Business Automation and Software Blog

Many an office breakroom has boasted the sign “Your Mother doesn’t work here—clean up after yourself!” But if you use SYSPRO, there’s a good chance MOM does work at your office. SYSPRO Manufacturing Operations Management, that is.

When iPhone first launched in 2007, few consumers imagined that in a scant decade, we’d be controlling our phones with nothing but our voices. Artificial intelligence (AI) such as Siri, Alexa, and even IBM’s Watson surround our everyday lives. AI already answers all manner of questions, from the weather to setting reminders to turning lights and thermostats on and off. But, when coupled with an ERP such as SYSPRO, AI can begin answering questions about your business that you may not have even thought to ask yet.

Inventory management can certainly feel like a thorn in the side of any inventory-based business. The wrong item out of stock at the wrong time can create significant cost and reputation concerns. Inventory management should be able to solve this issue, but even traditional inventory management won’t always have a wide enough focus to give you the most complete view. That’s where cycle counting comes in.

Within SYSPRO’s solutions portfolio is a handy solution known as MOM: manufacturing operations management. While most of us don’t find that we want our mom with us at work, MOM is a different solution, and one that you should probably pay more attention to.

At the heart of any business that includes any form of distribution is the warehouse. While efficiency is key to a successful organization, it’s not the only thing you’ll need. Efficiency must be properly balanced with productivity if your business hopes to succeed.

The internet has given us so many great services: Amazon, Netflix, Uber, dating connections, you name it. Some definitely more creative uses for the internet have come out of the internet of things (IoT), such as GPS bike handlebars, the FitBit equivalent for your dog, and even smart flip flops.

Your warehouse plays a vital, central role in your business’ storage and exchange of goods. From storing raw materials and finished goods to providing the physical infrastructure for picking, packing, and shipping orders, the warehouse is truly the beating heart of distribution. Like keeping your own heart healthy, it’s important to keep the heart of your distribution healthy for the best output and increased longevity.

There’s no denying that data is everywhere and connects more and more technologies and experiences in our lives. Just think of any time you’ve searched for a product on Amazon, only to see that same product advertised to you moments later on social media. With data littering every online action we take, it’s easy as a business to be overwhelmed by the volume. Thus, it’s also critical to be smart about big data management. This includes knowing what data to analyze, what to ignore, what data collection is legal, and how to adequately protect and update that data for the best business intelligence.

Perhaps one of the most difficult segments to budget for a business is R&D. This is due in part to the difficulty of tying R&D spending to results. While projects are funded, developed, launched, and sold, it could take years until there is enough data to tie the spending to the results. It’s also rare that only one R&D project is going on, so these costs need to be tracked and appropriately associated between tens to hundreds of simultaneous projects.

No one likes road construction. Between the traffic and the rerouting, slowdowns occur and headaches ensue. But perhaps worst of all are roadblocks, where we thought we had a clear path only to find our planned route blocked.

Last month we talked about some of the perceived roadblocks of moving to lean accounting. Perhaps you scanned those and none of them seemed to apply to your situation, yet you’re still struggling to move to lean accounting. It should be easy to move to a simpler accounting process, right? But sometimes, the bigger the business, the harder it is to just keep focus on the cash flow. If you’re still pushing for lean accounting, there could be a few more orange construction cones in the way.