How can manufacturers leverage their ERP systems without having to export to Excel or other systems and stop using whiteboards to manage workflows?
Manufacturers empower themselves when their employees can efficiently input, access and aggregate data. Unfortunately, employees suffer from the many data silos that exist within the organization and this prevents them from efficiently interacting with data. Luckily, it’s possible to eliminate data silos and improve productivity.
The Pain:
Many employees are unable to obtain all the information necessary to do their job from one single system. This is true regardless of whether the employee’s role is executive leadership, sales, customer service, finance, or production. Oftentimes, the only method the employee has for obtaining the most up to date data is by contacting the department responsible for it. This creates more effort which equates to lost time and money.
The Cause:
Data is being stored in many different places or disparate databases. In the ideal world your ERP would provide a ‘best-in-class’ solution for inventory, scheduling, order management, sales/customer service, and shipping & receiving, but that just simply isn’t the case. Over time, multiple systems are typically implemented in order to help individual departments function more efficiently, but in the process, those systems compartmentalize and separate data.
The Solution:
Consolidate or bridge data in a unified database that’s easily viewable and updatable. Employees can interact with realtime reports, dashboards, and touchscreens to improve efficiency and ease the burden of updating many disparate systems.
The Walker Group’s partner, Triple Helix, has worked with many manufacturers, from small shops to large enterprise-sized companies to eliminate pain caused by multiple silos and provide real-time visibility into their data. Contact Triple Helix to learn more.