Shortlist ERP Tools that Streamline and Simplify your Supply Chain Management.

Manage demand, supplier dependency, procurement, improve lead times, enhance compliance, logistics, manage inventory and reduce costs with the right Supply Chain centric ERP system.

How ERP Actually Helps You Run Your Supply Chain?

A good ERP system can do more than keep your books balanced — it can become the control room for your entire supply chain.

When it’s set up with supply chain features, it brings together suppliers, materials, inventory, warehouses, and delivery networks so everyone’s working from the same live data.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

Stay ahead of demand and materials

• Spot upcoming demand based on sales trends and forecasts.
• Line up the materials you’ll need before production hits a bottleneck.
• Plan around lead times, supplier capacity, and cost.

Keep inventory at the right levels

• Track stock in real time across every location.
• Avoid both stockouts and overstocking by matching stock to demand.
• Balance Just-In-Time and Just-In-Case strategies.
• Cut carrying costs by shifting slow-moving stock sooner.

Make smarter supplier and procurement decisions

• Group suppliers by their strengths, reliability, or tier.
• Track supplier performance and delivery history.
• Automate purchase orders when demand spikes.
• Allocate orders to the most cost-effective or dependable suppliers.

Tighten up logistics and fulfilment

• Track every shipment and component in motion.
• Coordinate picking and packing in warehouses.
• Plan transport routes to reduce delivery times and costs.
• Monitor logistics performance and costs in real time.

Build trust with compliance and ESG tracking

• Keep full traceability of materials and supplier sources.
• Prove compliance and ESG commitments without digging through paperwork.
• Strip out admin work so your teams can focus on running the operation.

How Integrating ERP In Supply Chain Management Impacts the 5 Stages of SCM

1. Planning

• Demand Forecasting: Predict product demand based on user and sales data to align supplier procurement planning.
• Sales & Operations Planning: Align supply and demand data across sales, inventory, manufacturing, and distribution departments.
• Predictive Analytics: Predict supply chain performance and disruptions that will impact planning decisions.
• Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS): Manufacturers integrate ERP in supply chain management to optimise production schedules around material usage, resource availability, and warehouse constraints.

2. Sourcing

• Procurement: Automate purchasing processes to ensure timely sourcing at the best costs and to align with product demand.
• Supplier Relationship Management (SRM): Store and track supplier performance and quality data to ensure reliable sourcing and avoid risks or disruptions.
• Spend Tracking/Accounting: Used to enforce budget control and track supplier spending.
• Contract Management: Store, access, and update supplier quality agreements, renewals, and pricing information.

3. Production

• Integrated Manufacturing Execution System (MES): Track production and manufacturing in real-time to ensure on-time delivery and completion.
• Bill of Materials (BOM): For manufacturers to list all parts and components required for accurate planning and assembly.
• Materials Requirement Planning (MRP): Integrating MRP or ERP in supply chain management accurately calculates materials needed for production based on demand and inventory.
• Supplier Quality Management (SQM): Monitors supplier performance and quality of materials to ensure supplier agreements are met and to guarantee consistent production.

4. Distribution

• Warehouse Management: Manage picking, packing, storage, and shipping movements.
• Inventory Management: Prevent stockouts and overstocking by tracking stock levels that align with demand.
• Transportation Management System (TMS): Integrated TMS helps optimise, plan, and execute shipping procedures.
• Order Management and Fulfilment: Combines orders, sales, processing, and delivery information to accurately execute fulfilment requirements.

5. Returns

• Returns Management: Automate returns processes to resolve product returns as quickly and efficiently as possible.
• Reverse Logistics/3PL Management: Monitor and manage the flow of goods returned by tracking, sorting and refurbishing, as well as working with third-party logistics.
• Inventory Management: Reintegrate returned goods into available stock or flag for the disposal of goods.

Across the supply chain, operators and managers can identify delays (and potential problems down the line) along with production bottlenecks faster. One benefit of implementing an ERP in supply chain management is to balance supply needs with spikes or falls in demand.

Purpose-built supply chain management functionality in leading ERPs also streamlines everything from purchasing to warehouse operations to order delivery. As ERPs add more features, they integrate the likes of warehouse management systems (WMS) and yard management systems (YMS) to improve logistics and performance.

Why Manufacturers & Distributors Benefit Most From Integrating ERP In Supply Chain Management

Supply chain management scales in importance as those chains grow in complexity and volume. Using ERP systems can boost the performance of warehouse management, while greater visibility into SKUs helps firms communicate with their customers, partners, wholesalers and retailers.

In terms of delivery, optimising your supply chain can yield:

• 25–30% reduction in inventory carrying costs
• Improvement in inventory turnover by up to 20%
• Increase in inventory accuracy by 30%
• 22% higher on‑time delivery rates for manufacturers

At the other end of the supply chain, SCM delivers benefits for quality control, checking failures and quality issues, supporting aftermarket care, customer service and retention, and support with product returns.

Growing use of ERP in supply chain management processes creates supply chain and production flexibility to deliver multiple levels of value, including:

• On-time and live data enables streamlined and cost-efficient buying
• Optimisation of inventory and stock levels through improved forecast models
• Automation of manual order processing and stock tasks
• Design and deliver custom products that add premium value to sales, be it a unique colour combination or finishing process
• Integration of quality control, customer service/returns/upselling and communications through the ERP

3 Successful Examples of ERP In Supply Chain Management Optimisation

1. Terex

Challenge

Using a sticker system for inventory management was costing each employee six minutes every time they located a unit. Physical inventories and stock takes also took a considerable number of hours per month.

Solution

Implement an RFID tracking solution and integrate it with their ERP system. This provides an accurate daily inventory count via the ERP’s business intelligence module, which has saved them 70 weeks per year in labour costs.

2. Green Rabbit

Challenge

A desire to ship globally was hindered by the impact of shipping chocolate food products during hot periods and summer months. This led to the team researching temperature-sensitive supply chain logistics.

Solution

Green Rabbit replaced their QuickBooks system with an ERP Software to build out a heat-sensitive supply chain workflow. This allowed them to ship chocolate food products as well as frozen food goods.

3. John Deere (Deere & Company)

Challenge

A slow, costly replenishment process caused shipping and inventory issues in high-seasonal sales periods. The company set about achieving a 10% reduction in supply chain costs within four years.

Solution

Launched a supply chain network redesign program and consolidated shipments during seasonal peaks. They also increased the use of 3PL logistics providers to achieve an inventory decrease of $1 billion. This also reduced customer delivery lead times from 10 days to 5 or less, and saved 5% annually on transportation costs.