ERP and Reduction of Lead-time
The non-availability of an item that is required for production can result in several problems like missing delivery schedule, losing customer goodwill due to the delayed delivery or even losing the customer to competition. One can avoid the situation by requesting for the materials well in advance of when they are actually needed or by keeping a large buffer stock or maintaining a very high re-order level.
But all this means that large inventories must be kept, which is money blocked. Also the practical consequences of allowing longer times for delivery seems to be that the present lead-times just grow to take up whatever slack is allowed. So, the company should find out the minimum lead-time and should attempt to context supplier’s delivery delays instead of automatically increasing allowed lead-time.
The elapsed time between placing an order and receiving it is known as the lead-time. It plays a significant role in purchasing and inventory control.
So, in order to reduce the lead-timers the organization should have an efficient inventory management system, which is integrated with the purchasing production planning and production departments. In this era of just-in-time manufacturing the knowledge of the exact lead-timers for each and every item is of paramount important for uninterrupted production. For a company dealing with hundreds and thousands of raw materials and components, keeping track of the lead-times for each and every individual item manually is a practically impossible task.
eresource ERP system helps in automating this task and thus makes inventory management more efficient and effective. Since eresource ERP software solution is integrated and the materials management module is integrated with other modules like sales, marketing, purchasing, manufacturing and production planning, the demand for a particular item can be known as early as an order is received. Since all the records are kept in the system’s database and since everything is up-to-date, finding out the items that are to be ordered takes no time.
So once the items that are to be manufactured are identified and once the production planning system prepares a production plan, the materials management module will prepare purchase orders for each and every item making into account the led-timers and when the items are required for production. If the purchasing process has to go through the invitation of quotations, vendor selection etc. the system does that also.
Since most suppliers are also connected to the organization’s system, as soon as a purchase order or requisition is issued, the supplier’s system is updated with that information. Thus, the supplier knows what items are to be supplied, and when. Since activities like preparation of contracts, issuing of purchasing orders and payments, etc. happen through the system electronically, the savings in time are phenomenal.
So eresource ERP system by virtue of their integrated nature and use of latest technologies reduce the lead times and make it possible for companies to have the items at the time they are needed.
Also Read – ERP Software Company in India
