Discrete Manufacturing ERP 

Few things are more important to manufacturers than efficiency and quality. Without these attributes, there are no happy customers and no revenue growth, but there are plenty of regulatory fines, excess costs and delayed orders. Understandably, leading discrete manufacturers prioritize production planning, production management and quality assurance to keep their efficiency and quality standards up to par and gain a competitive edge.  

Manufacturers’ priorities are also Epicor’s priorities. For over 45 years, Epicor has served as a premier vendor for manufacturing ERP solutions. Epicor is committed to supporting business goals through an array of sophisticated modules. Find out how the ERP vendor helps discrete manufacturers fulfill their top objectives.   

Production Planning 

Today’s complex supply chains require intricate planning and scheduling to run smoothly. A sophisticated production planning module can steady the flow of production to fulfill orders and improve customer satisfaction. Epicor ERP includes robust production planning functionality to drive both day-to-day control and long-term decision making: 

• Flexible forecasting features enable manufacturers to generate forecasts from a variety of historical sources. Epicor forecasts can also support multiple, mixed-mode strategies simultaneously. 

• Epicor’s Material Requirements Planning (MRP) tool manages supply and demand in real time. MRP automatically adjusts jobs to align with changes in your orders and forecasts, so your shop floor is never behind.  

• Master schedulers and managers have access to several resource views and online scheduling tools to visually pinpoint issues and perform cost and throughput analysis on schedule changes before they are set in stone.  

• User-friendly production schedules promote productivity. The main control center graphically displays a range of schedules which can be easily manipulated using drag-and-drop functionality.  

• Manufacturers can make a realistic assessment of production capacity by using Epicor to measure the availability of machine time, the flexibility of equipment for different tasks and the availability of skilled labor. 

• Hosting your ERP in the cloud gives users across your organization access to accurate, up-to-date schedules on any device. This promotes interdepartmental collaboration and decision making. 

Production Management 

Once the production schedule has been established, it’s time for the shop floor to get to work. In addition to keeping discrete manufacturers on schedule, production management processes are intended to cut waste and handle changes to maintain efficiency and lower costs. Epicor’s production management modules support an array of manufacturing methods, including MTO, MTS, ETO, CTO and mixed mode. These ERP features will help you keep your production line on track: 

• Epicor gives users the flexibility to proactively manage changes in production to minimize downtime and maintain productivity. 

• Epicor empowers your organization to manage the entire production process in one place. Users have access to the production schedule, materials management, current production operations and quality metrics in a single solution.  

• Manufacturers can compare expected costs and labor against actual results to drive process improvement.  

• Epicor’s job management module tracks assembled, manufactured and semi-finished products to give you unprecedented visibility.  

• With the Manufacturing Execution System (MES), you can take advantage of real-time visibility across your plant floor. Touchscreen monitors and barcode scanning simplify data entry and reduce mistakes.  

• Kanban functionality enables manufacturers to implement lean principles in line with their unique business needs through flexible pull production and real-time stocking tools. These features help organizations manage waste and reduce inventory.  

Quality Assurance 

Product quality has always been a manufacturer’s priority, but with higher consumer expectations and strict regulations, it’s become more important than ever. Noncompliance or multiple customer complaints could spell the end of a modern manufacturer. Epicor’s quality assurance module is designed to protect businesses against these pitfalls. The ERP vendor has comprehensive quality management functionality to help you maintain high standards throughout the supply chain:

• Epicor ERP checks for Certificates of Compliance upon receiving materials or in-process parts from suppliers and before shipping products to customers. It also supports a variety of industry standards, such as automotive (TS), aerospace (AS), FDA and ISO requirements.  

• Epicor ties together quality functions, tracking quality incidents in a systematic way on a regular basis. By scrapping end parts, rejecting raw materials, tracking first article inspections and more, the solution provides all-inclusive quality control. 

• Audit trails and quality metrics allow manufacturers to detect the root causes of quality problems, so they can avoid future issues.  

• With ERP, you can also measure the quality of your suppliers. Epicor generates receipts of supplier performance history, which provide detailed accounts of tracking lead time and delivery, so you can make sure you’re teaming up with reliable providers.  

Wrap Up  

Strong discrete manufacturing performance is all about efficiency and quality. Epicor ERP grants users full control over their production planning, production management and quality assurance to fuel manufacturing success.  

Let a premier ERP expert help you unlock the power of your enterprise software. An Epicor Gold Partner, Datix has provided leading ERP solutions and services for over 20 years. With experience in multiple manufacturing environments, our certified consultants can align your software to your unique business needs. We offer ERP implementations, integrations, customizations, disaster recovery and more to maximize the value of your software. 

Start transforming your manufacturing business with software. To learn more about Epicor ERP, reach out to Datix today!  

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