While enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is hardly new to the manufacturing sector, many food and beverage producers have yet to adopt the solution and are just now exploring the best approach for automating their facilities. This article explores the benefits of centralizing your front and back-office processes with an ERP system before listing the top 5 leading ERP modules to keep an eye on in 2024.
5 Game-Changing ERP Modules for Manufacturing
As you begin researching the best ERP software for your food manufacturing business, you’ll undoubtedly encounter several ERP modules. For some, this can make choosing the right solution and vendor a bit confusing. Before you make any final decisions about which software product to buy, you want to ensure that the supplier’s solutions align with your business requirements and aren’t providing you with a package missing essential tools and functionalities like financial management or customer relationship management (CRM).
Determining the right manufacturing software for your business may seem daunting at first, but it doesn’t have to be overly difficult. If you’ve recently gone through a rapid stage of growth, you might be experiencing newfound inefficiencies. You’re likely noticing that your processes are now more difficult to manage than they were when your organization was smaller. If this is your situation, an ERP solution from EZSoft can help. Let’s take a look at how a new ERP can improve your customer relations, inventory management, accounting, human resources, and production in these five leading ERP modules to be aware of in 2024.
1. The ERP financial management module
If you’re still in the process of scaling, financial management ERP can benefit your resource planning tremendously. The ERP system financial management module allows you to exercise stringent control over your finances through concise tracking. If your business can’t maximize its profits, the likelihood of it keeping pace with the competition is low.
The financial management module tells you exactly how much money you’re earning, and, more importantly, if you’re losing revenue. An optimal account module draws data and information from across all your departments to track and trace exactly how much revenue you’re pulling in. The software also allows you to monitor your investment performance while telling you how much you are spending. All this information is available in real-time, giving you up-to-the-minute reports logging the moment a sales order completes or an expense is paid.
Some companies feel comfortable with the current account practices, so why would they need an ERP financial management module? Foremost, at some stage of your company’s growth, it’s going to become too difficult to track everything coming in and going out on spreadsheets or pen and paper. You’re going to need a more efficient method of aggregating and managing the funds that come in and out of your business.
ERP systems give you the live-time visibility needed to ensure you’re not missing important items on your ledger that could ultimately put you in the red.
2. The ERP inventory management module
Food and manufacturing businesses that haven’t implemented industrial automation solutions like an ERP system yet will, after growing beyond a specific point, find it difficult to track the status of their inventory. While a simple data analysis may have been sufficient before, once you reach a given threshold, you’ll likely find it challenging to gather a clear picture of how much stock you have on hand.
Not knowing the status of your inventory poses several obstacles to warehouse space optimization and almost always spells trouble for your fulfillment processes if you fall critically low or stock out of a specific product. ERP inventory management modules are highly effective at tracking your stock levels to help ensure that your repeat customers never have to look elsewhere for a product you should have but don’t.
3. The ERP customer relationship (CRM) module
Without maintaining consistently high customer satisfaction levels, your business will undoubtedly suffer. As with any organization, customer service starts with your sales team. Not all ERP systems include CRM, however. But if this option is available, it’s advisable that you pick it up to improve your sales funnel management. The ERP customer relationship module lets you track your existing clients and sales while logging and ranking all your valuable prospects.
Most CRMs allow you to rate and assign point values to your leads, letting you know their status. You want your sales force to work with interested customers as much as possible. The CRM modules allow your sales department to filter out cold prospects from the warm, scheduling its outreach efforts accordingly. This module makes it simple to create calendars that let your sales staff know when to follow up with a lead and generate detailed customer profiles that include a history of your interactions with them.
4. The ERP human resources module
Your human resources department is vital to sustaining healthy operations. Hiring and training human resource managers to administer an influx of new employees gets expensive, however. Fortunately, in this case, an ERP system human resources module can benefit you tremendously because the software handles several essential tasks for you.
Whichever human resources module you choose, ensure that you implement it companywide to maximize the solution’s benefits. This convenient module lets you aggregate data on all your employees, across several sites and locations, if needed. This streamlines information sharing, while the ERP human resources module lets you automate various aspects of HR management like information security training. It’s also highly effective at documenting employee coaching efforts and any disciplinary actions you may have taken.
5. The ERP supply chain module
Last, but certainly not least, The ERP supply chain module helps you make better decisions while drastically increasing insight and visibility into your operations. The most desirable feature associated with this module is access to real-time process data.
If you’re having an issue with your supply chain, this module allows you to isolate the problem and handle it before it escalates into a more pressing matter. Ultimately, access to the near-instant information will improve decision-making and process improvement since both are based on live-time input and not historical data.
Explore custom ERP software modules and solutions from EZSoft
For businesses asking how to find leading industrial automation companies near me, EZSoft is a preeminent supplier of automation software and full-service integrator of process control systems based in Malvern, Pennsylvania. Learn more about pricing and how our ERP systems can enhance your processes by reaching out online. Or, call the team now at (484) 568-5040.
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