Element for a Good Inventory System

The Elements of a Good Inventory System

Every company have inventory problem, every company will require the great system to manage their inventory so it will help you become more productive. But no matter how good you control, you are still fail if you don’t do some very basic things.

You may be able to improve on our recommendations or your enterprise may have to do things differently but if you follow our recommendations you’ll wind up with a pretty good system.

The Critical point of a great Inventory System

• Well Organized Location Names
• Location Labels that are easy to read, and unambiguous
• Unique, Short, and Unmistakable Item Numbers
• Units of Measure
• A Good Starting Count
• Software that tracks all inventory activity
• Good Policies
• Most Important: People who know and follow good policies

I will explain in my next post why these elements are so important.

Vivienne from www.mrp.com.my

Do you have a software to address your manufacturing problem ?

Do you have a software to address your manufacturing problem ? 

ERP software packages address all kinds of functions, including accounting, inventory, purchasing, sales, CRM, service, project management, financial applications, human resources and etc

These functions are important to every company, but if you are running a manufacturing company and you do not have the right software to address the basic requirement of your manufacturing, you will never reach your efficiency potential.


What are the basic features that are essential to any manufacturing industries ?  Here is my list.

1. Routings 
2. Bills of Material 
3. Costing
4. MRP
5. Job Release
6. Job Traveler 
7. Work Center Scheduling
8. Job Tracking 

Who and what do you need for an implementation?

1. Project Manager-This person must create and manage the project schedule, tasks and communication.
2. Implementation/Core Team-The core team should consist of a cross functional group that understands your business, the project goals and knows the history of the organization.
3. Systems-Determine what systems are required to support the new application. What interfaces are required to other applications?
4. Business Processes-Verify that current processes are documented. These will be the baseline to determine how well the new application meets your business requirements and how the new application will impact current processes.

Conventional ERP VS Rental ERP

Conventional ERP Model  

• High capital expenditure
• Direct & indirect investments
• Ballooning costs
• Long implementation time
• Rigid 
• Limited access
• Upgrades at extra cost
• Limited licensing

Rental Model

• No capital expenditure
• No investments
• Low-cost subscription model
• Implement in weeks
• Scalable
• Access anytime, anywhere
• Free upgrades
• Flexible licensing  

What is a 'rental' or 'Web-based' ERP solution?

A Rental or Web-based ERP solution is managed and provided to organisations over the Internet, by a service provider or vendor, on a 'per month, per user' basis.

Here organisations are saved from a sizable upfront investment on the hardware and software installations normally required if an organisation opts for an outright purchase ERP solution (On Demand ERP). In this version, an organisation owns the ERP software and hardware infrastructure within its premises.

A rental or Web-based ERP solution proves very cost effective as an organisation pays just a per-user monthly rental, which is quite manageable.

Vivienna from erp2u.com

Which Tier of ERP software is Right for You?

For your understanding, ERP Software classified into three categories: Tier I, II and III.

Tier I
These are the most well known of the software packages such as SAP®, BAAN®, ORACLE®, and PeopleSoft®,...... These software packages handle everything from the banking industry to supermarkets.

Characteristics include:

Used by many Fortune 500 companies. Tier I vendors are starting to market to midsize manufacturers. In some cases, they sell software purchased from other vendors. Other vendors offer a subset of their own software under the assumption that smaller companies don’t need as much functionality.

Used by large international companies In a lot of cases a full time “team” is required on the part of the company implementing the software.Implementation teams are usually augmented with third party consultants

Usually priced by modules and by number of users

Tier II - this is where ICIM ERP fits
These vendors are a good fit for most small and midsize manufacturers. The software provided by these vendors offer rich functionality and run on a variety of technologies. Expect higher involvement from these vendors or their representatives in the implementation of the software. For companies with any type of complexity in manufacturing, sales or engineering processes; software packages in this Tier would be a good choice.

Characteristics include:

• Offer a high degree of functionality.
• May be targeted to a specific industry. Some software packages were first developed to support a specific industry. These work well in their particular industry but struggle when used outside that industry.
• The software is normally sold through a Value Added Reseller (VAR). The same VAR will offer implementation services as well (see note below).
• A significant amount of consolidation has taken place amongst Tier II vendors. It is not uncommon to see one vendor offer many different ERP packages.
• Usually priced by user

Tier III
These vendors offer what is often referred to as “canned” software. If across the board, standard business practices are used throughout the company or if all that is required is accounting and light inventory control, these packages will probably be a good fit.

Characteristics include:

• Easy to use screens.
• Installation CDs. Usually windows based.
• Self-taught tutorials are usually the extent of the training.
• Many times priced by module.

Why Choose Custom Software?

Why Choose Custom Software?

To meet the software needs of your business, there are two main paths:
Buy software “off the shelf”
Build custom software

In most cases, off-the-shelf makes the most sense, and it should be your default choice:

buy off-the-shelf software is usually faster than getting custom software developed. Even complex installation and configuration it typically faster than developing new software.

buy Off-the-shelf software is generally cheaper than developing your own. The development cost of an off-the-shelf package is distributed among multiple firms, possibly many firms worldwide. These many customers more than offset the extra cost of mass production and distribution. Comparatively, with custom software your business alone bears most of the costs.

Off-the-shelf software typically has years of testing and years of production use, as well as feedback and improvement, giving confidence that it actually works.

Off-the-shelf software may include a money-back guarantee in case it does not meet your needs.

There are good reasons, though, to consider custom development, especially in mid-sized or large companies. Under the right circumstances, these advantages can make the decision to develop software the best choice.

When come to "Build custom software " it is a Exactly the Software You Want

The features might not actually work.
The features might work but still not meet your needs.
The features might interact with each other badly, even though they work in isolation.

Custom software, though, is almost infinitely adaptable to your needs. A custom development firm will develop the features you request, and will make them interact properly for your specific needs only.

To Get Different Results, Use Different Software
If you are running a for-profit business in a competitive industry, you have an added incentive to consider custom software. With off-the-shelf software, you will end up using the same software that your competitors are using.

What’s is Microsoft Dot NET ?

Microsoft .NET (pronounced “dot net”) is a completely new development platform. There is a lot of press and hype about .NET. What will .NET do for you and your company?” Microsoft has incorporated many significant improvements into this completely new platform.


This platform offers many tangible benefits for both manufacturing companies and ERP developers:

.NET insulates software developers from the different operating systems so its easier to deploy, install, maintain
It runs faster, is more secure and hacker-resistant

The .NET platform makes it easier to leverage the Internet and conduct E-Commerce with your supply chain
.NET-based systems will be reduce the cost of software ownership

Many ERP vendors with products using outdated technology will require a huge development cost and a complete rewrite to fully incorporate .NET. Many vendors will add minimal .NET functionality to be able to state their products use .NET.