While manufacturing’s IT stack is notorious for its complexity, it must also paradoxically operate as a lean practice. Manufacturers must cut costs and drive revenue and growth to propel profits.
Manufacturers must juggle changing regulations and faltering supply chains, seemingly between a rock and a hard place. Hence they need to implement ECM solutions that are robust, flexible, extensible, and offer visibility and control over the information that drives your business and applications. But fear not, success can be had. To succeed, identify bottlenecks in processes while optimizing the same AND reducing costs. Don’t forget to manage overlapping data and systems and maintain compliance.
Traditionally most manufacturers didn’t consider that they managed data separately from content, and this divide never made much sense. What’s required is an enterprise content management system for both data and content. A disparate system that doesn’t communicate requires extra data entry and delays. Manual processes slow down work and keep employees from being responsive to clients or internal needs. In addition, it is difficult to keep good employees trained, and in compliance with local laws, so compliance could be (ahem) at risk.
Investing in automation improves processes and efficiencies
Much like most modern organizations, the manufacturing enterprise is composed of many systems that create, leverage, report on, and store data. An ECM system such as Laserfiche provides a single platform for all content and data. Rather than struggle with systems that require five log-ins to complete a process, Laserfiche is easy to use, customize and maintain. Hence, it’s perfect for organizing product data, processing invoices, and managing employee information. At the same time, an ECM system needs to provide seamless integration with ERP and other business systems in the manufacturing organization and provide users in any department with a secure connection to the content they need when they need it to improve business processes. Also, there are alternative ways to move data from systems (less manual data entry) using Laserfiche Workflow to transfer data or metadata between systems thru a data lookup.
Laserfiche solutions enable managers to map and automate complex business processes to speed and enhance processing times enterprise-wide, including project management, financial and procurement services, human resources, compliance, and many other areas. Complex manufacturing enterprises require visibility and control, which is what Laserfiche provides.
Increased productivity, faster customer service, and reduced overhead are just ways ECM systems deliver an impressive ROI to manufacturers. With alerts to notify managers when a business process needs approval, they can access their information immediately and complete the entirety of the workflow with little delay.
If you are interested in learning more, we’ve got a few more posts planned about Laserfiche in the manufacturing environment.
