Many business owners and managers don’t consider using manufacturing cloud ERP for job shop scheduling. Some job shop manufacturing businesses have the opinion this solution is too complicated for their facility. They prefer to manage their accounting, inventory, and finance with spreadsheets and office productivity software instead of moving up to an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.

What if we told you there’s a better way to manage your finances and an easier way to manage inventory and gain real-time visibility into every aspect of your warehouse? What if you could run reports with real-time information with the click of a button instead of spending time inputting formulas (and struggling to get the data visualization “just right” with spreadsheet software)?

Although many job shop manufacturing businesses feel their unique, small-scale, niche operations do not lend themselves easily to ERP management, we’re here to tell you the newer ERP systems offer the flexibility, scalability, and features job shop manufacturing companies need.

Estimate your Material Requirements with Manufacturing Cloud ERP

Material requirements planning (MRP) helps companies estimate the materials needed to complete jobs. Accurate MRP is often more important to a job shop than to a large manufacturing facility. Because job shops may run on tighter margins, timelines, and specs, they need to be certain they have the right raw materials on hand for each manufacturing project in the pipeline.

Cloud ERP systems that offer MRP modules or integrate MRP into the basic ERP system offer powerful software that puts small job shops on par with larger, complex companies in terms of their ability to estimate jobs. These cloud-based systems run from internet servers, offering vast computing power to small businesses like job shops.

Since such software runs on the cloud, there is no costly hardware requirement for installation. Maintenance is also managed by the software company, taking yet another pressure off the manufacturing business. This results in small companies having equal access to specialized software that improves MRP, job costing, inventory management, and financial management.

Manufacturing Cloud ERP Benefits for Job Shop Operations

There are many benefits job shop manufacturing companies can derive from cloud ERP. These include:

1. Improved job shop scheduling: Since cloud ERP systems can integrate with numerous applications, it’s easier to schedule jobs based on inventory factors, customer requirements, and supply chain availability. All information can be integrated through cloud ERP, providing one central place from which to view all aspects of the manufacturing process. This, in turn, results in meeting deadlines and improved efficiency, two positive benefits of improved job scheduling.
2. Efficiently coordinate product: As a job shop manufacturing facility, you can’t afford downtime. Every order must be scheduled efficiently. Even things like routine maintenance on equipment must be tightly coordinated with production schedules. Cloud ERP offers the exceptional ability to coordinate scheduling and to ensure that as little time is wasted as possible between jobs.
3. Reduce errors: Errors can be costly, especially to job shops which work in small batches. Automating as much of the scheduling, inventory, and manufacturing process as possible using cloud ERP can reduce errors and save you from costly mistakes. Reduced errors also have the side benefit of improving turnaround time, shipping time, and customer satisfaction.

There are multiple benefits to switching to a manufacturing cloud ERP if you’re running a job shop business. If you have been thinking a cloud ERP solution would be too advanced for your company, as in too big, too expensive, too complicated for your team to use, that is simply not accurate. SYSPRO Cloud ERP from PositiveVision is a flexible option that can be fully tailored to your requirements. For more information or to book a demo, contact us today.