I have been an ERP-implementation consultant for over 20 years. Throughout the years I’ve developed a focus on the manufacturing industry and worked with several of the well-known standard ERP-solutions. Many of those were great for their respective era, where most of the times only a single-site high-volume bulk order process needed to be taken in account for. But over time most of these solutions lacked the flexibility to coop with ever changing government requirements and capitalize on trends, technological innovations and the shift in market demand. This is completely different with NetSuite, however.
For the last four years I’ve been working with NetSuite Advanced Manufacturing at a great variety of customers. And this solution really is next generation. NetSuite Advanced Manufacturing delivers a single fully integrated cloud solution that replaces the disconnected systems that are used by manufacturers today. It offers comprehensive functionality and is specifically designed to help manufacturers of all sizes reduce operating costs, increase revenue and better manage their business and supply chain processes overall. NetSuite Advanced Manufacturing is built on native NetSuite ERP, ensuring manufacturing processes are connected to financial reports, inventory management and outstanding orders in real-time.
What do I consider Key Benefits of NetSuite Advance Manufacturing?
- Improve operational effectiveness
- Reduce ‘Cost to Produce’
- Faster Time to Value
- Unified solution—reduce reliance on third parties
- Improve quality, service and through-put
- Variance management: compare actual versus standard
- One version of the truth
- Integrate Plant to Enterprise (P2E)
- Manufacturing information and intelligence
A closer look at Advanced Manufacturing
NetSuite provides a powerful vertically integrated solution to help manufacturers manage their business more profitably from Order-to-Cash through Build-to-Ship. NetSuite’s Advanced Planning and Scheduling capabilities enable customers to effectively plan their shop floor and improving capacity and resource utilization, culminating in lower operating costs.
Functionality for Discrete / Assembly Manufacturers
NetSuite Advanced Manufacturing enables Discrete/Assembly Manufacturers to run core business operations by providing deep industry functionality such as parameterized configuration options by location, configurable work order completion logic, and enhanced data collection. The Comprehensive Manufacturing Work Bench Record includes: enhanced operations routings, primary and alternate finite planning parameters, labor requirements and detailed work instructions. Additional features: configurable Shop Floor Travelers (bar code enabled), Rough-Cut Capacity Planning, Dynamic Schedule Codes, Finite Production Scheduling, enhanced Work Order Release capabilities, supports full Manufacturing Execution System and Manufacturing Operations Management capabilities. Available to OneWorld customers.
Functionality for Batch or Process Manufacturers
Built for batch or process manufacturers, NetSuite Advanced Manufacturing includes all the functionality outlined for discrete manufacturing as well as an expanded Manufacturing Work Bench Record Structure to include: alternate assets, coproducts, and detailed work instructions for Recipe/Formulation management. Additional functionality supports FIFO material issuance for raw and bulk lot-controlled items as well as Batch Travelers (bar code enabled) with automatic Batch Lot ID for full lot track traceability and enhanced material issuance control. Supports full MES and Manufacturing Operations Management capabilities. This is available for OneWorld customers.
Mobile Capability
NetSuite’s native mobile feature set supports fully integrated bar code scanning and wireless tablet functionality for real-time Manufacturing Execution System (MES) reporting capabilities for: Express Data Entry, Work Order Completion (partial or full), Material Issuance, Downtime, as well as actual Labor or Machine Hours reporting by employee ID.
Extended Setup Criteria
Running a manufacturing business requires multiple ways to control how and when you release work orders and other processes. From the Advanced Manufacturing Admin Console you can find all the settings you need to configure NetSuite to operate in the most efficient way to suit your environment.
NetSuite Manufacturing
NetSuite offers three options to help you deploy manufacturing functionality to most closely match your manufacturing needs. In addition, if you have different manufacturing locations you can opt to make the same item in a different way at each location.
- Work Orders & Assemblies works best for companies who do some light assembly but don’t need to track work in process or the labor separately.
- WIP & Routings adds the ability to define work centers, routings, track labor costing, infinite capacity scheduling and provides a Gantt chart with drag-and-drop functionality.
- Advanced Manufacturing provides for those looking for complete control of all aspects of their manufacturing processes including finite capacity scheduling and manufacturing execution. You can seamlessly upgrade from one edition to another.
Christmas twice a year
NetSuite upgrades, including customizations and integrations are seamlessly carried out automatically in the cloud, without the need for cumbersome projects. Twice a year I feel like a kid at Christmas when new functionality is added to the solution. Every time they manage to add new features that allow me to respond to the continuously changing demands of our customers. It allows us to be a strategic growth enabling partner to them, instead of just a supplier. And that’s the base for a healthy long-term relationship.
Do you want to learn more about NetSuite Advance Manufacturing? Send me an e-mail ([email protected]) and I would love to get in touch with you.