Is it Time to Upgrade Your Manufacturing Software?
The manufacturing environment today is as dynamic and technologically driven as the typical IT data center. To ensure you can produce your products at a low cost and on schedule, you can implement a variety of manufacturing software solutions. Like all technology, however, manufacturing software can become outdated. While you may think you are still on the cutting edge of the latest technology, a closer look may identify that it is time to update your manufacturing software or switch to an industry-specific solution for process or discrete manufacturing.
While this is a great starting point, you have to be careful in how you evaluate best practices or your competition in terms of manufacturing software. Don’t simply look at what they are using and assume you will experience the same results from the same manufacturing software. Even if you are competing in the same industry, your needs are not exactly the same. Instead, look at their examples as starting points for you as you examine your options. If it cost you today the same amount to produce your products as it did two years ago, yet the cost of raw materials has gone down – you need to investigate why. The first place to look is at your manufacturing software.
Manufacturing software is designed to streamline your processes, by eliminating wasted time and activities. As you implement manufacturing software, your overall cost of production should go down. You will see an immediate drop when you first launch the solution, with steady performance over time.
If another element of the process changes – such as a lower cost of raw materials – the overall production cost should go down. If you don’t see this change, it means the manufacturing software you have in place has lost some of its effectiveness or it did not catch the change at all.
Like every other form of technology, manufacturing software advances over time and the solutions available today are much better than they were two years ago. What you have to assess is whether or not the investment in new manufacturing software will be made up in improved production times and a reduced cost per finished product. You should also assess whether or not the manufacturing software can eliminate manual processes or provide better tracking.
Unfortunately, there is no absolute answer to the question posed above, but instead a series of questions for you to evaluate to determine whether the time is right to invest in a new manufacturing software solution. If you have partnered with a valued vendor, they are likely keeping you abreast of the latest advancements and what they can do in your environment. Unless they are strictly acting on a consulting basis, you have to do your own internal assessments to determine whether or not the latest manufacturing software is the right move for you. After all, you’re the one who will have to answer to your boss when the system doesn’t perform or can’t justify the investment.
