A Recipe For A Winning Process: Manufacturing ERP

In this report, Mint Jutras references data collected from its 2016 Enterprise Solution Study, which investigated goals, challenges, status and performance of implementations of ERP.

Responses were collected from nearly 525 participants, including 66 manufacturers in process-related industries and 48 in a hybrid of process and discrete. A total of 51 participants identified themselves as being Food & Beverage, of which 53 percent were manufacturers and 47 percent were distributors.

Once upon a time, in the not too distant past, simply implementing an integrated Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) suite gave “process” manufacturers a competitive edge over those still struggling with a collection of disparate, disconnected enterprise applications. Even the most basic ERP solutions helped establish control, streamline processes, and provide better planning and management of materials critical to the manufacturing process.

Today, we live in a world of unprecedented opportunities for growth, yet with this opportunity comes new competitive threats. At the same time, customers are more demanding, regulatory requirements and penalties for non-compliance stiffen and the threat of product recalls looms large. Implementing “any old” general-purpose ERP solution just won’t cut it anymore. Process manufacturers need ERP solutions that are broader and deeper, enriched with industry-specific functionality and enabled by technology.