The ERP.Production solution allows production processes of manufacturing enterprises to be planned, monitored, analysed and managed. 

Even within one sector, production processes can vary greatly depending on the manufactured product. Products generally vary by kinds and types; moreover, they will often go through several stages within their lifecycles, so the company will need various management models.

The support of the total product lifecycle starting with product development and down to withdrawal from operation starts with each product unit being registered in the system. Besides, if the product unit will require maintenance, it is not only its specification that is entered into the system, but also a list of spare parts and maintenance history. 

Using Microsoft Project to prepare the master production schedule allows production to be planned and plans to be devised on the basis of existing sales orders and the availability of critical components (materials) and manufacturing facilities. 

Material requirements planning allows the needs for all materials and components to be calculated for putting an order into production, taking into account warehouse stocks as well as scheduled receipts and shipments. The above needs are based on sales orders, shop orders and job orders (repairs). The information is checked against nonredundant stocks, supply orders and shop orders to determine needs for materials and components. In addition, data concerning independent demand, for instance, forecast demand for spare parts, can be taken into account. 

The purpose of capacity requirements planning is to determine realistic timeframes for production target delivery using the available capacity. The planning of work centre load simplifies the process of identifying potential bottlenecks and allows the underutilization and overloading of production capacities and personnel to be evened out.

One of the outputs of the module is that the system creates requisitions for shop orders and supply orders. The orders are created after the requisitions are accepted or adjusted.

Operating instructions (technical specifications for the performance of operations) concerning the completion of the order can be added to a shop order, and components can be added or discarded.

There is a function of warnings about a potential delay beyond a time limit for the delivery of a sales order due to delays in supply and the completion of shop orders. 

Product cost control.

Standard costing. This is performed in accordance with the assumptions that target figures are based on a forecast, direct variable costs are planned for each type of products, and other costs are planned for each cost centre.  Standard costing is performed for a standard batch size or production cycle. 

Activity-based costing, unlike standard costing, uses the parameters of the value-added chain resulting from the consumption of various resources. For non-standard products that might require manufacturing preparation, product design and production engineering and several cycles of equipment adjustments, the above processes can be established as the sources of activity costs.    

There is an option of combining the standard costing and activity-based costing in a single hybrid cost model. Calculations for the above costing models are performed on the basis of the cumulation of cost elements with regard to the data of the specification and the manufacturing sequence as well as the production process. The calculation includes the estimation of costs of the particular level of production and all sublevels down to bought out components and raw materials. 

The current process costing for a particular order represents the registered amount of work in progress for the order. The above costing can be used as the basis for the analysis and adjustment of the current manufacturing situation on the basis of the analysis of reasons for deviations from the initial costing. Operational functional cost analysis of the production allows the user to obtain an operational overview of the point at which the deviations start.

Analysing the performance of a production facility with a broad range of products and high turnover is rather complicated and requires plenty of time. Priorities can be set correctly by means of the activity-based costing analysis (ABC), which will help to define the 20% of products that generate 40% of income and to determine the 10% of products that generate 5% of income but take up 25% of production capacity.

Brief overview of the ERP.Production module functionalities

• Production planning
- with the use of graphic tools for the optimization of production capacity utilization;
- with the creation of the necessary components list;
-with the creation of the list of operations to be performed and the necessary human resources.

• Production process monitoring broken down by the following parameters:
- the movement of components for the orders to be completed, including multilevel analysis broken down by types and names;
- the components to be utilized in production, including the analysis of planned and actually spent funds (for the given period and the cumulative amount);
- salary, including piecework remuneration and time-based wages with the analysis of planned and actually spent funds and work hours (for the given period and the cumulative amount);
- analysis of the production output (defects, recycling, rejection);
- fixed operational costs (rent, leasing etc.), including the analysis of planned and actually spent funds (for the given period and the cumulative amount);
- taxes, including the analysis of planned and actually spent funds (for the given period and the cumulative amount);
- issued invoices and the settlement thereof.

• The received data allow the following: 
- production cycle analysis for any period, stage and order, with obtaining summarized data for a certain date, including the analysis of the price and prime cost;
- analysis of several activity categories; 
- analysis of subcontracts and general contracts, including the analysis of planned and actually spent funds (for the given period and the cumulative amount).

• Real-time evaluation of the general economic situation of the enterprise and the economic benefit from a particular order being completed or the company’s activity category. 

• Archiving all documentation for an unlimited period of storage.

• Fast information search in the archive across various parameters (the number of the order or job order, lot, customer, invoice number, etc.).