How can you use ERP-integrated production schedules to improve your supply chain?

Per my experience, the next gen integrated supply chain needs this integration between ERP and production system, some of the cases are systems like VMI that's works with the kanban of the production line signal to request a supplier to fulfill next batch of inventory, so its very important to see the live consumption, and this can really smooth inventory on site, and this is just an example of any of the benefits of the integration of the systems.

Linking production schedules to ERP may be crucial for a production company to make the most out of its potential. In my experience as a manager of such a company this was one of the main needs I felt to run the business to its best. That is why I created Procemag - an ERP system with production in the heart of it. Production schedules based on real-time data on productivity and available resources may add these five to ten percent additional efficiency that can make all the difference in terms of profitability.

An integrated production scheduling remains a dream for most companies. The key reason a dynamic production scheduler requires data across a broad range of distributed systems. HR systems like attendance management on the floor, MES systems, Productivity, Quality, and Logistics all have an impact on the production schedules. The scope of ERP in most companies are limited to transactional data management and does not carry executional data - For dynamic production scheduling real-time execution data are more critical than the plan.

For the supply chain the benefits of production systems are numerous, starting with the fact of this systems always wants to optimize the inventory based on consumption cause the system will not triggered any new order until the order/inventory is consumed, in industry 4.0 the data is one of the most important things, and using an ERP integrated can provide a quick response in supply chain, cause the system can provide a fast feedback from final costumer to raw material supplier, for example using this integration is very useful for traceability of materials and this can easily track and stop any raw material with some defects, just for mention an example.

Optimisation is the key word to keep in mind when it comes to ERP systems. Propper production schedules in ERPs allow precise material planning matched with propper timing. In terms of cashflow management this may turn crucial. On the other end of the production pipeline, communicating the proper delivery times from the very beginning to the customers may turn you into the first choice supplier for them. In case of delays, integrated production scheduling in the ERP allows for early notice to the client, improving the whole CRM process.

In my experience - For companies with MTO scenarios - Integrating the planning system with EDI or other automated order entry systems allows quick adaptation of production schedules and allow meeting customer targets.

The implementation is always a challenge, until today, i never seen an enterprise with perfect ERP integrated with production schedules, as i mention in another article, the most challenge of this systems is the data quality, cause as we mention the fast communication on supply chain, the lies, outliers or even fake signals can easily and fast travel between all supply chain, my suggestion is keep simple the structure of the information, and provide a easy interface, even you can only design basic interface connected with an SQL file that contains the basic attributes, it depends of the need of business, and can be complex as you can integrate a computer vision models to read images from real world.

From my experience niche ERP solutions are the best choice for a production company. Procemag, the ERP system developed by my company PM Solutions, is an example for such a system. It was born from the needs of production companies in the clothing industry, which requirr adequate planning of multiple products within short production periods. Meeting those specific demands by going to the smallest details of the processes involved turned the product into a good tool for managing not only production scheduling, but also real-time production floor management, personnel incentive management. Finally, quality management gets a real boost by the detailed data from the production floor.

The whole attempt to achieve this has been around adding monolithic scheduling applications with data pipelines to ERP and other applications. The truth is there has been limited success with these approaches. The best approach for dynamic and integrated production scheduling is using Digital twins. Each asset has its own digital twin which is enhanced with information from various sources - No complex interfaces just simple API or manual data extensions to digital twin data models. Now once all machines are enhanced with live information around Demand, SOPs, and Productivity data - You can build a central orchestrator application that can allocate demand and adjust schedules based on specific machine state.

Start with evaluating the right data points that has an impact to your schedule. This could include Labour data, Productivity data, Machine state, Sales demand etc. Now ensure these data points are made available in a most feasible time state - If there are no automation or real-time machine data or MES have a simple data entry terminal for operators to report them manually. The focus should not be on perfection in data collection but on the completeness of data. Once all data points are made available use an Digital twin approach to manage them under a unified structure. Once all data is collected - 70% of task is done and then its about how you want to visualize this or build an orchestrator to organize the task based on machine state,

Integration of a production focused ERP system in any of the companies I have worked with provides the challenge to both comply with the processes and procedures in the company and make way for some best-practice solutions, enabled by the ERP. The key to success here would be small-steps Integration with all the positive effects of each step being noted and celebrated. The system itself should aim at building its "learning" abilities. For example, in Procemag, the ERP system developed by my company, production scheduling at first relies on a common predefined productivity level for all product, but later starts using the specific productivity levels for each product achieved and recorded by the ERP system.

Identifying all critical data elements that has an impact to schedule. Defining your targets and having a clear focus Avoiding scope creep - Try to prove for one line and then scale.

As i mention earlier, from my experiences one of the most challenges that any industry faces is the data quality, as ERP Task Management responsible, i try to implement poka-yokes to avoid any human input, but even in some complex inputs like computer vision, you will face so many challenges in practice like the dust or spots in the tags, so its preferable invest more in the detection of the data quality input, as i mention in another articles, today we have so many different tools that can easily detect multidimensional outliers like clustering algorithms or using A.I. models to ensure the quality of the data.

From my experience in providing ERP solutions, the biggest challenges may come from two or three major directions. The first one is the reluctance of the mid-management people on the company. They may feel threatened as being too replaceable because of the "new system", but in most cases they feel scared by the novelty they have to start using. Combining the integration process and the existing tasks of the staff may also be difficult. This brings us to major challenge number too - top executive commitment. Without it all the small hiccups may turn into serious problems. It is also vital for the ERP integrator to make sure the top management of the company to remember throughout the whole integration process why it all started.

ERP systems alone do not guarantee solving all problems in a company. They may, however, take care of quite a lot of the small and time-consuming processes. They will also provide the reliable and timely data that the management of the company may need for the right decisions. At the end of the day, decision making is what the management is all about.

As a summary of all ideas, of course ERP-integrated production schedules will help the supply chain, i see so many examples of how the work of the operation planning team(I.E. production control, master planner, inventory analysis, etc.) will increase the accurate and decrease the difficult, but for indirect roles(I.E. buyers, human resources, finance, etc.) really helps as well cause everybody will seem the same, and can have a fastest and clearest vision of what happen in production floor, in my experience one of the most innovative enterprises that i know, is the ERP are linked with the human resource software and this can schedule and split the shifts of operators against of the production scheduled calculated again production capacity.