What if every time you saw an inventory quantity or dollar amount on the screen, you didn’t just guess, but knew it was accurate? What if, when you take an order you can instantly see whether you have a quantity left over from a previous overrun, so that you can reduce run quantity on the new order? What if your cycle time to process a part was significantly reduced, whether for parts or assemblies? These are the results you should be expecting from your use of enterprise resource planning (ERP) to manage inventory.

With ERP software, most inventory transactions require little, if any, input. Inventory management is very automated, which leads to even more savings through reduction in labor. Customizable options allow for the lot, serial and bin tracking required in many precision industries such as aerospace. Plus, if your ERP software system is a good one, you should also have the ability to cycle your inventory, keeping inventory accurate and dramatically reducing the costs of physical inventories. (more…)

Living in the Internet Age has meant a couple of things: Living faster, and doing business much differently. Small and medium-sized businesses, in particular, may be feeling the greatest impact. With advances in technology breaking down geographic barriers, even companies with just a few million dollars in annual revenue find themselves operating on a global scale, with customers, suppliers, and other business partners located the world over.

Most small business owners welcome these changes because they have given them access to markets that previously were open only to the largest corporations. On the other hand, small business owners are realizing that competing with mega-enterprises for access to markets also forces them to deal with many of the same problems that confront big organizations. (more…)