Easily Shortlist Best ERP Solutions For Discrete and Process Manufacturing.

Top Rated ERP Solutions For Manufacturing Processes

Infor CloudSuite

Most Suitable For

An adaptable, automated, and extendable manufacturing ERP solution especially designed for leading manufacturing industry organisations.

Industry Fit

Food & Beverage, Engineering, Construction, Automotive, Manufacturing, and Aerospace

Pricing

From £120 per user, per month

See If Infor Is Right For You

RamBase Cloud ERP Software

Most Suitable For

RamBase was launched because the manufacturing company could not find an ERP Software that met their needs of managing a high value – low volume manufacturing processes.

Industry Fit

Manufacturing, Electronics, Wholesale Distribution, Automotive, Oil and Gas, Industrial Machinery and Equipment, High Tech and Electronics

Deployment

Multi-tenant cloud hosted

Pricing

£29 per user, per month

See if RamBase is right for you

Statii

Most Suitable For

Statii is a customisable MRP system designed to help SME manufacturers manage everything from front-of-house customer and supplier documents to shop-floor production management.

Industry Fit

Metal Manufacturing, Wood Manufacturing, Plastic Manufacturing, Industrial Machinery and Components, Engineering, Construction and Operations

Deployment

Cloud-based

Pricing

From £64 per user, per month

See if Statii is right for you

Flowlens MRP and ERP Software

Most Suitable For

Flowlens is an MRP/ERP solution for original equipment and device manufacturers seeking to consolidate build-to-order processes.

Industry Fit

Original Equipment Manufacturing, Equipment Reselling, Parts and Materials Supply, Industrial Machinery and Components, Manufacturing

Deployment

Cloud-based

Pricing

From £39 per user, per month

See if Flowlens is right for you

IFS ERP

Most Suitable For

IFS ERP is a configurable enterprise resource planning solution optimised for complex, asset-intensive industries and organisations.

Industry Fit

Aerospace, Defense and Security, Energy, Engineering, Construction and Operations, Logistics and Distribution, Manufacturing, Oil and Gas, Telecommunications, Utilities

Deployment

Cloud-based, web-based, on-premise

Pricing

From £250,000

See if IFS ERP is right for you

EFACS by Exel Computer Systems

Most Suitable For

Mid-market manufacturing businesses looking for an on-prem or cloud-based solution.

Industry Fit

Aerospace, Engineering, Construction and Operations, Manufacturing, Automotive, Electronics

Deployment

Cloud-based, on-premise

Pricing

From £4,000 a month

See if EFACS is right for you

What Is a Specialised Manufacturing ERP System?

Manufacturing ERP Software is a specialised enterprise resource planning solution or module that focuses on the stages of an organisation’s manufacturing processes.

This industry-specific ERP system monitors every stage of discrete or process-based manufacturing, reducing resource costs and balancing production supply and demand along the way.

Among manufacturers, ERP systems have been known to reduce operational costs by 22% and reduce the time it takes to make a key decision by 36%.

Modern cloud-based manufacturing ERPs provide features that impact the processes of most – if not all – methodologies for both discrete and process manufacturers. These features are based on industry (such as Food and Beverage, Apparel, Industrial Equipment, and Automotive) and include:

• Batch processing
• Bill of material management
• Production and costing
• Product Configurator
• PLM (Product lifecycle management)
• Production planning and scheduling
• Formula/Recipe management
• CAD integration

Manufacturing ERP systems monitor up and down the supply chain and track human and robotic production, linking manufacturing systems to sales and returns; from temperatures and weights to accurately measuring tolerances and pressures, ultimately removing all the guesswork from the workshop floor.

Supported Production Methodologies For ERP Manufacturing Solutions

There are four main types of manufacturing processes; discrete, process (batch or continuous), repetitive, and job shop. Below this, is a sub-level that contains multiple variants of production methodologies – each supported by the features of an ERP manufacturing solution in their own unique way.

Supported manufacturing production methods include:

• Lean manufacturing
• Remanufacturing
• Make to stock (MTS)
• Make to order (MTO)
• Just in time manufacturing
• Assemble to order (ATO)
• Engineer to order (ETO)

Why Leading Manufacturing Teams Choose an ERP

The four leading use cases for ERP adoption among manufacturing companies are to:

1. Replace outdated software systems or manual processes
2. Consolidate multiple and disparate applications from various departments
3. Take advantage of the latest analytics and AI tools
4. Oversee the entire process (from inventory management to production planning) in one shared system

Since the progress of MRP systems (Manufacturing Resource Planning), manufacturers are the number one users of ERP Software. Today, 47% of manufacturers are looking to implement an enterprise resource planning system. That’s more than both the Distribution (18%) and Services (12%) sectors combined.

Although there is debate as to whether businesses should opt for a more out-of-the-box ERP to safeguard against complex mishaps (take the Nike i2 malfunction in 2000, for example), successful implementation of Manufacturing ERP Software can deliver immediate benefits:

• Increased efficiency as manufacturing runs smoothly, issues are dealt with faster, and the supply chain is optimised
• Improved visibility as leadership and departments can gain insights across all areas of production and the business, typically in real-time
• Support for on-time delivery systems that improve business competitiveness
• Improved product quality which reduces returns, product failures, and increases customer satisfaction
• Reduced costs with tighter control and flexibility over the bill of materials
• Improved collaboration across the business, encouraging product innovation, production creativity, and faster problem resolution

One example of manufacturing ERP success is Wisconsin Plastics. The Plastic Injection Moulding Service decreased the overall total raw material inventory by 17.5%. This is thanks to a just-in-time replenishment program made possible by the accurate inventory count provided by its real-time ERP system.

Unique ERP Features For Manufacturers

ERP systems have three types of features:

1. Packaged features found in all ERP systems
2. Features that appeal more to a specific function (like manufacturing)
3. Industry-specific features found in specialised solutions

Packaged ERP Features

• Accounting
• Financial management
• Human resources management (HRM)
• Project management
• ERP integrations
• Customer relationship management (CRM)
• Marketing
• Business intelligence
• Sales

Packaged Features Used By Manufacturers

• Supply chain management
• Order processing
• Real-time data analysis and reporting
• Automation and AI
• Manufacturing/Materials resource planning (MRP)
• Purchasing
• Inventory management
• Commerce integration
• POS integration

Industry-specific Manufacturing ERP Features

• Quality control
• Order fulfilment
• Buying and procurement
• IoT tracking
• Formula/Recipe management
• Batch processing
• Route management
• Product Configuration
• Product lifecycle management (PLM)
• CAD integration
• Bill of material management
• Planning and scheduling
• Engineering Change Order (ECO)

Are You Ready For a Specialised ERP Manufacturing System?

As businesses evolve and grow, their needs change. Many manufacturers may have already adopted an ERP for back-office tasks, but now find the need for Manufacturing ERP Software to deliver broader insights and performance benefits.

The best answer to the question is always yesterday, with today a close second. When it comes to knowing when best to implement a manufacturing ERP, a three-colour-coded system is used; red, amber, and green.

Implementation Challenges to Acknowledge

Although 67% of distributors and manufacturers that implemented an ERP system described it as successful, some factors can challenge the success of an ERP implementation. These challenges include:

• High start-up costs
• Complex integration with existing systems and processes
• Time required for completion (almost 75% of all ERP implementation processes fail due to delays and costs)
• Training required for employees
• Employee resistance

FAQs

1. What Manufacturing Industries Benefit From Enterprise Resource Planning?

• Food & Beverage (Process)
• Apparel and Textiles/Clothing(Discrete)
• Chemicals (Process)
• Industrial Equipment (Discrete)
• Consumer Electronics (Discrete)
• Aerospace and Defence
• Automotive (Discrete)
• Pharmaceutical (Process)
• Oil and Gas (Process)
• Furniture (Discrete)

2. What’s the Difference Between MRP, MRO, and ERP?

Before ERP emerged as a common business practice, there was MRP (Material Requirements Planning and lately Manufacturing Resource Planning [aka MRP II]).

You can consider MRPs a subset of ERP, focused solely on the inventory, materials of manufacturing, and the build processes involved. With a manufacturing resource planning system in place, businesses know where their components or materials are, but need broader insights into productivity and value, ERP widens visibility and speeds up the information flow.

A modern ERP also supports the delivery of Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) services, ensuring that manufacturing hardware systems run most efficiently and that there is a minimum of disruption when a problem arises.

Modern ERPs support predictive maintenance features of factory machinery that deliver performance and fault information live, rather than grinding to a halt at the most inconvenient of times. With a modern manufacturing ERP supporting, boosting or supplanting these older technologies, manufacturers will be up-to-date and better informed about live operations.