October 2, 2019
By Shelly E. Worrel
For manufacturers, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system can be life-changing. Its automation, process improvement, visibility and tracking abilities make the ERP capable of significantly boosting efficiency and productivity — not to mention how it enables data-driven decision-making
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July 8, 2019
By Reed Klinkhammer
Bills of materials (BOMs) are sometimes referred to as the “recipe” of a manufacturing job. Get that recipe wrong, and the results can leave you feeling sick to your stomach.
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June 3, 2019
By Reed Klinkhammer
Manufacturers both big and small put a major emphasis on R&D, quality, improving cycle times, maximizing inventory controls, minimizing scrap, managing supply chains and getting products into the hands of customers on time and on budget. And rightly so.
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May 8, 2019
These days there really is no excuse for any manufacturer (small, mid-size or enterprise) to still be using an unscalable legacy system requiring manual input and outdated spreadsheets for financial workflows. The limitations are simply too restrictive.
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April 10, 2019
As the economy scales, many job shops that produce consumer goods or sell to discrete manufacturers are scaling with it. Customers are placing orders in multiple ways, driving the rise in omni-channel commerce. Websites, applications, mobile devices, interactive catalogs and other eCommerce channels are increasing as the go-to methods for placing orders. Physical locations and email, fax, phone, mail or the good old-fashioned way of sitting down with a sales rep are still popular methods as well.
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March 27, 2019
By Reed Klinkhammer
While IoT devices are commonplace on manufacturing plant floors — and the latest software platforms are leveraged in various office settings — many warehouses still operate much like they did before the digital age.
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March 4, 2019
By Thomas P. Schiesl
Multiple projects are managed simultaneously in a job shop. Most of them are custom and demand varying production requirements and due dates. These types of high-mix operations can make boosting productivity and maintaining lead times difficult but, finding efficiencies is critical to enhancing profitability and maintaining an edge in the highly competitive manufacturing industry.
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February 7, 2019
By Mark Stevens
The supply chain plays a pivotal role in global manufacturing; major industries and discrete manufacturers rely on the goods produced by smaller job shops and specialty contract manufacturers to serve their customers. Historically, many of those smaller operations have lacked the capital or skilled labor required to implement many internet of things (IoT) technologies that the “big guys” have been able to leverage.
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January 15, 2019
By Reed Klinkhammer
It’s common for manufacturers to produce components that are sold to various discrete manufacturers for use in finished goods — a pump may be installed in multiple types of equipment, for example. When those pumps leave the manufacturing facility, they need to be rebranded differently depending on who they’re sold to (e.g., labels, packaging, finish, color, etc.).
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January 13, 2019
Is anything more frustrating than opening up a program on your computer to pull a routine report, only to be reminded that you need to issue an IT support ticket with a 24-hour turnaround? It’s especially frustrating when you know the data is in there somewhere; you just don’t have the programming capability to write the code to extract it. Meanwhile, you’re faced with month-end deadlines and a CEO who’s expecting answers to help him make an important and time-sensitive business decision.
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November 28, 2018
By Reed Klinkhammer
Demand and supply planning can be crucial for manufacturers, and there are many reasons why. If you have long lead times, a seasonal business or unpredictable demand, or even unpredictability within your supply chain, planning can help you both shorten lead times and prevent missed deadlines to customers. Understanding what to procure, when to procure it and when to produce it so you can meet customer demand also helps you reduce your on-hand inventory costs.
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November 13, 2018
To save money, parent companies often purchase services and supplies in large quantities at a discount to allocate to their various subsidiaries, and then issue a sales order to each of those entities for the portion of goods or services they receive. This is just one example of a transaction that can occur between entities in your growing business.
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November 6, 2018
Even in today’s digital age, some human resources (HR) professionals are still more comfortable keeping track of employee information on spreadsheets and in email folders or locked file cabinets. Learn how NetSuite’s SuitePeople allows HR to become a more integral strategic partner that helps an organization succeed.
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October 30, 2018
Learn the top three ways how NetSuite CRM can help your business increase visibility into its financials, elevate its brand and grow its revenue.
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October 23, 2018
The old phrase “time is money” is never truer than when it comes to manufacturing. So much of production depends on the time it takes to perform each workflow, which makes any gain in efficiency a huge win. And there are many areas that can see improvement — from having better visibility into your process efficiency and labor costs to tracking and ordering resources, you can increase production and save in overhead by becoming more efficient.
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October 3, 2018
When your company first started out, manually tracking orders, invoices and customer communications seemed manageable. With more success came bigger customers, bigger orders and, thankfully, bigger profits.
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September 17, 2018
By Mark Stevens
Today's job shops are caught in a bit of a technology trap. On the one hand, the emerging technologies available that leverage the Internet of Things (IoT) make processes easier and more efficient, and can help your job shop keep pace with the competition and industry overall. On the other is the considerable investment required to purchase and implement these technologies, which raises the question about true necessity.
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September 11, 2018
By Reed Klinkhammer
How much visibility do your project managers have into the costs and resources of new product development projects? Does your CFO have easy access to profit margins, budgets and real-time reporting?
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August 28, 2018
By Mark Stevens
"Smart” manufacturing creates greater visibility across departments so that owners, operators, schedulers, and the front office can make better, more informed decisions. But is all that valuable data also visible and accessible to cyber criminals? Increasingly, manufacturers must be vigilant in protecting their systems from the threat of hackers.
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August 21, 2018
By Anirudh Nadkarni
The future of manufacturing rests squarely on the shoulders of Big Data. The opportunities this presents for efficient and responsive production are potential game changers, but before your job shop jumps on the Big Data bandwagon it’s important to understand that there are some significant challenges on the way to successful implementation.
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August 7, 2018
By Mark Stevens
When it comes to process improvement, most job shops are understandably focused on manufacturing. However, ignoring some common sense ways to optimize your sales processes could mean leaving opportunities—and money—on the table. Here are five practical ways to boost job shop sales.
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July 24, 2018
By Thomas P. Schiesl
If your job shop or contract manufacturing business has been around for a while (and most have), chances are you’ve still got some original business management technology operating in some capacity. The ability for those legacy systems to integrate with newer technologies and processes is a major challenge for many, and the cost to do so can be daunting.
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July 18, 2018
By Mark Stevens
Does your job shop have numerous machines performing multiple functions? Have you determined how much value each is truly bringing to your business and whether each has resulted in a positive return on its investment?
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July 12, 2018
By Thomas P. Schiesl
If your job shop has been around for a while, you’ve likely heard of agile manufacturing and how it can improve production efficiencies and, ultimately, customer satisfaction. Since the concept at its core is a methodology intended to streamline processes, understanding how it can specifically be applied to the unique practices of your job shop can be confusing.
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September 20, 2017
By Mark Stevens
Here’s a look at what job shops and contract manufacturers deal with every day, and some simple tools to help resolve issues.
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July 14, 2017
By Mark Stevens
See how data can be integrated and made visible from various job shop departments to reveal major opportunities for improved productivity.
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July 7, 2017
By Mark Stevens
Use these 5 practical and time-saving steps to identify and improve inefficiencies in your job shop.
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June 23, 2017
By Mark Stevens
Get the most out of your ERP system with these 4 steps and reap the results of improved efficiencies, workflows, production, and employee satisfaction.
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June 8, 2017
By Mark Stevens
Large manufacturers use ERP best practices, but small job shops aren’t sure if those processes will help them. Ask these questions to find out.
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June 2, 2017
By Mark Stevens
Smaller job shops believe ERP systems are for larger operations, or that they’re too expensive. It’s time to debunk those and other ERP myths!
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May 25, 2017
By Mark Stevens
When a job shop can confidently answer these 5 questions, they’ll be able to choose the right ERP system to manage operations, inventory, sales and more.
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May 8, 2017
By Mark Stevens
Here are a few common missteps in job shops and suggestions on how to resolve them.
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April 28, 2017
By Mark Stevens
Overhead expenses can eat up most of a job shop’s income—especially if overhead isn’t actively monitored and appropriately reduced.
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April 14, 2017
By Mark Stevens
Changes from customers are inevitable. Instead of getting frustrated, focus your energy on understanding why changes happen and how you can positively adapt to it.
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April 6, 2017
By Mark Stevens
Psychology has proven that humans, by nature, need to feel supported, successful, and satisfied to work at peak productivity.
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March 3, 2017
By Mark Stevens
Pursuing efficiency for efficiency’s sake and ignoring the effectiveness of the process behind it can be misleading. This is especially true in job shops where processes—not necessarily efficiencies—drive productivity and, ultimately, profitability.
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February 24, 2017
By Mark Stevens
Understanding the advantages of using an ERP system will help your Job Shop gauge its actual value for your business operation.
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February 17, 2017
By Mark Stevens
Scheduling is pivotal in ensuring all other facets of the job shop run smoothly. Revamping your system can’t—and won’t—happen overnight, but you can implement four best practices to improve the process incrementally.
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February 10, 2017
By Mark Stevens
Finding those small, often hidden, time thieves that increase lead times means taking a long, hard look at your overall manufacturing process from quote through payment. Understanding the entirety of your job flow will reveal opportunities for making relevant improvements.
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February 3, 2017
By Mark Stevens
While many are, there are several perceived downsides to NetSuite, the fit, functionality and value of this ERP system must be evaluated by job shops on an individual basis.
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January 27, 2017
By Mark Stevens
Creating processes that produce better results, establishing expectations around adhering to those processes and measuring and reporting on behaviors that support them can elevate performance in any field. It’s only natural that you should apply this same discipline to sales management.
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January 27, 2017
By Mark Stevens
Just like most successful athletes, successful sales pros understand that following a disciplined approach to sales planning and execution will lead to consistently better results. Most importantly, they recognize that truly great sales teams work together to build the processes that lead to sustainable success.
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January 20, 2017
By Mark Stevens
Marketing is something job shop owners and contract manufacturers know they have to do, but it often gets put on the back burner while more urgent matters take priority. Learn what you need to do and think about to market to the right prospect, with the right message in the right format.
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January 13, 2017
By Jeffrey H. Wulf
An ERP system makes it possible for job shops to have an accurate, up-to-date, 360-degree view of the state of your company. Without it, companies find the process of gathering and making sense of all their information too burdensome and revert to gut-reaction decision-making and disjointed spreadsheets.
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December 30, 2016
By Mark Stevens
You need to answer these questions about your value proposition, your ideal customer profile, the type of relationship the customer wants/needs, and the appropriate sales channels to put together a strategy that will deliver a pipeline stocked with quality leads.
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December 23, 2016
By Mark Stevens
If you’re like many job shops and contract manufacturers, you’re working hard to sell a wider range of products and/or services to a broader customer base. To do that, though, you need a healthy pipeline of work. But how do you develop and sustain it?
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December 16, 2016
By Mark Stevens
It’s no secret that finding qualified employees is a challenge, but it is possible to manage through a lack of new workers if you provide the ones you have with the skills, technology and opportunities to help them “do more with less.”
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December 2, 2016
By Jeffrey H. Wulf
If communicating with people and groups within your organization has no real structure around it, you can bet there are opportunities to improve, including when it comes to profitability.
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November 25, 2016
By Mark Stevens
An ERP system functions best when digital natives work alongside those with wisdom and a deep history with your business processes.
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November 18, 2016
By Mark Stevens
Not every ERP implementation is identical, but each one comes with a common set of tasks and decisions that need to be implemented to ensure success.
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November 11, 2016
By Mark Stevens
ERP systems not only integrate and optimize processes, they make it possible for job shops to take advantage of new product and market opportunities.
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November 4, 2016
By Mark Stevens
Knowing what you can expect before you implement an ERP system will help ensure that you get the greatest value from it.
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October 28, 2016
By Mark Stevens
Learn the signs that a cloud-based ERP system will help your job shop be more efficient and facilitate its growth.
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October 21, 2016
By Mark Stevens
Reducing the time spent quoting/estimating requires a complete, accurate view of all project costs for your job shop—something an ERP system offers.
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October 14, 2016
By Mark Stevens
When it comes to job shop growth and investment in an ERP, there’s a distinct difference between strategic- and operational-minded business owners.
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October 7, 2016
By Mark Stevens
To stay competitive job shops must take every opportunity to better understand their operation and eliminate inefficiencies and unnecessary costs.
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September 30, 2016
By Mark Stevens
An ERP system monitors and interprets vast amounts of data about your operation and turns it into actionable intelligence that helps you make informed decisions and pursue new markets.
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September 23, 2016
By Mark Stevens
One key decision related to an ERP is whether it’ll be on premise or in the cloud. There are several infrastructure and pricing factors that make cloud-based ERP a better choice for job shops.
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September 16, 2016
By Mark Stevens
Many job shops today use a mix of tools to manage their businesses, but newer software solutions integrate processes and provide insights that improve decision-making and company growth.
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September 9, 2016
By Mark Stevens
While the software cost can be determined easily, it’s the “other things” that go into an ERP investment that will determine your ultimate cost. Here are five you need to account for.
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