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Integrating ERP, CRM & Supply Chain Management For Your Business
It’s almost Valentine’s Day and that means presents. No, not candy or flowers, but things ADM professionals can use to boost their bottom-line.
After looking at what’s most important in terms of goals, I’ve put together a wish list of the top gifts any manufacturing professional would want.
Let’s take a look and see what replaces chocolates for you this Valentine’s Day:
Valentine’s Gift List for ADM Professionals
Manufacturing professionals are always looking to find better ways to optimize their processes and cut time to production in their advanced discrete manufacturing. When it comes to a tool that helps you accomplish this and improve your organization’s efficiency, I’ve found Microsoft Dynamics to be the “ go to” for just about anything.
This may be all well and good, but you might ask, “How does it benefit me?” I’m glad you asked and to answer that, here’s top 3 benefits of Microsoft Dynamics for manufacturing professionals:
Microsoft Dynamics For Discrete Manufacturing Optimization
As a manufacturer, you rely on multiple sources of information and insights to help you grow your business. Although we use mostly digital references, let’s not forget sources, including paper books.
To this point, I thought it would be a good idea to put together a top list of books on Microsoft Dynamics for manufactures. Each covers different areas and ways to get you to grow and manage your processes. Let me know your thoughts on these books and what you like most about them.
5 Microsoft Dynamics Books for Manufacturing Professionals
Over the course of 2011, I’ve covered many topics here on the To-Increase blog. One of the more popular categories here is on Industrial Equipment Manufacturing (IEM).
Like you, I’m always on the lookout for informative resources that help today’s manufactures increase operation efficiency and boost sales revenues. That’s why I’ve put together a top 10 list of the most popular 2011 IEM posts on the To-Increase blog. Some cover top trends in the industry and some share information on informative webinars we’ve held with manufacturing system leaders.
Top 10 IEM Posts of 2011
One of the main goals of every manufacturing equipment management department is to lower costs. Building richer functionality out-of-the-box while reducing unnecessary costs is on all of our minds. As we move into the year 2012, we have an opportunity to consider how we improve upon existing methods.
So how do we go about reducing the costs of high-tech machinery manufacturing, but still generate opportunities for further efficiency in our operations?
I’ve thought about this and I’ve broken down this answer into five steps. Let’s consider each and see how we can start reducing manufacturing and management costs in 2012:
Looking back, the manufacturing mining equipment business once only involved delivery of machinery and components. Today, it seems to have evolved into so much more. I believe a new business model has emerged and it has transformed manufacturers into full service providers.
What’s the key element spurring on this evolution? A focus on streamlining manufacturing business processes – both internal and external.
Globalization of the marketplace has had an immense impact on the industrial equipment manufacturing business. Now manufacturers have more to worry about than domestic competition; we’re up against an entire world of ideas. Keeping on top of your game and being adaptable are vital to staying competitive and growing your company.
To help you with that, next week on Tuesday I will be joining Kim Hubelbank, Sr. Solution Architect at Business & Decision, for the webinar Globalization – How to Adjust, Compete and Win. Scheduled for November 8th, 2011, at 12:00pm EST, together we will examine the impact of globalization on your business and learn new methods for increasing your market share, even as foreign competition heats up.
Is the answer to the question used in my headline too obvious? At least part of it certainly should be, as ‘budget reductions’ is certainly one of the key trends driving lean.
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:
Integration can help optimize business systems to work more efficiently. Integration can help simplify processes in the manufacturing supply chain. Integration can help meet business objectives.
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.
As we move into the fourth quarter, American Industrial Equipment Manufacturing (IEM) companies have reason to feel hope. This is not opinion or hyperbole. Rather, this is a statement backed up by the results of the eighth annual Prime Advantage Group Outlook (GO) Survey, which you can read more about in Manufacturing Business Technology.
Per some of the more positive results of this survey, as published in the article above:
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