It’s difficult to imagine any manufacturing business succeeding today without the use of an MRP (manufacturing resource planning) software system as a part of its operation.  Whether a business is large or small general or recipe based manufacturer, MRP cost need not inhibit any business’s ability to use of such a valuable manufacturing tool.  

Manufacturing resource planning Cost

MRP Cost Investing in the Future

There is a wide range of manufacturing software packages available.  From third party formula driven software offerings to cloud-based,  or hosted tools designed to meet the needs of businesses with much broader manufacturing, MRP cost is no longer as cost prohibitive as it was in the past.  Far more approachable for small and mid-sized businesses, manufacturing software has become a must.  

Small, medium and large businesses alike see the benefit greatly of bringing an MRP system into their technology architecture.  Having identified an underserviced portion of the business manufacturing market software developers have become increasingly aggressive in servicing the MRP software needs of the small and mid-sized markets.  Drawing the attention of not only proprietary and specialty MRP manufacturing software providers, small and mid-sized manufacturers have caught the eye of Microsoft, Oracle and SAP all of whom have developed software aimed at grabbing a slice of the small and mid-sized market pie.

Small and medium-sized businesses are reaping the benefits of this periodically frenzied market grab in terms of the wide variety MRP cost friendly products that are being introduced.  Traditional, SaaS (Software as a Service) MRP and hosted offerings require varying degrees of infrastructure sophistication and capital outlay.  Making for considerably more flexible approaches to technology infrastructure and architectural design, MRP cost is kept under control while maximizing the MRP cost savings available to companies with very limited budgets.  Financing options are also more flexible, depending upon how the MRP structure is approached and a purchase may or may not be viewed as a capital expenditure.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and Return on Investment (ROI) are just as visible in small and medium-sized business as they are at any large corporation.  Executives have a more to smile about and less to deter from the investment when it comes to MRP cost.  If a hosted or SaaS solution is chosen, less human overhead is required to support the MRP system.  Funds earmarked for IT maintenance or support staff can be re-directed.
The cost of implementation of a new MRP can be considerably lowest in terms of time commitment and consulting with SaaS MRP or a hosted system.  SaaS approach to software rollout is not as lengthy as that of a traditional system.  However, scalability can become an issue in the long term and incur additional costs that could nullify the savings of choosing SaaS MRP.

Particularly attractive to small business concerns and companies with the most limited technology budgets is hosted MRP software. The viability of hosted and SaaS MRP for small and medium sized manufacturing businesses is there even for specialized batch-based manufacturers of food and beverages and paint and chemicals. BatchMaster and Epicor have looked to provide functional flexibility to specialty manufacturers who often fall under the heading of shallow pocketed manufacturers.

Written by :

Don Cooper