Industry best practices are agreed upon standards that enable manufacturers to achieve higher levels of performance through improved processes and efficiencies while reducing costs. Industry best practices can be looked upon as the best or most efficient way of completing a task; these standardized business processes have been incorporated into ERP software over time and have been tested by leading organizations.
When adding out of the box business processes to ERP software, ERP vendors typically focus first on the basics, the features and processes that are used by a larger percentage of their customer base, ie accounting and GL. Industry specific areas of ERP software, such as manufacturing ERP, are not generally as mature as the straight accounting side of the software.
Epicor ERP manufacturing software is different, their manufacturing software is proven. Epicor Software Corporation has been creating manufacturing specific solutions for SMB manufacturers for over four decades. As a result, Epicor ERP for manufacturers offers one of the most mature feature sets for the SMB manufacturer.
Epicor ERP Manufacturing software, which can be deployed in the cloud as Epicor SaaS ERP, or on-premises or as a hybrid solution, includes embedded business processes throughout the manufacturing specific modules that can shorten your ERP implementation time. For example, out of the box business processes can be found in planning and scheduling, project management and supply chain management – internal facing processes needed by many manufacturers. Within these processes, Epicor ERP offers a robust feature set including features that can not be found in many competing ERP systems.
Selecting an ERP system that incorporates industry best practices into processes means you’ll conform to standards specific to your industry and have room to scale up your operations based on proven standards. Why would you not strive to incorporate industry best practices? Why would you spend valuable time reinventing processes when you don’t have to? Maybe you fear that if you use the same ERP software and the same out of the box processes that your competitors are using, that you’ll lose your competitiveness. Valid point. However, consider that you will be incorporating about 70% of the standardized out of the box processes and the balance will be customized based on your organization’s unique requirements. You’ll have room to create your competitive edge with additional processes and customizations.
Something to Consider if You’re a Global Manufacturer
A little Epicor history. Epicor Software Corporation is a $1B company that grew through mergers and acquisitions in the 1990’s. Depending on who came first, Epicor could be considered an ERP manufacturing software centric company or a financial software centric company. With that, Epicor offers the SMB enterprise a robust ERP feature set for both manufacturing and financials. To this day Epicor ERP remains one of the best financial ERP solutions available to companies requiring global multi-company functionality – something to consider if you’re a global manufacturing organization.
If you would like more information about Epicor Kinetic and the unique features of Epicor ERP Manufacturing, contact 2W Tech today!