A buzzword that’s important for business
If you are like me when you first heard the term Industry 4.0, you probably said “I didn’t know we had an Industry 1, 2, and 3.0!” The technology world loves its buzzwords, but I don’t mean to be dismissive of it because Industry 4.0 is something that we at Visual South are involved in every day. Let’s start by explaining Industry 4.0 and then talk about what it means to a manufacturing company.
At Visual South, we have decades of experience implementing ERP software. I personally have been with Visual South for 20 years, and spend a lot of time working with manufacturing companies. Some of our customers are looking to get the most out of their Infor ERP, while others don’t have a solution and need help evaluating which ERP platform is the best fit for their company. Regardless of where they’re at in their ERP journey, I have found that just about all of these companies are working to have better manufacturing process control. How they do that is highly dependent on the tools they use to manage their business.
An ERP implementation is a big undertaking for any size of company. Visual South has been implementing ERP in manufacturing companies for close to 30 years, so we know how much of an effort it requires. Over that period of time, we have learned a lot of lessons, and developed a methodical process that puts our customers in position to succeed with their implementations. We have an exhaustive list of blogs on the topic of implementing ERP, but I have summarized our top 25 tips for success (in no particular order) below:
CloudSuite Industrial (SyteLine) is a sophisticated, robust ERP solution with a full complement of functionality that provides solutions to enterprises of all sizes. ERP software depends on processes, and tools to support those processes, along with people who understand how to do their jobs. Think of the software as an airplane—even the newest, best model still needs a pilot, so training is key. A plane is no good if the person commanding it does not know how to fly it.
There are a variety of ERP solutions on the market, but it can be difficult for aerospace and defense manufacturers to find a solution that addresses their specific needs. Infor’s ERP solutions, Cloudsuite Industrial and Infor VISUAL, are configurable and robust, with advanced functionality that directly address the requirements of aerospace and defense manufacturers.
There are ERP solutions out there for every type of manufacturing company. One of the niches Visual South works with are project-based manufacturers, who have similar needs to other manufacturing companies, but also some exceptionally specific ways of doing business. These companies work in a world of “projects” and their ERP solution needs to support this requirement.
An ERP implementation is not something that manufacturing companies do all the time, which is why they typically need another company to help guide them through the process. There are a lot of moving parts in an implementation, not to mention a ton of work, plenty of risk, and a million decisions to be made!
The upside of buying enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is the economy of scale. Since it is written for the masses and not customized for one company, the cost per user plummets. For example, Microsoft Office certainly costs more to develop than the few hundred dollars it costs to license. One of the other upsides is that thousands of users create a robust community that quickly flushes out weaknesses in functionality, helping the software become stronger.
Infor VISUAL ERP is a solution built for small to mid-market manufacturing companies. The primary customer for VISUAL ERP is organizations that use a work order to produce their product, as opposed to those in a highly repetitive or process manufacturing environment. These work-order-based companies could be make-to-order, configure-to-order, make-to-stock, engineer-to-order, or a combination of all of these.
I have been in the ERP industry for over 21 years and have worked with companies of all sizes and industries, but primarily have experience with small to medium-sized manufacturing businesses. I am currently in a sales role, so I frequently talk with companies that are interested in one of our Infor ERP products. One of the questions I always ask is “What are you using today?” A lot of times the answer to my question is QuickBooks.
