ERP Manufacturing

Manufacturing ERP Software Tacoma

The Planning and Services Manager for Tacoma, Washington recently stated that ERP software allowed the city to restructure and enhance business processes. And, that is exactly what enterprise resource planning software is designed to do.

In the 1960’s, most businesses had a basic desire to get control of their ordering and supply systems.  From that, Manufacturing Software was born. In the 70’s, a second generation of manufacturing software was developed to include management of the time phasing of demands, but these solutions were clumsy and costly. Eventually, software already integrated with financial applications came on the market and these were called ERP. By 2002, ERP systems were making products which could directly access the ERP software system. Businesses –in particular manufacturing businesses- began to purchase these systems which would make it possible to run one centralized structure for all their operations.

Due to its location on Puget Sound, the city of Tacoma is a port city where goods easily ship in and ship out, making manufacturing a huge business there. There are thousands of manufacturing companies in the state of Washington and many of the largest ones are in Tacoma.

Manufacturing ERP software has the advantage that it can be tailored to the needs of the specific customer, guaranteeing enterprise resource planning which will provide a streamlined operation and, more importantly, the ability to improve productivity and profit. In 2010, the market is heavy with manufacturing ERP software solutions. The best manufacturing ERP software is able to manage the flow of a business’ information which creates opportunities for businesses to get their product out on the market at a faster rate and for lower cost. This software provides access to real-time operational intelligence, making it possible for managers to make better decisions and necessary adjustments.

Seeing the tangible benefits afforded by this new software, the city of Tacoma knew it had to upgrade some of the outdated legacy systems in place. City officers spent almost two years investigating which vendor offered the best solution: integrated ERP software capable of reducing redundancies, improving customer relations, allowing access to real-time information, and providing for expanding, future city needs.

SAP software was chosen because of their experience with manufacturing erp. Their proven success with Manufacturing ERP software meant they could provide one software and hardware solution.  A product with a single database, one upgrade path, an integrated style that would have fewer interfaces and improved workflow between functional areas.

With the advent of manufacturing ERP software, Tacoma and its sites of delivery and destination have seen significant improvements in both front and back office business functions. Increased software integration means that departments within these businesses can share access to the same databases, which can be updated in real time. This means faster business and fewer errors. Software integration also allows businesses of every kind to run management tools and other applications from a unified server architecture. When every employee in a company can access the same data and run applications on the same server using interfaces that have the same look and feel, efficiency improves. Asset management also tightens, and businesses have the capacity to handle more accounts with the same number of employees. Customer and constituent management improve, orders are made, submitted and processed faster, and invoices are printed, sent and paid when the work is complete or the material delivered. Error and lag time are reduced, revenues increase, businesses grow, and jobs flourish

Frequently described as “America’s #1 Wired City,” Tacoma encompasses
49 square miles and is located 30 miles south of Seattle,
Wash. Its metro area population in 2005 was more than 3.8 million.
The City of Tacoma employs 3,500, maintains 1,500 retired workers,
and operates within a budget of $2.2 billion (2005/2006). It gets its
sobriquet from the fact that it was one of the first cities in the
United States to have its municipally owned electric utility install
a fiber network throughout its entire service area.

• 1972 Five engineers in Mannheim, Germany begin the company, SAP (Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung). The purpose in creating SAP is to produce and market standard software for integrated business solutions.1975 Richard Lawson, Bill Lawson, and business partner, John Cerullo begin Lawson Software. The founders see the need for pre-packaged enterprise technology solutions as an alternative to customized business software applications.1976 In the manufacturing industry, MRP (Material Requirements Planning) becomes the fundamental concept used in production management and control.
• 1977 Jack Thompson, Dan Gregory, and Ed McVaney form JD Edwards. Each founder takes part of their name to create the company moniker. Larry Ellison begins Oracle Corporation.
• 1978 Jan Baan begins The Baan Corporation to provide financial and administrative consulting services.
• 1979 Oracle offers the first commercial SQL relational database management system.
• 1980 JD Edwards begins focusing on the IBM System/38 in the early 1980s. MRP (Manufacturing Resources Planning) evolves into MRP-II as a more accessible extension to shop floor and distribution management activities.
• 1981 Baan begins to use Unix as their main operating system.
• 1982 Baan delivers its first software product. JD Edwards focuses on the IBM System/38.
• 1983 Oracle offers both a VAX mode database as well as a database written entirely in C (for portability).
• 1984 Baan shifts the focus of their development to manufacturing.
• 1985 JD Edwards is recognized as an industry-leading supplier of applications software for the highly successful IBM AS/400 computer, a direct descendant of the System/38.
• 1987 PeopleSoft is founded by Dave Duffield and Ken Morris in 1987.
• 1988 PeopleSoft’s Human Resource Management System (HRMS) is developed.
• 1990 Baan software is rolled out to 35 countries through indirect sales channels. The term ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is coined in the early 1990′s when MRP-II is extended to cover areas like Engineering, Finance, Human Resources, and Project Management.
• 1991 PeopleSoft sets up offices in Canada. This leads the way to their presence in Europe, Asia, Africa, Central and South America, and the Pacific Rim.
• 1995 Baan grows to more than 1,800 customers worldwide and over 1,000 employees.
• 1999 JD Edwards has more than 4,700 customers with sites in over 100 countries. Oracle has 41,000 customers worldwide (16,000 U.S.). PeopleSoft software is used by more than 50 percent of the human resources market. SAP is the world’s largest inter-enterprise software company and the world’s fourth largest independent software supplier overall. SAP employs over 20,500 people in more than 50 countries. To date, more than 2,800 of Baan’s enterprise systems have been implemented at approximately 4,800 sites around the world.
• 2001 – 9/11 occurs creating a drop in demand for new ERP systems
• 2002 2004 – Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) becomes a standard that ERP vendors work towards. This software architecture allows different systems to communicate between one another.
• 2003-2005 Industry consolidation occurs:

1. Oracle – E-Business Suite, JD Edwards, Peoplesoft, and Seibel
2. Microsoft – Navision, Axapta, Great Plains, and Solomon
3. Infor – Baan, Mapics, and a slew of other products
4. Sage – Best Software is aquired

The consolidations continue to occur and the key players (SAP, Oracle, Infor and Microsoft) continue to build out their products. The next phase of ERP systems will be the merged products, including Oracle’s Fusion and Microsoft’s project green’s end product.

Written by :

Amy Cruz