Production Management: Benefits of the Kinetic ERP System for Businesses

EPICOR enjoys an exceptional reputation in the manufacturing sector, particularly among companies specializing in discrete manufacturing. This is certainly no coincidence. The secret to this success lies in the excellent production management module of the Kinetic ERP system. The Manufacturing module of Epicor’s Kinetic ERP system is highly flexible, allowing for a wide range of customization to meet specific organizational needs. However, it is particularly recommended for companies engaged in discrete manufacturing—those that produce countable items in a repeatable manner, whether in short or long series. The solution supports mass production, known as MTS (make-to-stock), as well as short-run production, known as MTO (make-to-order). It is precisely everything related to the latter model that makes Kinetic ERP so popular. Why? Because customers increasingly want to influence the products they purchase. They expect to participate in the design and production process and want the ability to select individual options. Kinetic ERP allows for flexible handling of such requirements at every stage—from the production order to the final sale. Furthermore, as soon as a product inquiry is received, a specific product structure can be linked to the offer, allowing the product to be designed while conversing with the customer. This is essentially a variation of MTO, sometimes referred to today as ETO (engineer-to-order).

Benefits for everyone

What the customer gains from this is clear: they can create a product that perfectly meets all their needs, whether it concerns key product functions or aesthetic details like the color of individual components. But what does the manufacturer gain? The system includes an integrated product configurator. This IT tool allows you to build a list of questions and answers to present to a potential customer. Once these questions are answered, the configurator can present a 3D visualization of the product or use augmented reality (AR). Imagine a customer looking for a garden gazebo or an entrance gate. The system can prepare a visualization showing how the chosen product will look in that specific garden or driveway. Another example is a customer looking for furniture. Similar to the previous examples, the system can show how furniture produced based on selected options will look in the customer’s living room, kitchen, or bedroom. What happens next? Based on the parameters defined by the customer, the system gathers the data needed to plan and execute production and shipping.

A real-life example

Such mechanisms make life much easier for employees and allow for production optimization, which increases efficiency. Imagine an air filter manufacturer producing items that must fit existing installations. This means that, in effect, there are no standard filters. The configurator allows for a significant simplification and acceleration of the data collection process. The need for a customer to describe the filter they need—even just the material and dimensions—is a major problem that hinders business. This is not a hypothetical example, as we implemented Kinetic ERP in a company that faced exactly this issue. Employees were collecting dozens of orders every day that then had to be processed from a production and technological standpoint. In practice, a new product had to be generated for every new customer inquiry. This required training staff and generated high costs. An additional problem arose when trained employees decided to leave the company. The Kinetic ERP configurator allowed this problem to be almost entirely eliminated. The company can now handle a much larger number of orders. The implementation marked the beginning of a period of intensive business growth.