By Steve Bieszczat, chief marketing officer, DELMIAWorks
The road to becoming a preferred plastics supplier is no longer just about driving repeat business; it’s about locking in more profitable, long-term business relationships. Achieving this status demands a comprehensive approach to creating strong relationships with customers – one that goes beyond competitive pricing and excellent service to include documented quality, ease of doing business and transparency.
Consequently, becoming a preferred supplier requires a dual-pronged strategy. First is possessing the technical capabilities to meet manufacturing promises, such as appropriate plant and equipment, skilled engineering talent and competent operating personnel to produce high-quality products. Second and equally crucial is implementing comprehensive business practices and controls to ensure that certified products are delivered on time.
Fortunately, plastics processors can streamline and automate many operational workflows required to support these practices via their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Let’s look at six critical business processes and controls plastics processors can utilize through their ERP systems to enhance the quality and visibility that differentiate preferred providers.
1.Maintain Certifications and Compliance
Certifications represent a commitment to maintaining good manufacturing practices, ensuring that audits and controls are consistently applied. A comprehensive manufacturing ERP system is vital for effectively maintaining compliance with the full scope of certifications required in the plastics industry. It can automate key functions needed to uphold certification standards, such as enforcing adherence to process controls that require inspections and tracking compliance through management alerts and exception reporting. Furthermore, it streamlines record-keeping, making it easier to document manufacturing processes and their execution.
Additionally, ERP systems can validate operator training and certification, for example, by checking whether an operator currently has the credentials to start a job or requires re-certification. Ensuring that only certified operators perform specific production tasks this way reduces risks and enhances quality control.
By enforcing operator qualifications and inspection procedures, plastics processors elevate their status from mere suppliers to valuable business partners.
2.Provide Lot and Item-Level Traceability
Many plastics customers require rigorous control of raw material inputs, making processes that validate these materials crucial. Manufacturers must ensure that incoming raw materials are validated prior to production and that their use is tracked throughout the entire production process.
An ERP system can enforce adherence to lot or item-level traceability requirements, ensuring that no production occurs until supervisors and operators have validated the relevant raw material lot numbers. In cases of non-compliance, the software can alert management, preventing potential production errors. Moreover, the system maintains comprehensive records that can be presented to customers as evidence of compliance with tracing procedures.
Establishing and enforcing traceability is foundational to providing full transparency. A vital result is the ability to trace items accurately through the production and product lifecycle. This “track-and-trace” functionality lets manufacturers use unique identifiers, such as part numbers, production dates, lot numbers or serial numbers, to navigate backward through the production cycle to determine the materials used, machinery and operators involved, inspections conducted and even process parameters during production.
3.Record and Report Manufacturing Process Data
Many tasks within plastics processing are heavily influenced by management policies and operational procedures. However, the production equipment’s performance and capabilities also play a significant role. For example, are the machines operating at optimal speeds, pressures and cycle times? Attempting to monitor these parameters manually can be overwhelming.
A manufacturing ERP system’s real-time process monitoring functionality can capture data streams from sensors and smart machines to help track process variables in real time. Monitoring equipment’s performance during production can yield substantial benefits. For instance, it can offer early warnings if the equipment approaches critical operating parameters – such as high barrel temperatures or short cushion times.
Proactive process monitoring can prevent issues before they escalate. Meanwhile, if defective parts are discovered during post-production quality assurance inspections, historical process data can be analyzed using statistical process control (SPC) techniques to identify equipment-related root causes. Furthermore, parts passed onto customers as having passed quality inspections can be accompanied by digital records showing that the equipment functioned correctly during production. Providing customers with a digital history of production in this way sets an outstanding manufacturer apart from the competition.
4.Enforce Quality Control Procedures
A key competitive advantage lies in differentiating between documenting production processes and effectively executing them. For instance, are inspections taking place at the scheduled times, or are they being postponed? Manual recording and enforcement of inspections remain commonplace, but this often leads to inconsistencies.
By contrast, automated inspection procedures facilitated by an ERP system ensure that inspections occur as scheduled, enhancing reliability and oversight. The software can alert management to any missed inspections and automatically flag entries that deviate so significantly from expected values as to be suspected data entry mistakes. It also digitally records and files inspection outcomes for future reference, making it easier to provide proof of quality control. With automation, manufacturers can focus on consistently maintaining high-quality standards to foster customers’ confidence in product reliability and safety.
5.Provide Repeatable, Transferrable Quality and SPC Records
Manufacturing and inspection processes operating under the supervision of an ERP system are systematically documented. This data capture can include timestamp signatures, material validation dates, operator names and histograms of process parameters. Since the software oversees the workflow, it inherently retains concise records of events.
Information gathered by the ERP system is invaluable for internal operations. It lets manufacturers backtrack to identify root causes of issues, and it supports continuous improvement initiatives. Moreover, the records offer customers evidence that a plastics processor has robust procedures, controls and documentation in place to honor its commitment to quality products.
6. Deliver Timely and Accurate Product Delivery Data
Transparently informing customers about order status is vital for becoming a preferred supplier. A significant aspect of transparency is predictability – i.e., providing a reliable answer to the question, “When will the product be ready?”
Predictability begins with the initial quotation and extends through the sales order to the bill of materials (BOM). The BOM contains not only the raw materials required for the finished product but also the tooling, machinery, labor and secondary operations necessary for production. These items are subject to lead times, competing resource demands and other constraints that require thorough analysis before promising accurate delivery dates.
The functionality for performing such detailed analysis is known as capable-to-promise (CTP). Similar to artificial intelligence (AI) tools, CTP utilizes an ERP system’s material resource planning and scheduling capabilities to analyze various procurement and production scenarios. It generates a promise date that considers constraints and suggests changes to help complete production earlier.
Once the BOM and delivery timelines are established, material resource planning (MRP) and scheduling systems must execute the procurement, allocation and management of required production resources. This process may raise new questions for management and customers: Is the job progressing on schedule? What are the actual cycle times? Have any unexpected delays occurred?
Production monitoring employs sensors to track and log a job’s production cycles. It captures critical data points, such as when processes began and ended, how long they ran and their cycle efficiencies. This valuable information empowers plastics processors to address issues proactively. For example, if delays occur, the ERP system can provide insights into whether cycle times were faster or slower than anticipated, giving managers a clear understanding of factors affecting delivery times.
The integration of production monitoring into ERP systems enhances real-time communication with management and customers, providing continuous updates on project statuses.
Conclusion
In a challenging market with fierce competition, plastics processors who want to differentiate and solidify their reputation as industry leaders need to align closely with customer expectations through transparency, quality control and timely delivery. ERP systems can support these initiatives by automating critical factory operations and streamlining business processes. By harnessing these capabilities, plastics manufacturers can position themselves as preferred suppliers, command higher prices and foster the trust and loyalty that creates long-term customers.
Steve Bieszczat is responsible for DELMIAWorks brand management, demand generation and product marketing. Prior to DELMIAWorks, he held senior marketing roles at ERP companies IQMS, Epicor and Activant Solutions. Bieszczat’s focus is on aligning products with industry requirements as well as positioning DELMIAWorks with the strategic direction and requirements of the brand’s manufacturing customers and prospects. Bieszczat holds an engineering degree from the University of Kansas and an MBA from Rockhurst.
More information: www.solidworks.com/delmiaworks-manufacturing-erp