How an MES+ERP Helps you Manage a Crisis

Just a few years out of one crisis when another two, or more, have already reared their ugly heads. This constant bouncing from one headache to another can stress out anyone and anything. But still, manufacturers must press on and continue to make the things that the world needs to keep turning.

But at some point, you might sit and wonder: What are you capable of?

• As part supplies become more scarce or expensive, do you have what is needed to keep your work horse running?
• If your tools break down, do you know what to do to ensure you can maintain quotas?
• Do you have staff that are so crucial that you find yourself planning your production line around them being on vacation?
• How many employees can be out sick or ill before your production crumbles?
• How many employees are cross trained to step in or step up?
• How much material do you have in stock and for how long can you run without a vendor shipment?

When a crisis arrives, these are all important questions that you will have to answer at a moments notice. Delays due to capacity indecision will lead to missed ship dates. And you can only go so long missing targets before you are no longer in your client’s line-up.

Testing a Crisis

There are a great many organizations that must be ready for a crisis at a moment’s notice. When the unpredictable is your day-to-day, what can you do? For this, you can look to the organization that most often has to be called to unforeseen actions: the military.

Armed Forces around the world routinely engage in war games during peace time with the goal of testing an almost infinite number of metrics, such as response time, possible course of action, unexpected reactions, etc. The private sector can model their teams on these activities by also testing their meddle against possible scenarios to ensure that when a game breaking issue appears, they are not caught completely unprepared.

A great example of an organization planning for the possible can be seen with AT&T, which in early 2019 ran an internal war game to see if they could handle the added pressure to their network of a virulent outbreak. What this meant is that for 2020 and 2021, when stay-in-place and work-from-home orders were being handed out, the network had already tested for such a scenario. So, they knew what was needed to do to bear the load, including getting temporary rights to wireless spectrums, that allowed them to increase broadband capacity.

By taking a short time to test their capacity and capabilities, AT&T was ready to take charge when it was necessary.

Crisis Ready

As you can see, there are things you can do to be ready. You might not need to be prepared to keep the country connected to the rest of the world like AT&T, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t know what you have to do to keep going forward. This is where an integrated Manufacturing ERP, or MERP, can help.

By having all your data in one place, you will know what you have available. For example, you need to know:

• What skills each staff member has
• What routing steps can be done at which work center
• If any staff are away
• Alternate suppliers for key materials and supplies
• Alternate shipping providers
• Inventory in stock

If you input the data into the system, these are all items that an MERP should be able to tell you at a glance. This way, when you encounter troubled waters, you can steer your ship with a bit more of a steady hand to a safer harbor.

How OnRamp ERP Can Help

OnRamp ERP is an all-in-one MERP. That means no add-ons, no plug-ins, and no hidden costs. Every module you need to improve your manufactory in one location for one price. Where most ERP systems just still to planning, OnRamp ERP comes equipped with modules for HR, payroll integration, timekeeping, alternative routing steps, back-up vendors and supplies, inventory management, and training and skills management (and more). And with an integration team with decades of experience in manufacturing, OnRamp Solutions can get you up and running in record time.

This means that if a crisis does affect you, you will have more data on hand to make better decisions for the future of your business.

Contact us today for more information on how OnRamp ERP can help you.