How to avoid unsuccessful manufacturing software implementation? Common mistakes.

Nowadays, manufacturing is a detailed interplay of human and material resources required to manufacture complex products with tighter margins and shorter delivery schedules. As a result, manufacturing planning, control and scheduling have become more critical than ever as various materials and labour need to be seamlessly coordinated to meet customer requirements and evolving market demands.

Here are 5 lessons, which will help you to avoid possible manufacturing software implementation mistakes.

Failed manufacturing software implementations are typically taboo in the manufacturing world and are often swept under the rug. 

Failure could be numerous, from the lack of engagement in the project and lack of manager support to the wrong choice of software, which doesn’t function as promised. In addition, the resources and training needed at the start were underestimated.  

Have you had any problems with manufacturing software implementation?  

In this article, you will learn how to go through the manufacturing software implementation process successfully.

Setting up a test account does not mean that you automatically become our Client, i.e. we are cooperating with some large companies being their inspiration to simplify ERP systems and students. However, a group of cooperators haven’t become our Clients so far, although both parties tried their best to change it.  

Many manufacturers in our database, considering their industry profile, history, goals, etc., are the perfect match for our production planning software, based on many years of experience. So we create the best solutions to facilitate their daily job. But they still failed to use these solutions. Why?

Let’s study these five typical mistakes to make sure you will not repeat them.  

1) Perfect theory

You don’t want to be a fool: you’ve read many online guides which warn that choosing software to suit your specific manufacturing needs and requirements is a careful and lengthy process. You want to ensure that all features and functions are the same as promised during the sales pitch. 

You have been searching for effective solutions for some time and came across Prodio. Finally, after observing it for a while, you decided to set up your account. Being a conscious client, you also prepared a list of questions regarding settings, potential problems and difficulties. You are well aware that things at the production hall must work without a hitch from day one. However, everything you did so far was only in theory, not in practice. 

Regardless of the tips, we give you – reality will put all of them to the most effective. Eight in ten potential problems solve themselves as soon as you use testing software in your manufacture, so no more theory, start practising! Otherwise, you will get stuck in your quest for perfection. Remember, if ex. for three weeks, you decide to change the organisation’s idea, you can always phone us to zero your account so that you can start from scratch. 

2) Let’s start manufacturing software implementation after the season ends 

Some people offer Prodio solution, they seem very nice, so you decide to meet them. In the conversation, it turns out that this lovely and creative person had already a company, which had grown so big that it finally went down, as it was impossible to control the whole project. So to avoid making the same mistakes, they want a fresh start to try once again, but this time with Prodio software. Hence the reason for the meeting.

Then, six months pass since the last meeting. There have been all kinds of excuses: from many orders to lack of time and employees holidays. It is the middle of the season, but it seems that the same mistakes get repeated and repeated – but why? How much time and money must be wasted to find a few hours for constructive optimization finally? That’s when you ask yourself a question: “Why haven’t we started earlier?”. How much information flow costs is a perfect example to illustrate this situation.

3) All in one package

We are not talking about large companies searching for extended ERP systems; for them, Prodio would be too simple (these leads we direct straight to our competitors). We rather mean small manufactures, which don’t have large orders and warehouses and wish to invest in advanced production, inventory and accounting software for their business.

The common feature of these relations, apart from integration, is simplicity, flexibility and ease of all formalities. That’s the appeal. In the meantime, you have to remember that the software cannot read your mind (especially if it is an off-the-shelf ERP system), so unless you feed it a lot of data, you practically will have to create everything from scratch. Over-customization can result in time and effort and make installing the next release costly and complex. It will also limit flexibility and hinder your daily tasks so that you can throw them into the bin. It makes more sense to start from something simple, i.e. Prodio, learn step by step and then move on to more sophisticated solutions when the need arises. 

 

4) I don’t have my data because it’s in “the cloud”

Once again, we are not focusing on the big companies, but rather small manufactures, which usually don’t have any data archives, encrypted hard drives and used poorly secured Wifi networks.It is believed that it is a much better solution for those small manufacturers to store all software data at the external server with an encrypted connection, which is more straightforward, cheaper and more convenient than internal infrastructure.  A slight digression: if you plan to escape to a task haven, where extradition laws do not apply, to live a long and happy life, it is estimated that you would need at least 7 million euros. Is your data worth so much to risk its sharing?  

5)  I can’t afford it…

You might expect that my following argument will be spending 100 or 200 euros per month compared to systems costing 100 000 euros, but that’s not how entrepreneurs think. The software is an investment that should be worth each cent spent, where large manufacturers regularly spending millions of dollars are still in the black, so let’s rephrase that question.

Is 5% a lot for you? If it isn’t, when you employ 15 people at your production hall, you spend about 30 000 euros per month on their salaries. On the other hand, if you increase productivity (better planning and accounting, improved control and fewer deficiencies) just by 5%, you get 1 500 euros per month, minus 197 euros of the software subscription fee, so you are 1303 euros in plus each month which makes for 15 636 euros in a year time. You are right – you can’t afford to buy Prodio.

We hope those five lessons were informative and showed you how to smoothly go through Prodio’s software implementation process without unnecessary stress. 

If you want to save more money, read on production calculation.

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