Manufacturing-process

How to develop and optimize a manufacturing process is a job that surely the vast majority of companies must face at least once along their business path. But in order to develop it effectively, you must first be very clear about what it is and what it consists of.

A manufacturing process is the set of activities oriented to the transformation of resources i.e. raw materials into goods and/or services. That way you get the finished goods, ready for sale in different markets.

The word is linked to the concept of hand because in the most remote past, manufacturing was produced by manual means, that is, by hands. But today, manufacturing takes a huge portion of the world economy.

Through the action of manufacturing, companies have the ability to transform different raw material inputs into those products or outputs that they wish to offer to the market, thus performing their economic activity. Although generally applied to the terms ‘industrial production’ or ‘production process’, manufacturing encompasses a huge variety of 

• Crafts, 

• Machines and, as of lately, 

• High technology. 

In view of the complexity of the product, manufacturing actions may have more or a smaller number of intermediate production processes. Also, the sequences of manufacturing can be done 

• Manually, or 

• Through the use of machines

When a company begins the production of a new item, it has to choose the manufacturing process to use. The type of process depends on the installation, personnel and information systems available. Each manufacturing process has its advantages and some are better in certain tasks, for example, large batches of finished products or small numbers of custom items. 

One could speak of the existence of three phases in any production process:

1. Gathering / analytical stage: 

Various processes that incorporate and transform raw materials are involved in their manufacturing. But the manufacturing process always begins with the entry of various basic inputs that are working and combining progressively, gradually, until the finished product is reached. 

So, in the first stage of manufacturing, some input factors are needed that, throughout the process, will increase in value thanks to the transformation.

The main objective of a company during this phase of the production process is to get as much raw material as possible at the lowest cost. The minimum stock quantity option in Erpag will help you with this task, by instantly notifying you every time that your stock levels drop below the assigned minimum, so you will be able to manage and plan your purchases ahead of time, and consequently have enough time to evaluate various vendors and choose the best offer: 

If you are, however, building to order so you can minimize all the storage expenses and loss, you can greatly profit from the fulfillment option, that does an automatic comparison to stock every time that you create a sales order or work order, and gives you a list of everything that needs to be purchased so you can continue with the production and fulfill the demand:

2. Production/synthesis stage: 

During this phase, the raw materials that were previously collected are undergoing the manufacturing processes that will result in their transformation. 

The most common manufacturing input factors in this phase, besides the raw materials, are

• Labor, and 

• Machine usage 

that applied to manufacturing could be summed up in a combination of 

• Effort, 

• Raw material, and 

• Infrastructure

When it is necessary to obtain a greater volume of production, what will be implemented is the division of labor – in this modality, each worker will take special care of only a small part of the task. In this way it is gained in specialization, speed and in economization of resources.

In Erpag, you have the ability to schedule tasks and record time for you employees on job sites by using the timesheets option:

Having an accurate estimated cost for production in every step of the way, proves to be crucial for making decisions on the go, and updating the planned work order flow if necessary. And the MRP will provide you this type of real time information that can be spread out through all the departments momentarily. 

3. Processing / conditioning stage: 

The adaptation to the needs of the client or the adaptation of the product for a new purpose are the goals of this productive phase, which is the most oriented towards the marketing itself. A good MRP will give you the opportunity to integrate with ecommerce platforms and promote your products in various marketplaces – and that’s only one of Erpag strong suits. Once the product / service is already delivered, it cannot be forgotten that a control task must be carried out that allows knowing if what has been delivered meets the objectives set and the quality standards that the client demands. And that’s why Erpag provides notes, attachments and custom fields all throughout the system, so you can keep track and never lose sight of the relevant information that can help you grow your business.

Of course, over time, the manufacturing process was incorporating technological improvements that manifested directly in productivity. Information and technology, which interact with people, are now involved in this process.  This production favor would be accompanied by an improvement in price, that is, more is produced and the cheapest product can be sold. As the supply increased it was possible to cover the demand, which was the ultimate goal – the demand satisfaction. Implementing MRP and ERP softwares is now a trend applicable to any production process!

Industrial manufacturing has nothing new and yet it continues to evolve and adapt to new realities. The application of technology one of the most important examples of the business regeneration capacity! From the most basic and absolutely necessary, like an ERP or MRP, to for example the case of the combining robots with vision systems – mixed reality. This topic is getting more and more attention, since the use of technology applied to the field of industry makes businesses much more operational and, therefore, more effective. 

Implementing and MRP is one of the best and most affordable examples of the optimization of resources and, therefore, the achievement of a higher level of profit for companies.