Integrated Business Systems Powering New Manufacturing Trend

Integrated business systems may be the hot new trend for manufacturing leaders today. The push to integrate systems so that information is shared, synthesized, and combined for new insights and useful actions is proving to be just what the manufacturing sector needs to fuel innovation and change. ERP systems are at the forefront of this technological revolution along with business intelligence, accounting, inventory systems, and more.

For more on successful integration and ERP, download IWI Consulting Group’s free whitepaper: ERP: A Strategic Growth Driver for Manufacturing Firms. In this paper, you’ll gain additional insights and tips for using technology to spur strategic growth. These tips, along with many others presented in these articles, may be helpful to your company’s growth this year.

Improving Speed Through the Manufacturing Process

One way that integrated business systems are helping boost manufacturing success is by improving speed throughout the supply chain and beyond. Contextual intelligence, or the knowledge gained from using data derived from multiple systems throughout an organization, helps companies keep pace with customers’ rapidly changing needs. Speedy insights gleaned from integrated systems are improving speed throughout many aspects of the manufacturing process.

• Real-time order status: Integrating ERP, CRM, inventory and warehouse management, and other systems ensures that customers can get fast responses to their order status questions. For someone anxiously waiting for important parts or goods, knowing the answer without delay may earn your company loyalty for future orders. It certainly saves time by improving customer self-service portals and other methods of helping customers find the answers to their own questions quickly and efficiently.
• Reaching time-to-market goals: Innovations must reach the market faster than a competitor’s in order to gain market share. Improving time-to-market speed is another way of boosting competitive advantages, especially in crowded industries with multiple, similar products vying for purchase. Real-time integration of ERP, BI, and quality assurance programs helps companies create better products faster and achieve their time-to-market goals. It saves time, provides milestones and checkpoints, and ensures that all working on the project have accurate, timely data to work from.
• Addressing product problems faster: Another benefit of integrated systems is addressing any potential flaws, problems, or recalls quickly, thanks to accurate data. When all your systems integrate and communicate with one another, noticing an uptick in the CRM system’s complaint status can help you pinpoint the problem and address it quickly before it escalates. Integration ensures that all parts of the company have access to the same data and can understand and respond in harmony to the questions that arise from product issues.
• Creating “smart” factories: Smart factories are factories built around the IoT (internet of things) and communication among the components within the factory including machinery, equipment, and raw materials. Barcoded materials indicate when stock counts fall below an accepted threshold; integrated systems can trigger a reorder, adjust time to market status, and more. Machinery can be better deployed for maximum efficiency in smart factories that “know” when to use certain equipment and when to power down. The use of sensor data and smarter factories means greater speed and efficiency throughout all aspects of the manufacturing process.
• Discovering connected products: Another benefit of integrating business systems is the ability to gain new insights into useful products. Some businesses even find ways to connect existing products, forging new and useful items out of the old. The integration of ERP, BI, CRM, and other systems points the way to potential new products made from old. This offers efficiencies, cost savings, and revenue potential for manufacturers.

Integration Made Easy

Integrating business systems doesn’t have to be hard work. IWI Consulting Group offers businesses assistance choosing the right Sage products for their needs. We can help you convert your company’s systems into a single, integrated solution that supports your business and enhances productivity.

Over 45,000 midmarket businesses in 150 countries using Sage 300 can’t be wrong. Reap the benefits of integrated business systems today. Download our free white paper or contact us today for a consultation. Call 1-866-916-3851.