First and foremost, what do we mean by the term “productivity analysis” in the context of manufacturing?
Productivity analysis refers to the process of differentiating real data over the predicted data of output and input measurements and presentations. In manufacturing, productivity analysis is an essential factor that allows manufacturers to keep track of overall productivity - such as maintaining records of the data concerning the employees, looking at their productive hours, wage costs, overtime and overall just keeping everything in check. Productivity analysis is also relevant when it comes to maintaining data concerning the workplace- recruitment, insurance, supervision, reduction in waste and energy use and other overheads. So, what kinds of ERP modules would be used for productivity analysis in manufacturing?
An ERP module focuses on one area of business processes, for instance, developing a particular product or marketing it. The widespread ERP modules include those for product planning, purchasing material, inventory control, marketing, finance, so on and so forth. That being said, the types of ERP modules that businesses would be expected to use in productivity analysis in manufacturing are listed below:
Financial management: Modules of this kind are high on demand with every business, and it is arguably one of the most beneficial modules that you could implement in your ERP program. Since finances are the backbone of the business, a well-working finance management tool will be able to work with every department of the company, including productivity analysis. The financial management module would be able to use real-time sales data to add up all revenue as it is earned. It'll also help significantly in aggregating, and managing how money moves throughout the company, ensuring maximum and efficient productivity, showing you better productivity analyses. Reporting can also be included in this financial management module as reports are crucial in managing finances, immensely significantly improving the growth of actionable insights through advanced data analysis. More so, financial statements can give businesses a helping hand in keeping executives aware of the company's financial structure.
Production module: A production module is beneficial to help the manufacturing industry in delivering the product. This module consists of many essential functionalities, such as production planning, machine scheduling, and usage of raw materials, constructing a bill of materials, track daily production progress forecasting and real production reporting.
Supply chain management module: Optimizing supply chains is necessary; however, it isn't always done efficiently. Supply chain management is complicated due to its large number of moving pieces. That's why integrating this module with the rest of the businesses system is beneficial. Real-time data is a very vital feature of supply chain management. The ability to make decisions entirely based on the most recent information is a tremendous positive side to those who have it. For instance, with real-time visibility of the supply chain, complications in product or distribution process could be swiftly identified. Manufacturers can also measure the amount of average time required to produce a product and collate that to the rate at which the product is being developed today. Businesses can better plan for future demand with highly relevant statistics. Demand forecasting is also another critical component of a supply chain management module, using predictive analytics, the supply chain management module would be able to predict future demand for products or services. This information can be used to create a production plan that can meet needs but would not be able to exceed it. Useful forecasting tools can alleviate prices by reducing spoilage and excess inventory.
Inventory module: These modules of ERP are essential since they interact with multiple entities across the business. They are involved from investment to final shipping announcements and work to gain maximum productivity through a variety of tools such as invoicing, shipping, and sales order management. An increase in profit margin, higher efficiency, and a more significant number of satisfied customers are some of the many benefits of this tool. So, most certainly, it is a useful module for productivity analysis. Some of the relatively robust inventory management modules include stock level tracking, inventory receipt processing and multi-location functionality. All these features are quite complex in nature; that's why they are best found in the most high-class inventory management modules. Many businesses go to the conclusion that the benefits earned from the features from the inventory module give them a sizable advantage over their competition that outweighs all initial costs of implementation.
Human resources module: This is yet again another module that deals with more or less every other department available in the business with the intent of dealing with all its employees as it contains rich information and processes. It is a very commonly implemented module. Because the human resource module considers the information of every employee, it is at the same time collecting data from every department. This is thus a handy module in productivity analysis in manufacturing. It can gather data from multiple locations simultaneously. Because there is a vast amount of data associated with human resources, it can be easy to duplicate or enter inaccurate data into the system. Human resource modules counter this issue by sorting and analyzing information to ensure that it is all correct, allowing productivity analysis to be on point.
These are just some of the many ERP modules - relatively essential - that are used for productivity analysis in manufacturing. There are many others with different benefits. New modules are being continually added into the ERP market and can further improve the functionality of productivity analysis in manufacturing and can almost ascertain businesses that they'll find some potential solutions that could positively impact the business. The right combination of ERP software modules could be what sets the company or business over the top in its journey to gain market share and revenue.
In conclusion, using ERP modules such as these are highly beneficial for productivity analysis in manufacturing and are perhaps more necessary than many may think.