Project-based manufacturers often struggle with handling multiple projects simultaneously. This can be stagnating particularly for small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with limited resources. This is especially true in this age of personalization when businesses must have agility and flexibility to handle customer orders with different specifications and volumes.
To win customers and retain them, project-based manufacturing companies must deliver products tailored to their customers’ needs. They also need to focus on operational efficiency, with real-time visibility over their operations and ongoing projects to deliver high-quality products at the right time and the right cost.
This is where an ERP solution such as SAP Business One (or SAP B1) can add value to project-based manufacturers. Here’s how.
Project-based Manufacturing with SAP Business One
For project-based manufacturers, SAP B1 plans and optimizes their production time and capacity. This allows them to complete customised manufacturing projects on time and within the assigned budget. SAP B1 ensures that, for each project, manufacturers have the necessary workforce, raw materials, and other essential components in place.
With SAP Business One, project manufacturers can plan every project at different levels including:
- The overall project
- Project planning at every department level
- Project budgeting
Here are some of the features of SAP Business One that are crucial for project manufacturers:
- Real-time production management helps manage logistics and accounting costs.
- Production order management provides real-time information about the ongoing & completed projects – including production schedules, materials management, and incurred costs.
- Production cost estimates help provide the correct project quotation for every customer.
Now, let’s discuss the business benefits of managing project-based manufacturing using SAP B1.
How SAP Business One Benefits Project Manufacturers
As an ERP for project-based industries, SAP B1 benefits project manufacturers in multiple ways:
1. Real-time Project Tracking
Through real-time project tracking, SAP Business One provides manufacturers a clear view of their project progress. For instance, it provides real-time information about the current inventory levels, customer order fulfilment, and production schedules. Project tracking enables manufacturers to detect potential bottlenecks and constraints – giving them time to fix the problems on time.
2. Cost Efficiency
With an ERP solution such as SAP B1, project manufacturers can accurately estimate project costs and budgets. They can also prioritize their production schedule in a cost-efficient manner. For instance, they can utilize data from similar projects to accurately forecast the cost of required resources and workforce – enabling proper cost control in manufacturing projects.
3. Business Intelligence (BI)
For project manufacturers, operational data is a valuable asset as it can help them achieve business intelligence (BI). They often run simultaneous projects – each of which generates production-related data. An efficient ERP system such as SAP Business One integrates all this disparate data onto a single platform. Through the SAP B1 dashboard, business managers can extract and manipulate the collected data – and use real-time data insights to track their organizational KPIs. In the long run, project manufacturers can use SAP B1 to build BI capabilities.
4. Scalability
SAP Business One offers a scalable ERP solution for small and growing manufacturing companies. As a scalable project solution, SAP B1 can be customized to the customer’s requirement – and scaled with business growth. SAP B1 has a host of customizable modules and add-ons that can be added whenever needed by the manufacturing company.
5. Automated Processes
Among the many challenges, SMEs in the manufacturing industry have to cope with manual processes and systems during production. Manual systems lead to higher human errors, which can be costly. With SAP Business One, project manufacturers can automate their critical business process and reduce human intervention. This also helps them comply with industry regulations.
Conclusion
To summarize, SMEs in the manufacturing sector face challenges like complex project management and cost escalations. By integrating and automating various manufacturing processes, SAP Business One comes out as the best ERP solution designed for project manufacturers.
Among the industry-recognized SAP Business One partners, Praxis Info Solutions has enabled many project-based manufacturers to improve their operational efficiency and profitability. Here are some of our successful case studies in the area of project-based manufacturing.
Do you want to leverage the capabilities of SAP Business One in your project manufacturing company? We can help you in this process. Contact us today.