The start of a new year brings with it the opportunity for businesses to review and refresh their requirements. This may cover staffing, equipment, materials and of course software.
For manufacturers in particular, it’s the ideal time to look at the state of play with their current MRP software and looking into buying MRP software that better fits their business needs. If you are a small-medium business then you may be looking to buy MRP software for the first time.
Whatever your situation, one thing is certain, you need to an accurate, efficient software system that will take your business forward, providing sustained growth and profit. It is time to step away from the days of using busy spreadsheets, ad hoc databases and random data collection software and move with the times to a simple yet modern MRP system in Statii, which is specifically designed for the everyday manufacturing business.
Requirements Of A New MRP Software Package
For MRP software to be successful in the modern era, there are certain check boxes that need to be ticked off. Depending on the size and scale of your business, and its industry, there may be more complexity than simply finding and implementing any MRP system.
Some of the key areas that a new, innovative MRP system must be able to handle effectively include:
- Material Planning / Costing – Your new MRP software should be able to plan and schedule the needs and requirements of your materials. Robust, reliable reporting is essential as your material planning should be as flexible as possible to manage capacity and ensure that there is not too much or too little product in stock.
- Shop Floor Data Collection – MRP software should have an inclusive database that gives you the ability to send data in real time to and from staff on the shop floor. Giving you the ability to see work in progress, as well as historical records of past and future jobs to be carried out to keep your workforce as productive as possible.
- Inventory Management – SMEs need a balanced inventory to manage cash flow and stock control effectively. You don’t want to have too little stock that you cannot complete important orders in time, but equally it is important that in order to remain as profitable as possible you should not keep too much stock in your inventory at any one time. It is important that your MRP software should be able to help you control your inventory. Giving you plenty of warning if your stock levels get too high or low by giving you alerts and regular automated reports.
What You Should Know Before Buying MRP Software
Making a decision over your choice of MRP provider shouldn’t be difficult. Often, your ideal MRP software package will stand out from the crowd. However, there are plenty of providers, so sometimes depending on the size of your business, the decision can be a little more tricky.
Below are a few suggestions as to things to look for before making a decision on any particular software provider:
- Analyse Your Strategy – Often, smaller businesses require plenty of automation within their MRP software to help them become more productive, without increasing labour costs, other larger companies need a greater emphasis on stock control if they process more goods. Your manufacturing processes and strategy vary from business to business, and so it’s important to analyse and map out your strategy before looking and reviewing MRP software providers. If you don’t fully understand your own strategy, it can be impossible for a provider to give you an MRP package that delivers your exact needs.
- Review Functionality – Don’t end up paying over the odds for an expensive MRP software package that doesn’t fulfill all your needs. Try to fully assess your current setup, including your needs and consider where MRP software can be best implemented to improve your business, whilst considering impact on staffing and cost. Many providers will offer packages, which can be increased and reduced based on your demands.
- Consider Staffing – Manufacturing software can become a fully fledged part of your business, and in most cases has a positive impact on staff, helping them to become more productive and organised. Sometimes however, if expensive software is bought without consultation then this can lead to a breakdown in communication with your staff, and impact your business with a negative culture. Effectively work with staff to discuss and plan MRP around their needs, before proceeding with a plan to change your current system.
- Trial It! – Any good MRP provider should be able to offer a free complimentary demo of their system, to give you an idea of what you can expect from it before you agree to a sign up. You can book your free demo with one of our experts here at Stii by clicking on our free demo form.
- View Testimonials – By listening or reading about previous clients, viewing their comments and taking on board their thoughts about the new MRP software they have just received, you can gauge what you can expect from a particular business.
- Consider Updates – Most modern MRP software is run through the cloud and so updated can be effectively managed automatically by a team of in house engineers who work for your provider. There is plenty of time and money to be saved by choosing a provider that doesn’t require manual updates to be run, as this can slow a business down and cause it to be more unreliable than it was previously.
- Speak To The Professionals – If you need advice on new MRP software, then ask one of our experts either by phone or via LiveChat today. Our honest, friendly team are made up of software specialists and manufacturing experts. Help and support is available throughout the course of the day, either by phone, email or online – so give us a call and see how Statii is different from most of the other MRP providers out there on the market
It’s Simple To Choose A New MRP System When You Know How
With thousands of providers out their in today’s modern business environment, it can be confusing to pick the right MRP software for your business.
However, with confident planning, thorough research and reliable decision making you are more likely to find the right MRP software package to suit your needs.
You can find more about the features of new MRP software such as Statii online today.
