ERP – It’s All About Mixing Efficiency And Accuracy With Operations!
There’s always been a lot of buzz around ERP and the value it brings to chemical manufacturing industries.
Several processes, activities, and systems are used to carry out operations in chemical industries. Abundant workflows and procedures – some manual, some automated – that may or may not be properly acknowledged. And a variety of departmental applications and databases that are likely disjointed and not well-integrated.
Cumbersome, error-prone, labor-intensive manual processes can draw off both time and money. A manual approach may have served its purpose in the past but in today’s dynamic and highly spirited soul, it can seriously encumber productivity, profitability, and growth. Businesses must operate as lean as possible in order to keep the bottom line in check, and failing to automate critical, yet routine business activities makes it nearly impossible to do that. So, the chief grounds an ERP solution is so essential to a company’s coup is efficiency.
Above All, In The Present Scenario…
Chemical manufacturers are facing the numerous challenges at customer and regulatory front. Major being- expecting absolutely safe product at lower cost, and providing assurance for safety of their customers and of workers with accurate accountability of potential hazardous materials.
Thus, to remain competitive and retain the customer base, manufacturers are seeking for the appropriate software solutions to run their business and to confront multifold challenges. An ERP solution can hurl remarkable benefits to businesses of all types and sizes – increased productivity, reduced operating expenses, improved information flow, and enhanced performance management.
Operational Benefits Of An ERP
ERP is the best option for any type of chemical industry irrespective of their strength or volume. It enables chemical manufacturers to efficiently manage and record formulation, execute quality control, strengthen customer management, streamline production and simplify financial reporting. The embedded and tightly integrated modules of an ERP help manage data flow right from managing formulas to manufacturing and shipping the orders in line with regulatory requirements.
Chemical manufacturers need the control and confidence that will allow them to maintain a minimum stock and keep costs in line, without missing any profitable opportunities. And, an ERP provides a comprehensive Inventory Management feature for chemical processors. It allows them to define inventory by item type, location, or physical properties of any raw material. All inventory items from raw material, packaging to finished product are accurately tracked and monitored. This eases to build the detailed formulas and maintains an accurate inventory status and costing of all finished products. Moreover, the production functions and the plant management feature of an ERP allows a complete shaping of the shop floor, and work centers.
Compliance Benefits
Some of the unique manufacturing needs of the chemical industry include, inconsistent quality of raw materials; once processed the products cannot be reduced back to their original state; product is normally manufactured in bulk, then packed according to requirements; conformance to control of hazardous materials and storage of the necessary backup certificates of approval; and in a number of industries every order represents a new product, depending on the formula used and the substitutions made. And, ERP galvanizes the chemical industries by satisfying these needs and thus, empowers them to boom in today’s competitive environment by providing the some special features like:
- User & staff safety: One of the most important aspects of workplace safety is the prevention of accidents with chemicals. HMIS & WHMIS values can be associated with formulas and items for the safety of workers. While the automatic generation of SDS for formulas, items, batches, Sales Orders and more, ensure safety of the end-user along with conforming adherence to GHS requirements. Along with this, Safe disposal, accountability & costing of hazardous materials as well as support for NC/CAPA, keep you clean in audits too.
- Quality Control: ERP’s Quality Management allows the quality department to define its own quality test cases required at different phases of production, beginning from quality check required during the inward of raw materials. Further Quality Characteristics, parameters and expected results, under each quality process check can be configured without any programming assistance. It even maintains an extensive history to improve product quality and identify recurring problems.
- Innovating Greener Products: An ERP aids in extensive R&D to develop a new product through automatic reformulation based on greener substitutes, targeted cost, active ingredient strength and physical property values. At the formula level also, it enables click-on material substitution based on greener product identification.
- Lot Traceability: Lot traceability enables manufacturers to strengthen quality control through the tracking and replacement of any defective materials. ERP provides the facility to assign the unique identification number to raw material lots and the serialization of the products made from those lots. This capability ensures keen tracking of materials right from entry as raw material to its exit as finished good.
- MPS/MRP: Chemical manufacturers need to control the types and quantities of materials they purchase, plan which products are to be produced and in what quantities and ensure that they are able to meet current and future customer demand, all at the lowest possible cost. And, an ERP aids in the proficient planning of manufacturing, purchasing and delivering activities.
One Such Solution – BatchMaster ERP
BatchMaster ERP for Chemicals is a nimble IT solution. It is designed with in-depth industry knowledge and proper understanding of unique challenges. The power of reliable and speedy laboratory calculations to on-site chemists, ability to manage hundreds, maybe thousands of formulas and their derivatives, multiple packaging options, assuring quality, superior private labeling capability as well as meeting the regulatory compliance- BatchMaster ERP provides all.
