Integrated systems give manufacturers room to grow

“Most local manufacturers are doing manual planning using complicated spreadsheets, which takes a lot of time and creates inaccuracies,” says Clarke. “It's the biggest headache in the manufacturing industry at the moment. It's losing firms time and opportunities that could be used for extra production.”

Clarke says the production planning and forecasting modules in HansaWorld Enterprise, the company's flagship enterprise resource planning (ERP) software product, can help manufacturers produce more efficiently, whether they are making to stock or making to order.

“We can automatically generate detailed production plans and purchase plans based on known bills of materials, purchase order and production lead times, current stock levels and sales forecasts,” says Clarke. “The beauty of the system is that it's completely integrated across all areas of the business, from production through logistics to accounts and CRM. So, to take one example, the moment a salesperson captures an order, the system can automatically update the production plan."

“Most manufacturing systems only operate at the level of the plant,” adds Clarke. “Interfacing those systems to accounts, the warehouse and the sales team can be a nightmare. However, with our software's real-time information flow there is no duplicate data entry and zero delay in getting information from one end of the organisation to the other. That means the planning process is faster and you don't sit with dead stock or inadequate materials.”

Even better news, says Clarke, is that the solution has been specifically designed for the mid-size enterprise with between five and 300 users. “We emphasise ease of use, mobility and affordability,” he says. “The software is very light on computer resources and bandwidth – our clients don't need to make huge investments in new servers and other hardware. The system also runs on mobile devices like handheld barcode scanners, which can dramatically improve warehouse efficiencies.”

Clarke says their production and forecasting modules are able to handle even the most complex manufacturing environments with multiple sub-assemblies and complex routing or process requirements. “We're able to help manufacturers do detailed capacity planning by understanding the value of the assets they have tied up in production at any given time, and how much time each process is taking.”

Clarke says in practice, most clients do not initially have the capacity to use all the functionality his company's software offers, so the clients have room to grow their businesses.