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Supply chain management: Are your supply chain processes and systems up for the job?

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supply chain management, supply chain softwareIf your customers have decided to get you to bear the weight of inventory and also require fast lead-times and flexibility, then a more agile type of procurement and production planning is needed. This is only achievable by combining the right business processes and systems to support them.

Whether you are a wholesaler, a manufacturer, or both, optimising inventory is key to achieving and sustaining profitable business growth. To that extent supply chain management professionals need to ensure that their stock control and planning software is working for them – and not the other way around. Digitising and automating your processes is supposed to help, not hinder. If your existing systems do not help shorten planning cycles, provide end to end visibility of demand and supply, your organisation might be compromising unnecessarily.

So if your existing solution isn’t quite matching your requirements, it could be time to consider changing or upgrading your supply chain planning system.

>>> How to build a robust and responsive supply chain download this FREE supply chain planning sheet <<<

What should the outputs of an MRP/DRP system be?

Your MRP system should provide a comprehensive time-phased view of your, production, procurement and distribution requirements & challenges. These in turn should translate into correlated plans. The first should be a recommended purchasing schedule, and the second a recommended production schedule. Your MRP system should suggest what materials need to be at your plant(s), in what quantity and when. Likewise it should suggest what finished products should be made, procured, or simply transferred to your distribution centres. If the MRP system is seamlessly integrated to your main back-office software, these plans should require no, or minimal input. Once the plans have been reviewed and adjusted, you should have the ability to automatically turn them into procurement and production orders without any need for further manual input.

Discover your requirements

There are two key points you should consider when purchasing or upgrading an MRP system. The first is what are your current processes, which ones should the system support and to what extent.  The second is to understand where current limitations and issues lie.  These may directly be linked to the software’s functionality (or lack of), your knowledge of it, or your existing business processes.

These vital considerations should help you identify and prioritise your organisation’s present requirements. It may however not be sufficient. The supply chain is an area where the company’s strategy and requirements may rapidly change, as a supply chain professional you need to respond to these shifts, efficiently. Selecting the appropriate solution therefore also requires you to…

Think ahead

Three primary things any manufacturing and/or distribution company should consider when looking at MRP solutions are; the size and predicted growth of its client base, the size and growth of the product catalogue and the possible changes in supply model. The new software you select  must offer scalable and adaptable solutions.

The reasons for having an MRP system are to make life easier and drive more effective planning: a slow, inflexible system, that can’t cope with the load, or hardware that does not support the new powerful software are costly in time and money.

Standard, industry specific or bespoke – what are the options?

There are many software solutions out there. It might be that you require an add-on to your existing software, or an entirely bespoke program – or perhaps an off-the-shelf system would do the job just fine.

You must first consider your own requirements and then take a look at what is on offer. Make sure to shop around, and don’t be afraid of asking to visit potential MRP solution providers to meet them face-to-face.

>>> Have your burning supply chain management questions answered at our MRP software webinar <<<

Understanding the variety of MRP solutions and what they can offer can be confusing: if you want to know more, download our free guide: The key to managing your supply chain to learn more about using technology to the fullest.



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The post Supply chain management: Are your supply chain processes and systems up for the job? appeared first on Lakeview Blog | ERP providers to UK businesses.


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