How ERP System Helpful In Covid-19

ERP Sustains Manufacturing during COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed manufacturers to rapidly shift gears, from addressing work-from-home policies to managing extreme swings in demand and uncertain supply chains. In the process, it has highlighted an aspect of manufacturing ERP that is not as visible in more normal times— business continuity.

It’s not that an ERP System’s ability to mitigate abrupt business changes hasn’t been noted in the past. For instance, it plays a central role during a change of ownership or a local event, such as a fire or flood. However, the extensive reliance on ERP solutions to maintain widespread, fundamental business continuity, as we are seeing today, has never been experienced on such a large scale.

Today, during the COVID-19 response, ERP is keeping entire industries in operation with its ability to sustain business operations through remote access, automated reporting, electronic data exchange, and real-time factory controls. Never in the history of ERP have we seen it play a bigger role in the continuance of manufacturing operations around the world.

Knowing that, let’s take a deeper look at how manufacturers are capitalizing on DiracERP’s ERP Software functionality to maintain business continuity by addressing some of the COVID-19 impacts we are seeing today:

l Empowering employees working from home.

l Keeping production at the facility on track.

l Managing shifts in demand patterns.

Empowering Employees to Work at Home

Businesses across all spectrum are minimizing the number of people coming into their plants and offices and maximizing the number working from home. In a manufacturing environment, it’s typically front office personnel who work from home, such as those in administrative, planning, design roles and Marketing.

For companies with a Dirac ERP system in place, the shift to front office personnel working from home, driven by COVID-19 prevention measures, has not caused major business disruptions. Their front-office teams are able to access their ERP system at home and run the business from there. They maintain full visibility of the business and can continue to interact with customers.

A good example is Sushil Udhyog, a leading manufacturer headquartered in Jodhpur, India. Sushil’s teams can access their ERP system anywhere from their mobile phones, tablets, or laptops to see which jobs are running, determine the inventory stock on hand, or check on order status and completion progress within seconds. This has helped to become indispensable to its customers who rely on the manufacturer for timely updates and delivery. In the midst of COVID-19, Sushil’s facilities are up and running.

Modern ERP solutions have even minimized the need to have IT professionals on site since many of today’s solutions are hosted or managed in the cloud. As a result, the systems can be maintained from any remote location, creating yet another group of employees that can do their jobs away from the factory.

Keeping Production on Track

Having front-office personnel work from home is one thing. But, running a factory floor from home is an entirely different challenge. Some small number of factories can run nearly lights out, but many must be staffed with operators and material handlers. In these factories, it becomes a question of how few people are required to be at work at any one time.

Manufacturing ERP systems minimize the number of on site shop floor staff by precisely scheduling work; dis-positioning materials, and monitoring equipment for output; quality and maintenance issues in real-time.

Real-time production monitoring is usually held out as an example of the ultimate in manufacturing control. Today it stands out as a critical tool for production continuity with a minimum of on site workers.

Managing Shifts in Demand

Certainly, one impact of COVID -19 for many manufacturers has been a sudden shift in demand patterns.

While some have seen a drop-off, many others are seeing spikes in demand.

Dezaro ~ Decor & Furniture ( venture of Sushil udyog) and Orange tree still delivering the goods during the pandemic in domestic market through online platform. Another example of Rishabh industries launches a small unit of Mask manufacturing and manages there operation through DiracERP software.      

The demand fluctuations have greatly shifted the production inertia of many businesses. Raw materials supplies must be adapted; schedules and tooling changes are required, and different personnel are needed at different times. At the same time, off-shore factory closures have impacted the availability of materials and components from some suppliers. 

Starting and Managing the different verticals through stream lining approach and managing it under one ERP system is a big advantage of any ERP system.   

Looking Ahead

After this period of disruption, factories and their work forces will return to a more normal operating profile. But, they will forever be strengthened by the lessons learned during a period when we were required to work remotely and use our business technology to the fullest extent possible.

How manufacturers think about their ERP systems will be forever changed as well. In addition to their well-understood values of maximizing profitably, ensuring top-notch customer service, and delivering quality products, ERP solutions will now be known for their unique ability to maintain business continuity in the face of sudden change. ERP software is now recognized as an essential business safety net to respond to and overcome unforeseen events.

   Why ERP System Can Be The Secret To Fueling A Recovery For (SMEs) Midsize Companies 

COVID-19- Disruption, in general, is enough to compel midsize companies to make significant changes to their business processes across service, sales, marketing, finance, workforce management, and production planning. But when that “disruption” turns into a full-force global crisis, business leaders find themselves searching for ways to keep their business afloat and hold themselves together until signs of a rebound emerge. 

At some point, though, a way forward must be mapped to ensure the business is on the right path toward recovery when better times come. But this time, returning to “business as usual” is no longer an option. New trends that require resilience, agility, and instant insight are accelerating, threatening established business practices that were designed primarily for scalability, automation, and cost savings.

The next wave of business innovation will not come from making existing processes faster. Instead, the focus will be on a company’s ability to act without delay, responding to unforeseen changes and coping with disruptions such as sudden shifts in regulations, unavailability of resources, supply shortages, and spikes in demand for products that were not considered mission-critical a week ago.

As challenging as this task may be, tomorrow’s most successful midsize companies are the ones that are planning now for the next wave of growth. That means understanding the needs of every business function, preparing for the risks of every twist and turn, and acting on every opportunity as it comes.

ERP helps set the foundation for the next normal

When dealing with the day to day issues of running a business, rarely does anyone stop and rehash how data is managed and shared. Yet, moments like this call for functional leaders to rethink how they react to change and evolve their operations and workforce – all with intelligence interwoven into their strategies.

A common approach is to replace the lots of spreadsheets and reports with a simplified business application that is suitable for current requirements, which is often a state of disruption. However, as the company starts its rise through recovery, that investment is likely limited in its ability to support expansion and information sharing throughout its value chain.

This tactic does not work because the business is not given the freedom to do what they do best – scale operations up and down as the markets fluctuate and pivot their focus to respond to customer demand. For this reason, cloud-based ERP is well-suited for midsize companies.

But don’t be fooled: ERP is not just a technology. It’s an enabler that helps businesses do the right things right. It's the center that connects every aspect of the value chain. Most of all, it’s the source of proactive insights and visibility that decision-makers need to navigate today, plan for tomorrow, and succeed for years to come.

Take, for example, BASANT Industries The furniture manufacturer digitized its end-to-end processes with a cloud-based ERP and business planning solution. This approach led to a transformation of data-driven decision-making, standardizing and automating work-flows, logistics, order processing, supplier management, data management, and internal controls. And as processes and organizational structures became more unified and simplified, BASANT has enhanced employee productivity using analytics to steer operational processes and risk management practices. 

Major below challenges they were facing:

1- Sales & production was not synced.

2- Quality control issues 

3- Shipping document and accounting was not synced

4- 3rd party contractor payment was not co-related with production.

5- Raw material procurement and its consumption was not calculative.

6- Production planning & product development stages were not register in any system.  

Distilling data to respond faster – no matter what happens next

After in-depth analysis of requirements to optimize there maximum capacity, diracerp team ( www.diracerp.com) proposed odoo version 10. Through this we create an automate solution for Furniture Industry. A fully automate solution controlling purchases, sales, delivery and internal floor movements. Management of all kind of export documents. We provided them accurate profit and loss reports having all kind of graphical aspects. Each single activity is on system including the bills, payment, shipping, quality etc.

Fully functioning HR and its bio-metric integration keep capacity factor of employees too. To make it cost effective government compliance also there so that government officers ( Custom department and CHAs) can get the access of the system for export related activities.

Implementing an ERP solution in the cloud gives the end-to-end transparency that midsize companies need to know exactly how they are performing. They understand what’s happening in the background, which factors present an opportunity or risk, and where inventory is needed – 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Furthermore, they benefit from analytics capabilities that allows them to learn from the past, see the current business landscape, and look forward for the next strategic move. 

Think about the possibilities of knowing what happens to the supply chain after a natural disaster, when will stock run out, or where signs of an economic surge are emerging. For times like this, this level of insight can become powerful whether surviving the next disruption, expanding into new markets, or accelerating growth.