I’m Samuel Kniseley Ballesteros, and I’m an EOS Implementer™. You may already be familiar with EOS® or the book, Traction, by Gino Wickman, founder of EOS Worldwide. If you’ve never heard of EOS®, it stands for the Entrepreneurial Operating System®, and this short video clip tells The EOS® Story.
The EOS® Method
I help business owners who are overwhelmed with the 136 issues they’re wrestling with simultaneously. It’s all about getting a grip on their business and getting what they want from the business. I do that by providing a complete system with really simple tools. These tools help you do three things we call Vision, Traction®, and Healthy.
Vision from the standpoint of first getting your leaders 100% on the same page with where your organization is going and how it is going to get there.
Traction® from the standpoint of helping your leaders become more disciplined and accountable, executing well to achieve every part of your Vision,
Healthy means helping your leaders to become a healthy, functional, cohesive leadership team because leaders often don’t function well as a team.
From there, as goes your leadership team, the rest of your organization follows. We get to the point where your entire organization is crystal clear on your Vision, all much more disciplined and accountable in executing your Vision. The result is gaining consistent Traction® and advancing as a healthy, functional, and cohesive team.
I love to meet business owners to hear their stories and what they are trying to accomplish with their businesses. I also enjoy giving away some of my time (no charge) to get to know them and their leadership team. This includes teaching them the EOS® tools and proven process. After that, I want them to feel comfortable calling me anytime with questions. They need to know that I won’t ever push them to start implementing EOS. I’m a teacher, facilitator, and coach, not a sales guy.
About Samuel
In his 20s, Samuel began leading the International Division for North America’s top architectural metals company. His Cuban heritage gave him the language skills to conduct business with customers in Latin America. Samuel was part of the team that set and realized strategic goals. During that time, the company grew from almost $30 Million to over $100 Million within 10 short years.
The skillset Samuel learned there led him to an opportunity to start his firm. With that opportunity, he focused on helping companies improve their profitability.
Samuel’s firm picked up a client that helps CPAs become forward-thinking advisors. He worked directly with their team to refine a tool that helps CPAs measure a company’s business potential. The tool ultimately identified opportunities to increase value by improving the key components of the business.
After joining Stewardship Legacy Coaching to lead the Business Coaching Solutions Division, Samuel was introduced to the wonderful world of EOS®, and he was immediately attracted to the simplicity and practicality of EOS® to help entrepreneurs and their leadership teams make their vision clear, simple, and achievable.
Now, as an EOS Implementer™, Samuel is excited about helping business owners thrive as they achieve what is best for their families and their companies.
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 the Industry.
Over the last 40 years, electronic data interchange (EDI) has become known as a business standard format for relaying documents electronically between trading partners in a network. While EDI comes with great benefits, it is not without its challenges. Fortunately, for the vast majority of businesses, the benefits of EDI far outweigh the drawbacks. Modern methods and technology have only served to provide more potent EDI benefits for small and medium businesses.
Financial Benefits Of EDI
Because EDI is a digital means of communicating for businesses, it comes with many advantages over paper-based systems. Not only this, but it saves on costly errors, wait time, and a host of other factors that businesses not utilizing EDI will suffer from.
Take for instance paper and postage, the most obvious difference between EDI and other communication systems. Because all EDI transactions are completed electronically and instantaneously, the expense of paper, postage, envelopes, forms, ink and transit costs are cut out of the equation. EDI not only saves on waste and materials within a business but also resources beyond the walls of the business, such as fuel and labor associated with shipping and transit activities. Administrative and maintenance costs are also impacted by EDI, due to storage, filing, and retrieval costs no longer being part of the equation.
Labor costs are reduced, as well. This is because data entry, manual review of documents, and other administrative tasks, like sorting, copying, and filing, are no longer necessary with EDI. The automation provided by EDI frees time to take on and complete constructive tasks for teams while cutting down on costly errors significantly. The work hours involved are reduced significantly and order processing can essentially be put on autopilot, save for the instances and conditions a business has built into its EDI processes.
Operational Benefits of EDI
We touched on the automation EDI provides in the section above, but those improvements go beyond the cost-savings and financial benefits of EDI. When your business runs more efficiently, trading partners and customers are more inclined to return to you with their business.
Maintaining accuracy in a paper-based trading network is a full-time job. Even with expert administrators and financial professionals, these tasks are wrought with problematic processes. There are many opportunities for human errors when it comes to re-keying data from orders, processing returns, and carrying out payment processing. EDI is an as-in, as-out technology. This means that the data received is the same as the data transmitted from trading partners. There is no need to re-enter data manually. The result is fewer erroneous entries, product returns, and lost orders.
On the topic of order fulfillment, EDI provides businesses with better visibility into their supply chain and inventory. The lead-time necessary to process an order is reduced and a business can move closer to a Just-in-Time (JIT) system.
Order accuracy is maintained at the highest level via digital records. When tied into a business’ ERP system, order, supply chain, and inventory data are ready and accessible for better and more informed decision-making. When a business is more able to adapt to market conditions and respond to supply chain issues, they are better positioned to outperform its competitors.
EDI has a tremendous impact on operations, from speed and accuracy to automation and efficiency. However, security is a topic increasingly at the forefront of conversations between trading partners and businesses with their customers. EDI delivers enhanced security protocols that place several layers of transactional data protection between businesses and their networks, as well as their customers.
Trading Partner and Customer Benefits of EDI
Beyond all the internal business benefits of EDI, there are many external trading partners and customer benefits of EDI.
One example emerges in a business’s ability to respond to changes in market conditions more quickly and effectively. Response time to environmental factors can be shaved down to seconds with EDI, resulting in fewer order disruptions and streamlined processes between sales and trading partner activities. The precision this facilitates ensures that production planning, order fulfillment, delivery, and response time are more precise and in alignment with a trading network or customer’s best interests.
The internet has connected the world on a scale never seen before in history. As a result, those we communicate with expect updates to be quick, accurate, and on-demand. EDI facilitates all three of these demands by providing information on process statuses, such as acknowledging receipt of orders, invoices, changes to purchase orders, pending payment status, and more.
Delivering on customer expectations is the key to securing their business long-term. EDI ensures that businesses are equipped to do so while also making accurate and timely updates available. In a competitive marketplace, where the buyer has the power, businesses need to leverage every advantage available. A high level of customer service is essential to thrive and EDI can help provide customer benefits their competitors may lack.
Trading partners and trading networks are often the driving force behind EDI implementation. EDI compliance can open the doors to more fruitful and expansive trading networks for businesses. Once the standards are put into place, EDI trading partner benefits are numerous and serve to grow a business’ trading network.
Encompass Solutions, Inc. is an ERP consulting firm, NetSuite Solution Provider, and Epicor Gold Partner that offers professional services in business consulting, project management, and software implementation. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems or addressing emerging challenges in corporate and operational growth, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. As experts in identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of the Industry.
When it comes to EDI, small businesses are often compelled to implement it by their larger trading partners and suppliers. While a business may think it’s too small to warrant such a change, it’s easier to get started with EDI for small businesses than one might think.
EDI For Small Businesses: Burdens And Benefits
There are, as with many transformative technologies, initial barriers to be overcome. However, this is true for entities of every size when implementing EDI. Smaller businesses have an easier time with some of these barriers than their larger counterparts. For many, the biggest barrier is costs associated with infrastructure and staff, for others, it’s the transition from paper-based systems to digital and automated ones. Whatever the hurdle to overcome may be, the benefits of integrated EDI for small businesses far outweigh the benefits that may be holding a business back from making the change.
Satisfaction, Loyalty, And Growth With EDI For Small Businesses
When it comes to the many arguments for a small business to begin leveraging EDI, nothing trumps growth. EDI enables growth in a big way, especially for smaller businesses. Two significant avenues through which EDI facilitates this are customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. When the experience of purchasing goes smoothly, and communication is fluid, customers appreciate the experience. Consistent performance in this regard delivers repeatable experiences that drive customer satisfaction. Positive word-of-mouth and online recommendations increase, which earns more business and retain loyal customers.
Accuracy, Automation, And Accountability
It’s not unusual for small business staff to wear many hats and assume several responsibilities from day to day. Even specialists make mistakes, but staff tasked with multiple duties at a business are provided more opportunities to make simple errors. These errors can have far-reaching consequences. With EDI many of the repetitive and manual tasks associated with purchasing, invoicing, and shipping can be automated, accurately enacted, and provide transparent records for superior accountability. The result is fewer botched orders, better follow-through on commitments to customers, and another opportunity to prove their loyalty is earned and valued.
Reducing Overhead With An EDI Partner
For many small businesses, envisioning the added burden of managing EDI infrastructure and maintaining knowledgeable staff can sink the idea before it’s put into action. Fortunately, some options don’t place these anxieties squarely on the shoulders of businesses. After the initial set-up of EDI, an EDP partner can maintain the system apart from a business’ day-to-day operation and IT structure. These systems are repeatable and scale with growth and can be easily integrated into existing ERP systems or to those added further down the line as time goes on.
By passing off the cost of an EDI project to an external partner, small businesses can enjoy the benefits of EDI without the additional staff, software, and hardware to maintain. This leaves in-house talent free to take on value-added activities that drive business growth and focus on customer care.
Encompass Solutions, Inc. is an ERP consulting firm, NetSuite Solution Provider, and Epicor Gold Partner that offers professional services in EDI, business consulting, project management, and software implementation. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems or addressing emerging challenges in corporate and operational growth, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. As experts in identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of the Industry.
When it comes to running a business, everyone has a business management system. Such a system can be as simple as a whiteboard on a breakroom wall but more often will take the form of spreadsheets and emails. These systems may even fall into the category of Enterprise Resource Planning software, even if users don’t know it by that name.
Businesses need to know the point at which they’re outgrowing a homegrown or siloed business management system. Here, we’ll detail What an ERP system is, the benefits derived from those systems, and how to evaluate an ERP system for your business.
What Is Enterprise Resource Planning Software?
ERP software is a means of communicating processes and resources to a business’ personnel. This information is then used by personnel to complete tasks such as how many parts to build for a purchase order or how many orders to fulfill by specified deadlines. The level of depth ERP software provides is virtually limitless.
Why Do Businesses Use ERP Software?
Unfortunately, businesses relying on spreadsheets miss out on putting a lot of their valuable data to use. Not only this, but they divide their teams into siloed departments that leave them working less efficiently. ERP software bridges gaps in communicating processes and resources with personnel. The result is accurate and relevant data delivered to those who need it, in real-time and across departments. Businesses will find ERP applications that enable better communication, increased efficiency, increased order accuracy and fulfillment, reduced inventory and labor costs, and happier customers.
The most modern examples of enterprise resource planning software deliver automation capabilities. Today, ERP software offers virtual assistants, workflow automation capabilities, automated data capture and entry, intelligent robot interfaces, predictive maintenance tools, and systems to connect manufacturing businesses from the shop floor to the top floor.
What Is The best ERP software?
The best ERP software is the one that checks all the boxes, or the most, when it comes to meeting the needs of your business now and into the future. That said, evaluating and selecting the ERP software that’s right for your business is not an overnight decision. Once you’ve decided that a more robust enterprise resource planning system is what you need, begin evaluating options.
The typical ERP evaluation process from the buyer’s end begins with research, then engaging those vendors or their certified resellers, discovery follows to ensure the ERP software is the right fit for a business, then demonstrations, agreements, implementation, and finally training. Some vendors and VARs will stop there, only reaching out to continue selling add-on services and upgrades. However, you will want to find a partnership with experts in the ERP software of your choosing. That’s because these systems will potentially help run your business for decades as you grow and expand. Finding the right fit for both ERP software and partnership among providers is important.
How To Select ERP Software
In short, every business is different and has different needs for ERP software. Though, there are core functionalities that all ERP systems will include, like financials and operations. Beyond that, there are systems geared towards retailers, manufacturers, healthcare, and just about every other industry vertical one can name. That said, no matter what ERP software you may need, there are reliable ways to evaluate ERP software that apply to the evaluation process regardless of industry and purpose.
Don’t get hamstrung by inaccurate data, lost information, and poor response time when unforeseen events take place. When the time is right to choose an ERP system that’s right for your business, big or small, talk to the experts at Encompass Solutions. We’ll connect you with a system that fits your build.
Encompass Solutions is a business and software consulting firm that specializes in ERP systems, EDI, and Managed Services support for Manufacturers. 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, or 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 the Industry.
Budgeting is the lifeblood of any company and there are instances whereby the time the budget is complete, it’s already stale. Spreadsheets may be the go-to choice for budgeting and planning, but they quickly become error-prone, insecure, disconnected, time-consuming, and non-collaborative. Many companies treat cash as an afterthought, neglecting to forecast the Balance Sheet because it’s simply too difficult. Instead, they rely on spreadsheets to organize data from a General Ledger.
Corporate Performance Management (or CPM) is an umbrella term for software applications that automate your business’s non-transactional processes – specifically picking up where your ERP system leaves off. We’re partnering with the CPM experts at Prophix to deliver a live webinar on Innovative Budgeting and Planning practices.
Budgeting And Planning Webinar
In this webinar, we discuss how to automate your financial processes to focus on analyzing trends in your data, promote collaboration and develop integrated financial planning across the organization.
After this webinar you will know how to:
Breakdown the budgeting process in 5 easy steps
Automate data entry and spend less time verifying calculations
Compare budgets to actuals while maintaining data accuracy
Influence process, people, and infrastructure through innovation
Encompass Solutions, Inc. is an ERP consulting firm and Epicor Gold Partner that offers professional services in business consulting, project management, and software implementation. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems or addressing the emerging challenges in corporate and operational growth, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. As experts in identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of the Industry.
When it comes to gauging corporate performance, the less time spent on non-revenue generating processes, the better. Unfortunately, the budgeting process is essential to proper performance and forecasting. That means mistakes can’t be afforded. Not only do you want to reduce the time and errors associated with manual budgeting in spreadsheets, but building an efficient process around your budgeting activities is of critical importance. Get rid of rigorous workflow processes and meet the growing needs for data security, data accuracy, and cross-functional integration of data, and remain nimble in the face of rapid change with these strategies. Budgeting Process Improvement can be achieved with ease, simply follow the steps outlined below.
1. Define The Budgeting Process
While budgeting is primarily a financial process, it affects just about every department of a business. defining the process ensures that it is managed efficiently, frees up time, and provides financial professionals the ability to conduct meaningful analyses, improve forecasting, and respond quickly to changing needs. only after the budgeting process is defined can you begin with budgeting process improvement.
2. Identify The Infrastructure That Supports Your Budgeting Process
Understand the infrastructure that supports your process. Employees, financial and project management skills, processes, and technology are what make your process run efficiently and ensure the steps required for execution are adhered to across the board.
3. Define Your Budget
A budget is a detailed account of your ability to conduct business processes based on available resources. An effective budget will provide enough detail to make sound decisions in both short-term and long-term scenarios. Defining the parameters of your budget will enable informed business decisions related to spending.
4. Define Relevant Performance Metrics For Your Budget
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) will help you stay focused on the goals you have set for your company. Be sure to set these KPIs at the onset of your budgeting, the resulting budget, and related processes to determine the financial health of your organization as it relates to revenue growth, earnings growth, debt reduction, and EBITDA margin.
5. Enable And Encourage Collaboration
Siloed systems and departments are characteristic of poorly organized businesses. By enabling and actively encouraging collaboration among your staff, budget-related issues can be addressed and resolved much more quickly, while new standards for your organization can be detailed, understood, adopted, and monitored more effectively.
6. Plan For Changing Conditions
The only constant changes, so plan accordingly. Businesses that are already in or want to be in a position of industry leadership need their budgeting and planning processes to be in line with this philosophy. Planning scenarios, maintaining an understanding of the latest trends, and implementing best practices all contribute to an organization’s overall financial health as a byproduct of budgeting process improvement.
Adopting software solutions designed to increase the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of budgeting processes yields measurable time savings for finance professionals. Industry analysts Aberdeen Group recently identified how Best-in-Class organizations use software automation solutions to increase the efficiency of budgeting and achieve tangible benefits. Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software is designed to help such organizations automate budgeting and planning processes.
Budgeting Action Items And Next Steps
Interested in learning more about what you can do to reduce the time committed to your company budgeting efforts? Want more insights and concrete data regarding your performance in the marketplace? Download the free whitepaper for these details, action items, and more. Otherwise, you can reach out to us directly using the link below for more information or a demonstration of how Corporate Performance Management (CPM) Software can improve operations for your organization.
Prophix develops innovative software that automates critical financial processes such as budgeting, planning, consolidation, and reporting—improving a company’s profitability and minimizing its risks. Thousands of forward-looking organizations in more than 90 countries use software from Prophix to gain increased visibility and insight into their business performance.
Encompass Solutions, Inc. is an ERP consulting firm, NetSuite Solution Provider, and Epicor Platinum Partner that offers professional services in business consulting, project management, and software implementation. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems or addressing emerging challenges in corporate and operational growth, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. As experts in identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of the Industry.
What Is EDI? Electronic Data Interchange, is defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology as, “the computer-to-computer interchange of strictly formatted messages that represent documents other than monetary instruments. EDI implies a sequence of messages between two parties, either of whom may serve as originator or recipient. The formatted data representing the documents may be transmitted from originator to recipient via telecommunications or physically transported on electronic storage media.” However, it can be summarized as a process by which computer systems exchange business documents quickly and securely in a standard electronic format. Some examples of those electronic formats include those from ANSI, EDIFACT, TRADACOMS, and ebXML.
What Is EDI Efficiency
By shedding traditional paper-based systems, businesses and their partners can take advantage of a host of benefits that EDI provides. Those benefits include, but are not limited to faster production speeds, fewer errors, reduced costs, and stronger more reliable partnerships.
When it comes to Electronic Commerce (EC), also known as e-commerce/eCommerce, EDI provides an essential method for carrying out business functions relating to information exchange, monetary transactions, and purchasing both in business-to-business and business-to-consumer relationships.
EDI helps eliminate human participation in the exchange of essential documents throughout business processes. In short, EDI helps automate tedious and error-prone business processes.
What Is EDI Security
When it comes to how EDI can affect your company’s business processes with customers and partners, security becomes one of the most important factors to consider. By doing away with paper systems and outdated technology, like phone, fax, and email conversations, your business can take advantage of more comprehensive and secure exchange methods. Consider these benefits when it comes to implementing an EDI solution for your business:
Audit trails
Contingency planning
Use of acknowledgments
Electronic document management
Activities of supporting networks
User access controls to systems and networks
Cryptographic techniques for authentication and confidentiality
Encompass Solutions is a business and software consulting firm specializing 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 the Industry.
Kaufman had been running several non-integrated systems before the implementation of Epicor ERP. During that time, these non-integrated platforms led to colleagues having to do each other’s jobs. One example included a lack of confidence in the inventory on hand. with no trust in the system data, users had to manually confirm inventory availability.
The Epicor implementation effort was owned by Kaufman IT Director Larry Keilin. “The transition from our old system to our new system was less painful than I expected for many employees, the day you switch from an old system to a new system is the day they love the old system,” Keilin commented. “A large number of our employees got on the Epicor bandwagon and became excited about all the work they can now do that they couldn’t do before. We are truly seeing the benefits, for example, for the purchasing department, the Buyers Workbench is such a useful tool that it stands out, and our customer service department loves the way they can take an old order, copy it, and create a new one-it’s a huge time saver for them.”
The Details
70 Concurrent Office Users
15 Concurrent Data Collection Users
8 Database Users
On-Premise Deployment
The Challenge
Challenges for this project are both substantial and essential to overcome if Kaufman were to make the most of its new ERP system. First, overcoming the lack of visibility for purchasing decisions, which up until this point had been made using days’ worth of research and inventory management via Microsoft® Excel® worksheets, would be essential.
Second, The lack of real-time transaction data gave little insight into how Kaufman was performing at any given point in time. Finally, the organization’s multiple costing methodologies provided inconsistent gross margin calculations.
The Goals
Kaufman Container implemented its Epicor ERP solution with the primary goals of:
Better tracking of sales and gross margin data to salespersons and customers.
Improve inventory management.
Integrate production management.
Growing revenue and profitability.
The Results
Encompass Solutions was contracted by Kaufman to perform an end-to-end business process review (BPR) which was critical in helping to determine the optimal business processes to follow. This would yield the maximum benefit from the newly implemented Epicor ERP product. The BRP was completed in just one week and helped outline areas for improvement as well as recommendations for systems and process improvement moving forward into implementation.
Every business area was taken into account during the assessment and recommendations for changes in engineering, production, inventory, purchasing, costing, and accounting departments were presented. In particular, a go-forward path that included additional modules to offer a substantial benefit to production and inventory management was provided by Encompass.
When asked how he felt we performed in our assessment, Keilin offered, “Encompass has done a great job at assessing the situation, with BPR guidance to systematically attack and resolve pain points following the implementation.”
Improvements included:
High return on investment that saw overhead costs cut by 30%.
System usability improved significantly as a result of easy-to-use dashboards and report generation.
Business Process Management (BPM) provided users the ability to set conditions and actions that added functionality to the system, tailoring screens and processes as needed.
Reorganization of sites, warehouses, and bins enabled quick and easy product location for issuing to jobs or shipping.
Parts purchasing was made easier with the visibility of time phase reporting.
The consistent average cost across all product lines.
For the past 100 years, Kaufman Container has been a leader in the North American market in providing quality and innovative packaging components and value-added services. From our beginning, our focus has always been on giving our customers exactly what they are looking for. Kaufman Container continues to be your “One Stop Shop” for all your packaging needs.
Today, Kaufman Container continues to be a privately-held, family-owned business that operates two key facilities in the Midwest. The business offers a wide variety of products and services, warehousing, quality and technical support, logistics assistance, and an in-house decorating facility.
Encompass Solutions, Inc. is an ERP consulting firm, a NetSuite Solution Provider, and an Epicor Platinum Partner that offers professional services in business consulting, project management, and software implementation. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems or addressing emerging challenges in corporate and operational growth, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. As experts in identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of the Industry.
In the last few years, automation has scaled with technological innovation exceptionally well. Manufacturing industries and consumers both are reaping the benefits every day. Hardware, like industrial robots, and enterprise software, like NetSuite and Epicor ERP, are working together more efficiently than ever before to refine processes for manufacturers and deliver high-quality products to consumers. However, while production process efficiencies are making great strides, profitability control doesn’t receive the attention it should be getting. Expenditures and inefficient resource use are two of the most impactful factors for a business to consider.
Manufacturing Profitability Control
According to Federal Reserve data, Manufacturing in the US has risen for the second consecutive month. Factory production of machinery, vehicles, computers, and electronics all signaled a healthy ecosystem going into the second half of 2018. Some industrial production highlights include an increase in factory output of 0.3% and a total industrial production increase of 0.1%. Factory production was 2.8% higher than the same time last year, as well.
Production has increased because of investment, innovation, and the incorporation of new technologies into operations. While modern tools have been leveraged to improve manufacturing productivity, maintenance practices, safety, and worker wellness are feeling the pressure that comes with the demand for increased throughput. Efforts to improve real-time monitoring, control, and maintenance improve safety and equipment reliability. This helps to take a lot off the plate of factory technicians and operators who bear the stress of stakeholders’ demands.
While automation, equipment, and personnel inch closer to harmony every day, efforts in profitability control can be expanded significantly.
Manufacturing Change Management
Dr. Peter Martin, Vice President and Edison fellow at Schneider Electric, uses the relationship between manufacturers and utility providers as an apt example to illustrate the speed at which change has been adopted directly into operations but forgotten in other areas of the manufacturing process. It is in these areas and relationships that further profitability can be explored.
“Some 20 years ago, you’d negotiate an agreement with your electrical utility supplier to fix the price for, say, a year in advance. Today, with open power grids, the price might change every five to twenty minutes. The cost of other inputs such as natural gas and raw materials can vary just as quickly,” he states. “This variation is equally evident at the consumer end. Thanks to Google and Amazon, the price of a product can change between morning and evening.”
Following a thorough round of interviews with more than 1,000 executives, Dr. Martin and his team agree the pain is being felt across the manufacturing landscape and changes can be made to combat the problem, stating, “We realized that by using sensors in a plant we could model real-time accounting at each cost and value point in the process, and these measurements would allow us to provide profitability control, pulled together with efficiency, safety, and reliability.”
Manufacturing Visibility
In another example of the factors that affect manufacturing operations’ profitability, Dr. Martin explains “Here you have ore and electricity entering the crushing circuit, and ground materials coming out. Three factors affect profitability – energy and material costs at the time consumed, and the value of the final product at the time it is produced,” he adds “You need to calculate these three variables and put them into the control system. The traditional control algorithm will, say, open a valve or manage the speed. But with real-time accounting, an algorithm will calculate the production value at each stage for each particular period and put that value into a historian for storage and future analysis. As a result, you have a day-long list of values at every point where cost is incurred.”
Think of this visibility and data management approach as a stock ticker for the value of a given stock throughout the trading day. Manufacturers already taking advantage of automation on the factory floor or in business processes, with the help of ERP systems, can further supplement their operations with profitability control.
Using these costs and fluctuations throughout the day, managers can more accurately forecast, budget, and negotiate with real-time accounting tools. The focus shifts from a month-to-month approach to analysis that’s long outdated in favor of a second-to-second one. This provides superior control in terms of a manufacturing operation’s profitability and automation efforts already in place.
Profitability Control With ERP
Beyond offering invaluable insight into expenditures of capital and resources, ERP solutions bring a lot to the table.
One of the biggest game changers for discrete manufacturers and process manufacturers is the ability to reduce waste significantly. The waste of time, money, materials, and labor can all be addressed with better visibility of demand and quicker communication. This ensures that the right amount of products are being produced to fill orders and changes are taken into account. Error reduction fits hand-in-hand with unnecessary waste. Identifying process and material issues can reduce the cost of scrap or reworking orders, which controls costs and increases profitability.
Communication throughout the ERP system is fast and efficient, as well. This ensures the right information is on hand and users have access to the information they need. As a result, time wasted in tracking down order details, erroneous data, and miscommunications are less likely to occur. When the entire organization is on the same system and working cooperatively, better productivity is the result. Consistency and reliability ensure higher customer satisfaction and brand loyalty, which further increases profits over time as the business grows.
Improving productivity and controlling costs should be among the highest priorities for a business. With ERP solutions, important delivery in full and on time (DIFOT) metrics inform your organization of delivery performance in a supply chain. It also measures how often your customers get what they want at the time they want it. Stronger performance impacts your bottom line and ERP can help streamline all the processes involved.
Encompass Solutions, Inc. is an ERP consulting firm and Epicor Platinum Partner that offers professional services in business consulting, project management, and software implementation. Whether undertaking full-scale implementation, integration, and renovation of existing systems or addressing emerging challenges in corporate and operational growth, Encompass provides a specialized approach to every client’s needs. As experts in identifying customer requirements and addressing them with the right solutions, we ensure our clients are equipped to match the pace of the Industry.
Is your reading list looking a little thin these days? Haha, right, sure: as if there were enough hours in the day and days in the week to read every book you needed, let alone wanted to read. We put in our best efforts but the list grows and grows and nothing is quite so frustrating as realizing a few chapters in (or, heaven forbid, at the very end) that the book you’re working on is Just Not That Good. Here’s some good news for you: We’ve got a list of the top 10 manufacturing books that are definitely worth adding to the top of your list. If you have any role in the manufacturing technology sector, are wanting to improve performance in any business, or even do a little bit of personal organization, you’ll find great advice and information in any of these.
Are you looking to continually improve processes and cut down on wasted resources like time and money, whether it be in the back office or factory floor? Get in touch with the expert analysts and consultants at Encompass Solutions today.
Here Are those Which We Believe Make The List Of Top 10 Manufacturing Books
In this classic text, Taiichi Ohno–inventor of the Toyota Production System and Lean manufacturing–shares the genius that sets him apart as one of the most disciplined and creative thinkers of our time. Combining his candid insights with a rigorous analysis of Toyota’s attempts at Lean production, Ohno’s book explains how Lean principles can improve any production endeavor. A historical and philosophical description of just-in-time and Lean manufacturing, this work is a must-read for all students of human progress. . .
Drawing upon a six-year research project at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, James C. Collins and Jerry I. Porras took eighteen truly exceptional and long-lasting companies and studied each in direct comparison to one of its top competitors. They examined the companies from their very beginnings to the present day — as start-ups, as midsize companies, and as large corporations. Throughout, the authors asked: “What makes the truly exceptional companies different from the comparison companies and what were the common practices these enduringly great companies followed throughout their history?” (Amazon.com -2015)
Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the very beginning. But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?
Named one of the best books of 2013 by Amazon, the Financial Times, and TheWall Street Journal–as well as one of Oprah’s riveting reads, Fortune‘s must-read business books, and the Washington Post‘sbooks every leader should read. For generations, we have focused on the individual drivers of success: passion, hard work, talent, and luck. But today, success is increasingly dependent on how we interact with others. It turns out that at work, most people operate as either takers, matchers, or givers. Whereas takers strive to get as much as possible from others and matchers aim to trade evenly, givers are the rare breed of people who contribute to others without expecting anything in return.
The Darwinian struggle of business keeps getting more brutal as competitive advantage gaps get narrower and narrower. Anything you invent today will soon be copied by someone else—probably better and cheaper.
Many companies thrive during the early stages of their life cycle, only to fall slack during periods of inertia and die out while others surge ahead. But as Geoffrey Moore shows, some notable companies have figured out how to deal with Darwin in their mature years—making changes on the fly while fending off challenges from every quarter.
“An outstanding book about CEOs who excelled at capital allocation.” — Warren Buffett
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Named one of “19 Books Billionaire Charlie Munger Thinks You Should Read” in Business Insider.
“A book that details the extraordinary success of CEOs who took a radically different approach to corporate management.” — Charlie Munger, Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Corporation
“Thorndike explores the importance of thoughtful capital allocation through the stories of eight successful CEOs. A good read for any business leader but especially those willing to chart their own course.” — Michael Dell, chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer of Dell.
(Amazon.com – 2015)
Anti-Patternsby Brown, Malveau, McCormick, and Mowbray
Are you headed into the software development minefield? Follow someone if you can, but if you’re on your own-better get the map! AntiPatterns is the map. This book helps you navigate through today’s dangerous software development projects. . . .
While patterns help you to identify and implement procedures, designs, and codes that work, AntiPatterns do the exact opposite; they let you zero-in on the development detonators, architectural tripwires, and personality booby traps that can spell doom for your project. Written by an all-star team of object-oriented systems developers, AntiPatterns identifies 40 of the most common AntiPatterns in the areas of software development, architecture, and project management. The authors then show you how to detect and defuse AntiPatterns as well as supply refactored solutions for each AntiPattern presented.
Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched.
Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business.
Executives from The Second City—the world’s premier comedy theater and school of improvisation—reveal improvisational techniques that can help any organization develop innovators, encourage adaptable leaders, and build transformational businesses.
For more than fifty years, The Second City comedy theater in Chicago has been a training ground for some of the best comic minds in the industry—including John Belushi, Bill Murray, Gilda Radner, Mike Myers, Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, and Tina Fey. But it also provides one-of-a-kind leadership training to cutting-edge companies, nonprofits, and public sector organizations—all aimed at increasing creativity, collaboration, and teamwork.
An entertaining illumination of the stupid beliefs that make us feel wise, based on the popular blog of the same name.
Whether you’re deciding which smartphone to purchase or which politician to believe, you think you are a rational being whose every decision is based on cool, detached logic. But here’s the truth: You are not so smart. You’re just as deluded as the rest of us—but that’s okay, because being deluded is part of being human.
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.
