Sage X3 and Sage 300cloud Improve Supply Chain Management

A big part of effective supply chain management is managing information. A steady stream of real-time information that updates your managers on where items are along the supply chain is invaluable. Software such as Sage X3 and Sage 300cloud (formerly known as Sage 300) can help you improve supply chain management by ensuring that everyone throughout your organization is kept informed about the location of resources, parts, supplies, raw materials, personnel, and orders.

The Art of Supply Chain Management

Your supply chain managers are the ones who ensure that everything moves smoothly from order intake to order production. They’re the ones who manage vendors, resources, and equipment to keep your operations running.

To do a good job with supply chain management, they need information. Sage software, such as Sage X3 and Sage 300cloud (formerly known as Sage 300), provides real-time updates on operations, finance, accounting, sales, production, warehouse, and inventory. Depending on the additional Sage software modules your company has chosen, you can get even more information flowing through your Sage enterprise resource planning system.

There’s an art to managing the supply chain, and it starts and ends with information. Sage ERP helps you stay on top of what’s important.

Manufacturing Bottlenecks: What’s Stopping You?

What are the most common reasons for manufacturing bottlenecks?

1. High demand: We’ve talked about how an increase in demand can cause bottlenecks. If you have trouble increasing production time to meet additional demands, you may need to review your processes and find ways in the workflow to reduce time or improve speed.
2. Broken equipment: Bottlenecks in manufacturing can also occur when one part of the supply chain breaks down. If an important piece of equipment is offline to be serviced or it breaks unexpectedly, you may experience a bottleneck. Service can be scheduled during downtimes more efficiently when supply chain management software is used.
3. Backlogs: Watch each point in the supply chain and measure points at the same time each week. Assess if any one area is causing a backlog. Then, investigate to find the cause of the backlog and how productivity can be restored. Look for the average productivity across similar supply chain points to find the optimal rate of activity.
4. Queue time: How long does each step take and how long do items wait in line before they move to the next point? It’s important to identify and eliminate elements that increase queue time. Factors that can impact queue time are drying time for paint or adhesives, cleaning time or prep time for components, and similar tasks.

The Solution: How to Remove Bottlenecks

To remove these bottlenecks, examine all four metrics and pinpoint the ones you can change immediately. While you can’t change how long it takes for paint to dry on a part, you can consider ways in which you can staff up to adjust for high demand, alter shift times to accommodate time to dry the paint or eliminate backlogs because no one sent the parts through the spray booth on time. In each example, there’s something you can do to impact the effects and duration of the bottleneck.

ERP for Manufacturing

Sage software makes several good ERP packages for all industries but, among manufacturers, Sage 300cloud (formerly known as Sage 300) is the most popular. It offers a solid foundation for growth while supporting your current business needs quite well.

Sage 300cloud (formerly known as Sage 300) helps you improve supply chain management as well as manage all aspects of your manufacturing business. With Sage 300cloud (formerly known as Sage 300), you can:

• Accelerate business processes by reducing time-consuming manual tasks.
• Provide everyone throughout the supply chain with critical information needed for better decision-making.
• Reduce and manage risks in the manufacturing process with real-time information.
• Make better, faster business decisions.

Another fine option to help manufacturers improve their supply chain management and overall business management is Sage X3. Sage X3 offers:

• Functional support across countries, locations, and languages.
• Ability to dig deeper into costs, risks, and questions you have about your business data.
• Tools to integrate business processes throughout multiple systems and resources.

Your company can only be as effective as its weakest link in the supply chain. Remove those supply chain bottlenecks, automate what you can, and put into place Sage software to support business operations. The results may transform your company and propel future growth.

Sage X3 and Sage 300cloud (formerly known as Sage 300) Available from IWI Consulting

IWI Consulting Group puts people first, especially our customers. We help businesses gain insights into their operations, inventory, and profitability. We provide software and support for a wide range of industries throughout Canada. For more information, please visit IWI Consulting Group or contact us today.