Production planning for small businesses

Software in Manufacturing
Software in Manufacturing

Many types of production planning software exist that small businesses operating in the manufacturing industry could utilise in order to significantly improve their operations in terms of efficiency as well as overall competitiveness.

Karl Lauri, chief marketing officer for cloud-based software company MRPeasy explains more.


Some software might have been created and managed internally, and others might have been ordered from external, specialist software vendors. They may vary in relation to costs and available functionalities, and these things will be largely dependent upon the specific aspects and features that manufacturing firms require, as well as what they are prepared to pay for.

Locating production planning software that is right for your small business is not easy, as there are literally hundreds of established, known brands available in the market, all of which differ according to visibility and functionality.

Therefore, in order to understand the different types of planning software available, we must first understand what the key principles of the production planning process are.

What is production planning?


Production planning is regarded as a systematic approach to manufacturing production and it assists with calculating and estimating the various phases and aims of the overall manufacturing process during the continual changes that occur, owing to a range of different factors.

These factors may include product range increases, new equipment for manufacturing being introduced, inventory stock changing, and more.

For manufacturing firms, it is essential that they can achieve the calculations and estimations in relation to these factors as accurately as possible. Production planning should provide the answers to questions such as:


  • What do we plan to produce?

  • Which materials do we require for that?

  • What do we currently have?

  • What else is required?

By being able to answer such questions, manufacturers can then understand what they need to prioritise in regards to what needs to be produced, the amount that needs to be produced, as well as being able to figure out the best methods for using the business’s current resources in a more efficient manner.

In today’s world, many small manufacturing firms simply use their own intuition, together with outdated, somewhat obsolete techniques during their production planning and decision making process, wasting valuable time and not fully realising the company’s true potential.

Make your choice


Technological advancements have allowed the production process to become far easier to perform. Surprisingly, there’s still a large number of manufacturing firms that use traditional methods for production planning – even pen and paper – for planning their MRP estimations, but the majority tend to use one of the following types of software solutions:

Spreadsheet software


Think of Microsoft Excel, Open Office, Google Sheets, and you will be thinking of different types of spreadsheet software. This type of software is actually used by around 30% of small businesses, and it’s easy to see why. It is readily available for a low price (sometimes free) and it’s very easy to use.

Unfortunately however, for production planning applications, it’s very limited. One of the major drawbacks is speed. Every time a user adds more or different types of tables and files which are connected with one another, the program will become slower in terms of its performance.

Bring it in-house


Some businesses choose to create their own bespoke software solution internally. The main advantage with this option is that providing there is sufficient programming and IT expertise available in-house – or it’s available through a third party – the software can be controlled, customised and tweaked as needs change.

The downside is that it can be costly – and customised software solutions present the risk of important team members leaving at any stage during the project, meaning that it could potentially be in jeopardy at any time.

Off the shelf


This refers to production planning software that has been developed professionally for small businesses. This type of software will include all of the features for production planning that a small business would require. Well-proven ERP/MRP software is generally reliable, updated regularly and well-supported by the developer.

The majority of MRP software vendors in today’s market utilise cloud-based software solutions for hosting their system which improves the speed, performance and reliability, not to mention accessibility.

Furthermore, production planning solutions these days are rather inexpensive. Small businesses can usually easily afford such solutions and do not need to go for expensive options like SAP and Epicor in order to get access to the production planning functionality they need.

Moreover, many specialist production planning vendors do not require you to sign long-term contracts in order to use their services, and small businesses can even gain access to free trial periods that enable them to evaluate the software.

An example of this is MRPeasy, a cloud-based ERP/MRP software provider for small-medium sized manufacturers. Developed from the ground up for businesses with 10 - 200 employees, there’s a free 30-day free trial with a starting price of under £40 for the basic starter package.

Benefits


MRPeasy provides manufacturing firms with a system that enables them to manage everything within a single database, keeping things organised and achieving accurate production planning and reporting.

This is achieved through being able to deliver accurate lead-times during quoting, together with the ability to improve the use of equipment, and improve overall efficiency via real-time reporting functionality.

Moreover, firms can enjoy additional benefits such as the prevention of stock-outs, maintaining lower inventory levels (and being able to keep them at those levels), automated inventory transactions, the ability to view purchasing requirements, track lots, and much more.

MRPeasy www.mrpeasy.com

Company

MRPeasy

Related Articles

Global growth for sheetmetal software solutions

Specialist software and solutions provider for the sheetmetal and fabrication industries, Lantek, has announced its financial results for 2018 and its strategy for adapting to the fourth industrial revolution.
4 years ago Features
Most recent Articles

Renishaw highlights career pathways in engineering

There is not one singular blueprint that can lead to a career in the engineering industry. It offers a variety of roles, open to people from diverse backgrounds. To highlight the diversity of skills and experiences in engineering, global engineering technologies company, Renishaw, has created the ‘Employee perspectives’ series.
22 hours ago News

Login / Sign up