ERP and automation technologies have grown by leaps and bounds to address small business’ need for efficiency, productivity, and profitability. Modern process automation and efficiency increases are essential to departments like finance, accounting, human resources, production, material management, quality management, distribution, and sales. Without a proper framework to bring these departments together and working in harmony, a business of any size risks catastrophic failure. ERP supply chain management solutions deliver focused tools to businesses, providing better overall performance, accountability, and customer satisfaction.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) And Supply Chain Management (SCM)

Affordable Enterprise Resource Planning software for manufacturers and accessible automation technologies for manufacturers enable competitiveness in an industry that is constantly evolving. Supply chain automation technology is in higher demand with each passing day. Built to increase the efficiency of operations that extend beyond the four walls of the factory, supply chain management software holds suppliers accountable, builds stronger trading partnerships, and delivers increased customer satisfaction that earns businesses brand loyalty.

How ERP Software Enables Better Supply Chain Management

When a business considers all the parties involved in the supply chain, from manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, retailers, and customers, it can be difficult to control. The process of keeping everything in line requires careful and diligent planning, execution, control, and ongoing monitoring of supply chain activities.

Businesses will find that an ERP system built with the supply chain in mind will be more than effective in handling the storing, transporting, managing demand for manufactured goods. From procurement to product delivery, the integration of material, information, and financial information flow cement ERP as an essential tool for efficient supply chain management.

The Roles Of ERP In Supply Chain Management Processes

From the global conglomerate the mom-and-pop job shop, ERP and SCM software may seem intimidating. However, their viability for businesses at any size cannot be overstated. It simply becomes a matter of size and scope of the software. Placing a focus on efficient supply chain activities and strategy going forward will enhance facility productivity, product quality, and cost-efficiency.

ERP software scales businesses, plain and simple. With growth, the subject of Supply Chain Management demands greater emphasis. Mixed-mode, make-to-order, make-to-stock, Engineered -to-order, and configured-to-order manufacturing operations all have a need for these advanced technologies. This doesn’t even consider the supply chain automation opportunities that arise when ERP systems in place. Replenishment, communications between partners, manufacturers, and customers, even automated profiling of suppliers to get the next replenishment from your favored vendors are possible with automated supply chain management software embedded within ERP.

ERP software doesn’t just enable supply chain management strategies, it informs your teams and keeps them running at peak efficiency. This ensures your business runs smoothly in the face of supply chain disruption. We can break down the role of Epicor ERP alongside supply chain management into eight main categories:

  • Purchase Management
  • Demand Management
  • Inventory Management
  • Shipping And Receiving
  • Warehouse Management
  • Advanced Material Management
  • Supplier Relationship Management
  • Supplier Connect

ERP Supply Chain Purchasing Management

Collaboration is key during the purchasing process to ensure orders move smoothly in and out of an ERP system. Tracking the performance of collaborative activities becomes more difficult as an organization grows. ERP fills the gap, providing businesses with the means to track, control, and comply with regulation and governance standards of their given industry. The result is accuracy, compliance, and security in supplier relationships.

  • Automated purchasing tools improve supplier collaboration, order accuracy, and negotiating while streamlining purchase order writing and tracking of supplier performance.
  • Improved on-time delivery reduces inventory levels, which improves cash flow and enables cross-referencing, mass purchase order receipts, requisition tracking, and more.

an image of a purchasing manager in a warehouse as part of ERP Supply Chain Management solutions

ERP Supply Chain Demand Management

Convert demand into sales orders and forecasts thanks to the efficient management of short- and long-term customer demand contracts. As a result, fulfillment decisions become second nature.

  • inventory management is made easy with statistical forecasting and planning tools that enable collaboration, consolidation, and aggregation.
  • Leverage invaluable insights to decrease on-the-shelf inventory, enhance flexibility, improve fill rates, and deliver a better customer experience overall.
  • Visual tools make interacting with supply chain demand data efficient and easy.

ERP Supply Chain Inventory Management

Digitize, automate, and simplify your processes for greater profitability at any scale, all while minimizing the inventory costs and risks associated with conforming to industry standards.

  • Meeting customer expectations becomes easy with superior visibility into costing, tracking, and country of origin.
  • From purchase order through manufacturing and shipping, material flow management becomes easy with an extensive suite of analysis tools, including shortage monitoring, reorder analysis, stock status, and many more.
  • Reduce annual audit costs significantly by leveraging automated control and regular inventory counting tools provided by ERP solutions for the supply chain.

an image of a full warehouse as part of ERP Supply Chain Management solutions

 

ERP Supply Chain Shipping And Receiving Management

Ensuring accuracy and customer satisfaction becomes easy with the shipping and receiving logistics solutions provided by ERP. The ability to monitor incoming and outgoing items for orders, subcontract parts being sent to a supplier, raw materials being received, or filling an order from stock all contribute to the enhanced shipping and receiving tools found in a robust ERP solution.

  • Efficiency, speed, and a consistent interface promote the rapid processing of shipments and receipts to provide reliable tracking at every stage of the journey.
  • By tracking container shipments and regularly updating purchase orders with enhanced accuracy and information visibility, your business can improve reliability and deliver on expectations without sacrificing time, money, or customer goodwill.
  • By driving out the cost of freight, insurance, and import duties with landed cost processing functionality margins improve significantly.

an image of shipping and receiving workers as part of ERP Supply Chain Management solutions

ERP Supply Chain Warehouse Management

ERP systems link warehouses with order processing and manufacturing operations seamlessly to optimize pick, pack, ship, and receiving processes.

  • Drive out errors and wasted resources by automating pick-and-pack, mobile-driven, and pre-pack fulfillment processes.
  • Leverage greater visibility into resource utilization throughout your warehouse to optimize processes and improve efficiency.
  • Rapid fulfillment capability enables businesses to better compete not just on cost and quality but on speed, as well.

an image of two warehouse management workers as part of ERP Supply Chain Management solutions

ERP Supply Chain Advanced Material Management

Track materials with real-time visibility and control with an advanced material management module, like that found with Epicor ERP. This function enables the monitoring of raw materials and work in process (WIP) activities throughout an entire enterprise using mobile devices and bar-coding technology.

  • By simply scanning a bar code tag you can produce accurate and timely electronic requests for materials.
  • Ensure that the right parts are delivered to the right resource at the right time utilizing an online queue of raw material and WIP parts
  • Track movement of raw materials and WIP to continuously improve efficiency

ERP Supply Chain Supplier Relationship Management

Supplier relationship management is a critical and ongoing process for manufacturers. Identifying the best partners to work with and improving supplier collaboration is easier with ERP supply chain management tools that enable buyers, procurement staff, and purchasing agents or those providing quotes, to request quotes for raw materials or subcontract services from one or multiple suppliers.

  • Make smarter and more informed sourcing decisions thanks to greater visibility and insight into supplier communications
  • Create centralized records for buyers, parts, and suppliers to maintain accuracy, simplify workflows, and eliminate redundant data entry
  • Reduce transaction times with automated tools that quickly convert supplier responses into actionable purchase orders

Epicor Supplier Connect For ERP Supply Chain management

Supplier Connect is unique to Epicor ERP and a feature of Epicor Commerce Connect. It is specifically tailored for suppliers It delivers an intuitive environment use to update their information via the supplier portal, answer requests for information, and confirm changes to purchase orders.

  • Enable business partners and customers transact with your brand online for a competitive advantage.
  • Improve collaboration by offering supplier self-service on open orders, part information, and access to invoice history.
  • Reduce staff time spent answering email, phone, or fax inquiries and increase efficiencies of your sales team.

The Competitive Benefits Of ERP Supply Chain Management

It’s a cutthroat world and businesses need every legitimate advantage they can get to ensure competitiveness. ERP competitive benefits are about as integral to the success of an enterprise as it gets.  Providing visibility and efficiency across departments, automating workflows with ERP from procurement to product delivery leads to lower overhead and operational costs.

By streamlining the path materials, financial information, and operational data take from source to destination, Epicor ERP delivers SCM that results in better control over performance, costs, and customer satisfaction. Here’s how:

  • The cost of inventory is minimized through effective demand forecasting lean inventory levels. This ensures just-in-time production methods can be effectively put into practice to bring down production costs while maintaining supply chain flexibility.
  • Epicor ERP supply chain management reduces production bottlenecks between internal processes and your external supplier. By enabling procurement best practices, the supply of goods, services, and other resources throughout the supply chain are more readily accessible and more easily leveraged.
  • Whether production revolves around children’s toys or Aerospace and Defense, transparency throughout the supply chain is key to ensure quality, accountability, and safety. Epicor ERP supply chain management delivers that transparency alongside the consolidated supply chain visibility that a business needs to thrive.

How ERP Supply Chain Management Contributes To Organizational Growth

ERP and SCM software go hand-in-hand to contribute to the overall growth of an organization. By tying in all the essential components of the procurement process, warehousing, and sales, Epicor ERP supply chain management module informs the business to a much greater degree. As a result, businesses of every size using Epicor ERP gain greater insight and operational capability.

  • The Small Business – Take advantage of an agile, cost-effective supply chain management solution that scales rapidly, effectively future-proofing your business for long-term innovation and growth.
  • The Midsize Business – Accelerate entry into new markets, quickly add new product lines and engagement with customers more easily and effectively.
  • The Enterprise – Enable team flexibility and responsiveness across verticals, whether B2B, B2C or B2X, at a global scale.

About Encompass Solutions

Encompass Solutions is a business and software consulting firm that specializes in ERP systems, EDI, and Managed Services support for Manufacturers and Distributors. Serving small and medium-sized businesses since 2001, Encompass modernizes operations and automates processes for hundreds of customers across the globe. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. By identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of Industry.