The goal of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is to provide an integrated solution to all business areas of a particular enterprise. In the best-case scenario, you have one software system the whole company can access and work with. For example, all the data for finance, sales, accounting, human resources and inventory is managed in one central repository and each business group within the organization accesses only the subset of data that they need. In this two-part blog series, we will examine how ERP works along other aspects of the business for optimizing workflow.

Of course, workflow as a manufacturing business concept is nothing new. Even before the dawn of the computer age, there have always been established procedures for handling operations within a corporate structure. As another example, consider the purchase order: an employee notifies their manager that they require a particular item; the manager then puts in a requisition, which, depending on his level of authority, may need to be bumped further up the management chain until it’s authorized; it is then handed over to the purchasing coordinator and finally purchased. (more…)

When you form solid raw materials to produce things you can easily touch, see, and/or count, you are most likely what is called a discrete manufacturer. Discrete manufacturing is often characterized by the making of individual or separate units, which is typically low in volume and very high in complexity. That is to say, in discrete manufacturing you are often either building single parts or assemblies of several other parts, with such assemblies often themselves even going into the manufacture of ever more complex products or machines.

This concept is distinguished from what is called a process manufacturing model that often involves notions such as formulas and mixing. Such process can be found in the production of items such as pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, foodstuffs, petroleum products, and so forth. (more…)