Software Pages 5 to 10 The ROI of ERP By Daniel Carranco Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software can pay for itself within the irst year and generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in cost savings each year after. Here are seven reasons mold builders should use ERP software, along with a handful of tangible beneits following its implementation. . Move Parts Through the Shop Faster When you get parts through the shop faster, customers will order more. In addition, some customers report that machin-ists no longer waste time hunting down routers, drawings, BOMs, POs or inventory lists. This adds up to a % increase in logistics eficiency. This also means that shop workers always know a schedule’s true capacity, any quality issues and the status of all jobs in real time. . Schedule and Deliver on Time Eficient, accurate scheduling lets you deliver on time, manage change and uphold promises to your customers. Some custom-ers mentioned on-time delivery rates nearly doubling, from an average of % to a consistent %. They attribute the remark-able increase to two key factors: () improvement in scheduling and production processes and () data visibility throughout the ERP system. When you schedule and deliver on time, you can correctly estimate lead times, identify production bottlenecks, know the status of all jobs, know your true capacity for machines, work centers and personnel and see how inserting a job into the schedule will affect other jobs, all in real time. . Achieve a % Quality Rating Consistent, near-perfect quality makes it easier to win more jobs. For example, some customers shared that they achieved a quality rating of .%. When you achieve a near-perfect quality rating, your shop floor can always work off the correct document versions and identify bad parts as they are made. Workers can also view everything in a single dashboard, take and document cause and corrective actions in real time, trace every part with % accuracy as it moves through the shop floor and quickly produce quality documentation. . Grow Sales ERP software provides a hidden return: sales growth from delivering a quality mold on time every time and knowing your bids are competitive, proitable and margin-true. For some customers, since implementing ERP software, sales have grown by %, with only a % increase in their workforce. You can grow sales faster when sales orders are accepted and work orders are sent to the shop floor within minutes. Also, sales will increase when you know job costs and margins, pre-cise estimating and quoting are enabled, access is instant for the sales history by a customer or part number and you take on more work without increasing administrative overhead. Image courtesy of Global Shop Solutions. Effi cient, accurate scheduling helps mold builders deliver on time, manage change and meet customer expectations. . Know Job Costs When you can trust your costing process, you know how much each job costs. Fast quoting and accurate pricing brings in new customers and backs existing ones. Some customers passed on that they couldn’t absorb labor, manufacturing and overhead costs before using ERP software and technology — they were all just part of the total expenses. Now they have actual costs for every job, enabling them to make informed decisions about their production and installation processes. . Maintain Accurate Inventory Knowing jobs are never late from lack of materials or are more expensive than they should be reduces risk. When you can maintain precise inventory, you can perform lot bin tracking resulting in complete traceability of parts; physical inventory counts are fast and accurate, barcoding all material lets you know exactly what you have in inventory and where it is, you rarely pay expedited shipping charges for incoming material and jobs are never late due to lack of raw materials. . Control Labor Costs When you can control labor costs, you can track labor down to the minute for jobs and job sequences, improving your abil-ity to respond to customers, reduce indirect costs by holding operators accountable for their time, track the number of hours in each job in real time, cut administrative overhead costs and minimize overtime. Collecting time and performance metrics becomes fast, efi-cient and accurate, reducing and controlling labor costs. Some customers revealed that they have increased revenue since implementing ERP software and technology and have only added minimal staff to the operation. That’s the biggest and best statistic of all. FOR MORE INFORMATION Global Shop Solutions / 800-364-5958 / globalshopsolutions.com Daniel Carranco, Director of Continuous Improvement 10 MoldMaking Technology — — JULY 2023