When I say evolve, I am referring to growing your infrastructure and improving your process efficiency with enterprise asset management. It may sound like a complex and, perhaps, uncertain option, but there are many many benefits. In fact, I’ll share with you some of the top benefits in this post.

Here are a few ways enterprise asset management can benefit your manufacturing operation:

How Enterprise Asset Management Benefits Manufacturing

• Reduce downtime – Downtime is the bane of every manufacturers schedule. If there’s a problem, it needs a resolution and fast. With added downtime, your production schedule backs up and your projected profits go down. Now combine multiple work centers and you could have more than one issue, with possibly larger implications.With enterprise asset management, you can take a more proactive stance with each work center and the assets that lead up to your production schedule. This also helps your staff work more efficiently and achieve their goals by giving them the resources and information they need.
• Streamline processes – I’ve spoken before about streamlining processes – it still is, after all, a subject I feel very strongly about! That’s because today’s manufacturing operation isn’t going to grow by sticking with outdated systems or processes – it needs to evolve. This means embracing streamlining and automation of critical practices.By integrating enterprise asset management into your manufacturing mix, you benefit as you move away from manual or repetitive processes with a more automated solution. Also, by staying up-to-date on your technology and organizational data, you know where everything is and what everyone is doing.
• Gain insights– Running an effective manufacturing operation requires many technical, business and operational responsibilities. If your company wants to find where it can save funds or create more efficiency, it’s important to know what your cost of ownership is and how you can improve it.Again, enterprise asset management is an indispensable resource to gain insights into your manufacturing operations and know how your work centers perform, as well as what it will take to accomplish company goals. By utilizing this add-on with your existing Microsoft Dynamics AX system, you won’t have to guess at what will work – you’ll already know.

Today, it is vital to evolve beyond simple spreadsheets, worksheets and sketches to look at a total asset management system. With enterprise asset management, your manufacturing processes gain more efficiency, a proactive stance against downtime and insights for unleashing potential. This leads to growth, not only in your production schedule, but also in your profit margin.

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How Enterprise Asset Management Benefits Your Manufacturing Operation was posted at To-Increase Blog: ERP, CRM & Supply Chain Management. | http://blog.to-increase.com

Many warehouse professionals fail to effectively organize their CRM, resulting in additional time and resources to accomplish tasks that could slow organization processes and time to production. Just like a well-organized file cabinet, your CRM requires better use of its storage space.

5 Ways To Organize Your CRM

1. Frequently check for duplicates – Having lots of key customer information means you’re doing something right, but if it’s riddled with duplicate records, it diminishes its effectiveness. One way Microsoft Dynamics helps you organize your CRM better is by helping you minimize duplicate data. Duplicate data can play havoc with your ROI. When you rely on accurate customer information for marketing campaigns, you could drastically change your bottom-line – for the better!
2. Label things – Do you know what types of data go where or do you have specific containers for each customer record? Many warehouse professionals suffer from overwhelm – not because they don’t have enough time, they don’t have organized data. If you leverage Microsoft Dynamics to label things like customer documents, proposals and even contracts, you’ll not only see a difference in your data organization, you will gain more time for other important tasks too.
3. Document any insertions or deletions – When someone changes a customer record or adds more data, is there a tracking system in place for your warehouse operations? If not, look into using Microsoft Dynamics to document insertions and deletions of data and keep process operations data accounted for with an audit trail.One specific situation that will save you time and resource hours is to check if data already exists before you enter it – this would work with data collected from a conference or other offline event.
4. Embrace Social Media integration – Through social media, your customers receive more than a simple transaction, they experience a personalized experience. By integrating social media and ERP with your CRM, you gain a new level of data that gives more in-depth insights into what your customers want, don’t want and that gives more precise ways to organize and use this data.
5. Schedule time to analyze data – Organizing your CRM is critical to efficiency of your warehouse operations. One way I like to get things “more put together” is to analyze data trends and customer data to see if there’s specific data that’s even more critical and store it in easy to find collection spot. Microsoft Dynamics makes simplifies this and by looking at retail buying trends over holidays would be one way this would work for warehouse operations.

Your CRM is a vital part of understanding customer needs, wants and how they interact with your retail chain. With all this information, many still fail to effectively organize this data for more efficient use within the organization. By considering tools, such as Microsoft Dynamics, with better data organization, not only will you notice a difference in time and resources, you’ll notice it in your bottom-line.

To learn more about CRM organization with Microsoft Dynamics, subscribe to our RSS feed, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook or connect with us on LinkedIn.

5 Tips to Keep Your CRM Organized with Microsoft Dynamics was posted at To-Increase Blog: ERP, CRM & Supply Chain Management. | http://blog.to-increase.com

Going along this path, I believe there are three top trends we will see going into 2012. Let’s consider each, how they are interrelated, and how they help manufacturing professionals plan out more efficient workflow management.

3 Workflow Management Trends to Watch in 2012

1. More utilization of materials to streamline the flow of goods – Going into the New Year, the main trend to watch for is more use of hardware/software to help transform raw materials into product and get it into the hands of customers. With more emphasis on workflow management systems, companies have greater opportunities to expand and still maintain manufacturing operations.Going along the same lines, watch more manufacturers integrate their hardware/software systems with each other such as tying in ERP and PLM systems.
2. Increased IT hiring – Working off the first item in this list, 2012 will bring in a renewed surge of hiring IT personnel to maintain and manage the software and hardware for workflow management. With an increase in hiring needs, IT candidates will see a wider range of opportunities and might have more from which to pick and choose for career advancement or new employment.
3. Leveraging auditing software – The enemy of production and staying on schedule is unexpected delays. The last trend to watch for is how more organizations will use auditing software to protect their IT and personnel investments, while keeping production interruptions to a minimum. With auditing in place for manufacturing workflow management systems, more companies will develop a more proactive, and not reactive, approach to production operations.

With a New Year, we’ll start to see more manufacturers invest in ways to increase efficiency in their production processes.  This includes more reliance on hardware/software, hiring more IT personnel and leveraging auditing software for optimal workflow management.

To learn more about workflow management and its trends for 2012, subscribe to our RSS feed, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook or connect with us on LinkedIn.

Are you interested in learning more about how your company streamline processes and reduce costs associated with Enterprise Resource Planning, Customer Relationship Management and supply chain management? Contact us today!

Workflow Management: 3 Advanced Discrete Manufacturing Trends to Look for in 2012 was posted at To-Increase Blog: ERP, CRM & Supply Chain Management. | http://blog.to-increase.com

One area it would impact is your trust in your inventory  – the materials you need to fulfill customer needs. How does this happen? To find out, let’s consider the following 5 reasons your inventory isn’t as trustworthy as you think:

Enterprise Resource Planning: Why You Can’t Trust Your Inventory

1. No Integration – Technology doesn’t live in a silo and neither should your manufacturing systems. Does your Enterprise Resource planning system and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) talk the same language? Do they even say anything at all? If not, it’s a good bet your other systems feel left out of place too. Integrating all of your systems ensures your inventory runs effectively and lets you know when a change is in order.
2. Legacy System – What would happen if you upgraded your ERP system? How about an integration of other types of systems? Would it stay operational or bring down your entire manufacturing operation? If you run with a legacy system with limited capacity, do something about it and don’t chance what’s in your inventory.
3. No Upgrade Path – When it’s time to evolve your Enterprise Resource Planning system, do you have the ability to do so? Does your current system rely on a shrinking pool of independent technologists and not a focus on growing the system? If you have no upgrade in your existing system, the reliability of your inventory is greatly reduced.
4. Lack of Visibility – In the changing landscape, your inventory needs can change at a moment’s notice. This requires an Enterprise Resource Planning system that leverages real-time visibility. Along with notification management and other real-time alerts, your inventory will falter without the view to change and adapt to the needs of your customers.
5. Increased Cost – The risk of costly mistakes is the fifth top reason you shouldn’t trust your ERP inventory. As a manufacturer, you try to find ways to cut costs and run your business efficiently – for some, this means off-shore solutions and less spend on “non-critical” IT functions. Although they seem to save the company now, these types of actions will only increase costs in the future.

Your Enterprise Resource Planning system is key to knowing what’s going on with your inventory and other manufacturing operations. If you have any doubts about your system, you’re going to have a harder time trusting your manufacturing inventory. If this is the case, it’s time to redirect your focus on evolving your ERP solution before it decides to start making it’s own rules – without you.

To learn more about Enterprise Resource Planning, subscribe to our RSS feed, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook or connect with us on LinkedIn.

Enterprise Resource Planning: 5 Reasons You Can’t Trust Your Inventory was posted at To-Increase Blog: ERP, CRM & Supply Chain Management. | http://blog.to-increase.com

The right Enterprise resource management solution is important to keeping your business efficient, while letting you prepare for future enhancements and opportunities. To help you make better decisions concerning your ERP environment, we invite you to join our live executive briefing – designed for manufacturing professionals like you – and learn how objective guidelines can help you decide whether to stay with your current system, upgrade to a new version or move to a new solution and platform.

In this webinar, we take a close look at the keys to ERP software success and how they relate to your current ERP system, including:

• Does a shrinking pool of independent technologists support your current ERP system? Wouldn’t it work better with a focus on growth, instead? In this webinar, we will illustrate this common scenario and others by comparing Baan—a system that’s served many manufacturers well, but may have an uncertain future—with the To-Increase Advanced Discrete Manufacturing solution for Microsoft Dynamics AX.

• Is your upgrade path lacking critical support for the essential and unique business processes you rely on for your operation? Is the inconvenience of developing or doing without this functionality tolerable – or is the cost too great?

• Is your ERP vendor invested in your system for the future, specifically for your particular manufacturing needs? Customers with doubts about their vendor’s future will be leery about pursuing upgrades and support. In this webinar, we’ll share pros, cons and benchmarks to help you make the right decisions.

• How do upgrades to your ERP software make you feel? Do they feel like your moving to a new product, instead of enhancing your current enterprise resource management? I know how this feels and you should be wary if your ERP upgrade requires things, like migration, new hardware, extensive programming, business process re-engineering and other complexities.

This webinar also explores migrating to a new platform and system using a revolutionary rapid implementation process.

Along with this fact-packed, interactive webinar, count on receiving a white paper from To-Increase industry and software experts that ensures you’re informed and current with the topics we’ll be covering in our webinars.

If you’re ready to move your business forward, join me on December 15 at 9am PST by registering for this ERP strategy-packed webinar.

Stay up-to-date on the latest ERP webinars by subscribing to our RSS feed, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook or connect with us on LinkedIn.

ERP Systems Webinar: Move Your Business Forward in a Volatile Marketplace. was posted at To-Increase Blog: ERP, CRM & Supply Chain Management. | http://blog.to-increase.com

Understanding what’s happening in your manufacturing business isn’t just nice to know – it’s critical. This requires data and lots of it. If you are not capturing that data, then you need to rethink your streamlining strategy.

To get there and keep that data for later viewing, I always recommend an IT tool set with a solid audit trail add-in. With a good audit trail, you know what’s happening and how to fix problems – sometimes, before it’s even broken.

Let’s take a look at what goes into an audit trail and how an IT system solution for this process works.

What’s An Audit Trail?

As your manufacturing operations go through its daily processes, there is always a need for records of what is happening – from beginning to end. This would also include your external customer operations and internal processes.

Recording and tracking of day-to-day processes and activity is called an audit trail.

For a more specific explanation, the Wikipedia definition says an audit trail is:

“A sequence of steps supported by proof documenting the real processing of a transaction flow through an organization, a process or a system.”

Simply, an audit trail keeps a running record of data that follows all of your manufacturing operations. With specific IT tool sets, such as Microsoft Dynamics, you can refer back to your trail at any point for crucial data that could impact your manufacturing processes.

From a personal standpoint, I can’t tell you how glad I am that software functionality like this exists. In my opinion, every manufacturer needs this as part of their operations mix.  Having that data readily accessible can be a lifesaver.

How An Audit Trail Benefits Manufactures

Now that I told you what an audit trail is, how does it benefit today’s manufacturer?

By having data that pulls from all of your systems, including Enterprise Resource Planning and Product Lifecycle Management, you benefit by knowing what, why, where and how your manufacturing operations stay efficient and keep up with customer demand.

By implementing a Microsoft Dynamics audit trail, manufactures will see benefits in situations, including:

• Knowing the required amounts of materials to produce a product
• Finding out how many hours does it require a product to go from design to production
• Making decisions to increase resources for projects
• Finding where to decrease wasteful practices that increase process efficiency

Getting Started With Microsoft Dynamics Audit Trail

To get started with an audit trail, let me run you through some introductory steps of the process.

1. Firstly, audit trail isn’t installed right out the box and it takes one addtional installation to make it part of your system. Simply choose to install audit trailing from the setup menu in Microsoft Dynamics.
2. Once it is installed, you need to decide who will have access to the audit trails. You want to make sure this is someone trusted and understands the data within the audit tables.
3. Now decide what database tables to audit from your manufacturing system and apply permissions that enable auditing to proceed without issue.
4. From here on, whenever a designated event occurs to auditable database tables, an audit ensues and provides you with the information about what’s going on.

What’s some of the information available in an audit trail record? Microsoft Dynamics audit tables duplicate the source table and add these fields:

• Time
• Date
• UserID

Again, this is useful information for manufacturers who want more to see what’s happening in day-to-day operations.

I believe manufacturers crave data and not just any data – information that supports streamlining existing processes and boosting the bottom-line. By adding an IT tool set with a robust audit trail, like Microsoft Dynamics, expect an increase in efficiency for all of your operations, while keeping up with customer demand.

To learn more on how Microsoft Dynamics helps building strong audit trails for manufacturing operations, subscribe to our RSS feed, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook or connect with us on LinkedIn.

Contact To-Increase for more information on lean manufacturing, or insight regarding how to improve supply chain visibility.

Microsoft Dynamics Workflow: How to Create an Audit Trail was posted at To-Increase Blog: ERP, CRM & Supply Chain Management. | http://blog.to-increase.com

But going lean is not just about reducing costs.  Lean can be defined with words ranging from ‘efficiency’ to ‘green’ – and between these two words is too wide of a scope to tie into one obvious trend.

And with that, here are the five trends I see as most driving lean manufacturing:

1. Budget Reductions
There is no sugar-coating the suffering that our economy has gone through as of late.  And this suffering has led to sometime significant budget cuts that have all but forced lean decisions.  That said – recovery is within our reach – and per the results of the eight annual Prime Advantage Group Outlook (GO) Survey (read more in Manufacturing Business Technology) – 87% of manufacturing companies see revenues as the same or better through the balance of the year.

That said, this same survey indicates that the manufacturing employment outlook is far more conservative, as 11% of manufacturing companies plan to increase layoffs.  In other words, while the economy may be improving, the budget reduction trend appears to be still firmly in place – squaring us in a lean new world.

2. Process Improvements
The trend towards lean manufacturing is not all surrounded by grim economic reality.  Many manufacturing companies, whether forced into lean or not, have taken the opportunity to create greater efficiencies within their day-to-day operations.

And this has helped usher in a new trend of process improvements, as companies develop strategies designed to meet new objectives through more efficient use of existing resources.  For those developing a lean manufacturing strategy, I encourage you to read a recent post by my colleague Bob Aronson – who will help ensure your lean manufacturing strategy is ‘just right.’

3. Green Supply Chain Management
Driven in seemingly equal part by social responsibility and environmental regulations, the trend towards green is impacting nearly every industry – including manufacturing.

Rooted in the very idea of using fewer resources, and producing less waste, the trend towards green is an underlying force driving lean manufacturing as companies must assess – and improve – everything from transportation planning to package design to comply with new green supply chain management guidelines.

4. Footprint Reduction
Essentially a sub-trend of green, the idea of footprint reduction is rooted in the notion of using fewer resources.  Footprint reduction, though, is concerned specifically with the physical space being used.

A recent post I wrote about new warehouse management technology goes deeper into this trend, and describes how new technologies are helping to achieve this goal through better supply chain and inventory management.

5. Need for Visibility
A big barrier many companies are striving to overcome, en route to lean, is visibility into manufacturing operations. In a recent post, Mark Symonds of Panorama Consulting describes how the demands of lean are driving companies to look deeper at the capabilities of their current (or prospective) Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software when it comes to achieving greater project and process visibility.

“If you can’t see it, you can’t lean it,” writes Symonds, as he helps close out the final trend on our list.

What trends do you see as most driving lean manufacturing?

I encourage you to share your thoughts via a comment below.

Stay up to date on the latest manufacturing insight by subscribing to our RSS feed, following us on Twitter, liking us on Facebook or connecting with us on LinkedIn.

Contact To-Increase for more information on lean manufacturing, or more insight regarding how to improve supply chain visibility.

What 5 Trends Are Most Driving Lean Manufacturing Strategies? was posted at To-Increase Blog: ERP, CRM & Supply Chain Management. | http://blog.to-increase.com

But unless it’s focused on improving visibility, integration will not help with any of the items above, regardless of your vertical.

For all the talk and buzz over integration, especially the integration of Enterprise Resource Planning (ER) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), I feel the real crux of these conversations needs to focus more on one of the ultimate benefits of integration – rather than the process itself.  And in a word, visibility defines this benefit.

A good piece on the importance of manufacturing supply chain visibility can be found in an article published earlier this month on EBN.com.  In the article, author Lalit Wadhwa writes:

“In an environment of high demand volatility, rapid obsolescence cycles, and shifting raw material lead times, visibility into the extended supply network becomes critical for anticipating supply disruptions and responding to demand fluctuations.”

In citing the importance of manufacturing supply chain visibility, Wadhwa goes on to list some key challenges:

• Real-time visibility must be provided into every part of the supply chain, including: plan, source, make and deliver
• Many manufacturing organizations compound visibility challenges through the use of multiple ERP solutions
• Many solutions designed to improve visibility lack scalability and depth

So how can these challenges best be addressed?

Circling back to our theme, the answer lies in integration:

• Access to information on the fly – As Wadhwa writes, many integrated solutions include on-demand access, which provide an immediate view into things like supplier performance, component lifecycle management and even on-time performance aggregated across multiple sites.
• Simplification of complex information – Integrated solutions can help manage the complexity of information. Many integrated platforms, in fact, are built from the ground up to manage the complexities of manufacturing.
• Easier planning for variability – More visibility into the chain makes it easier for you to plan things out and expect the unexpected. This helps in all areas such as controlling and tracking inventory and keeping financial data in-sync with expectations on and off the manufacturing floor.

The advice I offer for those focused on integration is this – know exactly why you are focused on integration.  This will help you know exactly what to expect – and better yet – know exactly what questions to ask of any potential vendor.

Stay up to date on the latest manufacturing insight by subscribing to our RSS feed, following us on Twitter, liking us on Facebook or connecting with us on LinkedIn.

Contact To-Increase for more information on the benefits of PLM / ERP integration, or more insight regarding how to improve supply chain visibility.

Manufacturing Supply Chain Visibility Is Key To Success In Any Vertical was posted at To-Increase Blog: ERP, CRM & Supply Chain Management. | http://blog.to-increase.com

Maybe I should back up just a bit.  Because the end goal is not to get our machines talking – but to boost our bottom-line – which will require us to improve our processes, achieve greater visibility into our supply chains and effectively communicate in real-time with our teams across the globe.  And achievement of this objective will come to us much more quickly if we start to think about integration in a much larger way.

Earlier this year, Stephanie Neil of Manufacturing Automation wrote that Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) must fit into our integration equation.

Neil writes:

“MES has historically been considered an isolated application responsible only for managing the flow on the factory floor. But today MES also takes orders from ERP, keeps tabs on inventory in the warehouse, and monitors packaging before it is pushed out the door to distribution. The software is, indeed, integrated into the enterprise.”

What Neil teases at in the paragraph above is a viable powerhouse of a solution – an integrated system combining engineering and manufacturing that leads to unprecedented efficiency and operational improvement.

And what this means for manufacturers is:

• More effective communication – As Neil writes, MES can deliver work instructions to move a product prototype into production on the factory floor, helping to solidify communication between different departments.
• Greater Inventory Visibility –MES helps team members across departments and across the globe keep tabs on all available materials.
• Improved Processes – Achieved with better alignment between manufacturing and departments ranging from engineering to finance.

With MES integration, manufacturers can experience greater speed and management during everything from product shipment to product recalls – and even help significantly reduce manufacturing mistakes.  And it’s this that will lead to our ultimate objective – improving our bottom-line.

Stay up to date on the latest manufacturing insight by subscribing to our RSS feed, following us on Twitter, liking us on Facebook or connecting with us on LinkedIn.

Contact To-Increase to learn more about integration of Manufacturing Execution Systems.

Factoring MES Into Your Integration Equation was posted at To-Increase Blog: ERP, CRM & Supply Chain Management. | http://blog.to-increase.com

Per some of the more positive results of this survey, as published in the article above:

• 87% of manufacturing companies see revenues as the same or better, through the balance of 2011
• 44% of manufacturing companies state that new products and/or consumers are fueling their growth

Pent-up puppy demand, a concept developed by my colleague Bob Aronson when he posted here last year, is likely a big part of this increased consumer demand.  As Bob explains it below:

“In terms of pent-up consumer demand, imagine walking by a store window each day and seeing the same adorable puppy.  Each day, you walk by knowing that while that puppy may make your life infinitely easier (ie a new friend, a new guard) you just don’t have quite enough to support him (or her).

And then finally, that day arrives where you have just enough cash on hand to take care of this puppy today – and at least through tomorrow.  And like many who have fallen for big brown eyes in the past, you walk into the pet store and scoop up your new friend almost uncontrollably – and you don’t give it a second thought.”

In other words, having been unable to spend for so long – consumers are feeling ready – and the demand is deafening.

The flip side to this reality, however, can be seen in two additional points from this same survey below:

• 11% of manufacturing companies plan to increase layoffs, compared to 3% from the first half of the year
• 81% cite supply chain management cost containment as a top issue

The interesting dichotomy is this:

• Consumers, for too long unable to spend, are exhibiting the pent-up demand that breeds confidence
• Manufacturers, for too long existing in uncertain economic conditions, are not yet ready to increase spending on employment or supply chain management improvements – despite demand

The solution for existing in this environment lives within lean manufacturing.  And while this may not be an answer that everyone appreciates, it is an answer that is all but defining our current manufacturing environment as we move into Q4 and beyond.

For those that feel as though lean operations will make it harder to keep up with demand, unfortunately, I can’t tell you how long lean will define your world.  But what I can do is let you know that there are solutions available that are designed to help you succeed in this environment:

• Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Integration
  PLM / ERP integration can help reduce the risk of costly and time consuming mistakes.  A recent demo I shared, which you can request via the form to the right, illustrated how Microsoft Dynamics and Siemens Teamcenter integration led to a 70% reduction in data entry errors.
• Cloud ERP
  Modern cloud-based ERP solutions can be quickly implemented and are built from the ground up with industry-specific solution sets.  These solutions help to support secure, global project visibility from any web connection – and support the real-time communication that can near instantaneously transform the efficiency level of any project.

• Plant Maintenance Solutions
  Regardless of how lean your staff is, plant maintenance schedules will need to be developed, managed and adhered to.  New solutions available will offer more than the ability to schedule and assign work – instead, they will provide everything from global insight into maintenance schedules to the flexibility to automate real time changes to work orders.

An increase in manufacturing confidence is an extraordinarily positive indicator.  But this recovery must be planned for, and taken with a budgetary grain of salt.  Fortunately, solutions are available to ensure this recovery is all the sweeter.

Stay up to date on the latest supply chain management and IEM and insight by subscribing to our RSS feed, following us on Twitter, liking us on Facebook or connecting with us on LinkedIn.

Conservative Supply Chain Management & Employment Outlooks Do Little To Dent Manufacturing Confidence was posted at To-Increase Blog: ERP, CRM & Supply Chain Management. | http://blog.to-increase.com