Unsurprisingly, some of the early-adopters of cloud software were the IT, Communications and Financial Services industries. The many advantages of using cloud Software are beneficial to a broad scope of businesses.
Since Henry Ford built his first assembly line in 1913, automation has revolutionised manufacturing industries. Similarly, manufacturing can greatly benefit from the multi-functional nature of cloud software and services, improving forecasting, inventory management, sales support functions, HR, product development and life cycle management.
Make smart decisions
Doing business in the current environment of ‘anywhere at any time’ requires the manufacturing industry to be adaptable and responsive to consumer needs, encompassing all aspects of a company’s supply chain.
Increase your forecasting precision with accurate real-time data. Cloud-based software provides manufacturers with historical data, allowing managers to optimise forecasting and facilitate greater planning accuracy. Importantly, cloud software eliminates compatibility issues, allowing everyone to access the same up-to-date information.
Perfect your customer service efforts with the ability to access information anywhere on mobile devices and tablets. Improving efficiencies through document sharing, record and customer relationship management.
Get connected
Inventory shortages can make or break your business. Running out of crucial parts can potentially bring production to a standstill. With the use of barcode and scanning software, Cloud products can be utilised in the warehouse to keep track of inventory in real-time, communicating that information to your procurement officer or supply chain partners.
Data sharing will enable you to work better with these partners and suppliers to keep track of current inventory levels, avoiding production hold-ups, a decrease in productivity and associated lost employee time.
Cloud software helps to simplify your bill of materials, providing manufacturers with the correct balance of flexibility and control, through every point of a products lifecycle.
Optimise resources
Cloud-based providers can manage software updates and data backups for you, to keep your business running efficiently, freeing up valuable resources for other areas of the business.
Cloud software avoids the need for costly onsite hardware by storing your data off-site. Not only will this guarantee you access to the most current software but it ensures important records and company data is protected and secure, should any misfortune occur at the physical manufacturing site.
Save time and money
By adopting cloud-based technologies, manufacturers will experience improvements in efficiency and an increase in productivity. Replacing time consuming manual processes with cloud-based automation, really will save time.
Additionally, cloud software allows you to measure the true cost of a product from raw materials to shipped product. More accurate inventory tracking will ensure business capital is not tied up in high levels of unsold or obsolete stock. Raw materials, work-in-progress and finished goods all contribute to increased costs in manufacturing.
With all your information in one place, a good inventory management software illustrates the true cost of holding inventory, over and above the initial purchase price. The longer you hold inventory, the higher your cost of storage, waste, insurance and material handling costs.
Given inventory often accounts for a significant percentage of working capital, adopting a cloud-based software for your manufacturing operations has to be the next step towards improving the bottom-line.