products at fair rates.
For all these key benefits and more which you can reap by practicing production management and analysis in your manufacturing business, you need to do a lot of work. That’s why it is important to find the right tool – a production management software – that grows with your business and helps you get your production line under control.
In brief, production management optimization and automation will help you with;
- Production scheduling
- Calculating deadlines
- Tracking finished products
- Right material procurement
- Resource selection and allocation
- Monitoring manufacturing orders
- Calculating manufacturing cost
Besides, it will ensure improved floor-level management that will eventually result in increased manufacturing efficiency.
Bottom Line:
You get all this done by using a fully-integrated, highly scalable ERP software like MIE Trak Pro with a production management module. It will not only help you plan and manage the massive tasks of your production lines but will also help you add value to the customer by centralizing your entire manufacturing business into one system.