OPPORTUNITIES FOR INTEGRATED AUTOMATION OF MANUFACTURING FACILITIES

In the environment that is constantly growing more and more competitive, enterprises are forced to optimize business processes and reduce costs. One of the most effective instruments for addressing the above issues is the Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP) designed for the automation of accounting and management. The implementation of the ERP aims to enhance the quality of the enterprise operation by means of increasing the degree of transparency of the company’s activities, optimization of production processes, and the use of systems for the planning and automation of obtaining data about the company’s economic performance.

ERP implementation allows the following to be ensured: 

- the availability of all the information necessary for decision-making and, consequently, increased transparency of the business for the management as well as its control performance; 
- the reduction of costs, stock reserves, amount of defective goods and goods in process; 
- the reduction of equipment downtime; 
- improvement in the quality of production; 
- improvement in customer service; 
- complete product lifecycle management; 
- electronic data exchange with subcontracting manufacturers; 
- transition from a multitude of uncoordinated systems to a consolidated information area; 
- product prime cost control and project cost control; 
and numerous other benefits.

ERP systems are based on the creation of a single data warehouse that contains all the business information and makes it simultaneously accessible for any required number of the designated company employees. The data can be changed by means of the system’s functionalities.

Main functionalities of the ERP system:

- the maintenance of engineering and process specifications that determine the composition of the manufactured products as well as the material resources and operations necessary for the manufacturing of a product;
- sales and production planning; 
- material and component requirements planning as well as the planning of supply amounts and timeframes for the production schedule to be met; 
- stocks and procurement management: contract administration, bulk purchasing, ensuring the management and optimization of   warehouse stocks and interprocess stocks; 
- capacity planning, starting with rough cut planning and down to the use of particular machines and pieces of equipment; 
- operational financial management, including the preparation of the financial plan and its follow-up monitoring; financial and managerial accounting; 
- project management, including the planning of stages and resources necessary for the completion of projects;
- business expenditure budgeting.

Unlike so-called “off-the-shelf” software, ERP systems belong to the category of “hard” software solutions that require rather lengthy adaptation. The ERP system is modular-constructed, and the customer can purchase and implement modules one by one. In the course of module implementation, the final adaptation thereof is performed, and they are finely tuned to interact with other modules. 

The ERP system may be customized for a variety of production models, for example, Kanban the Adaptable Manufacturing System (AMS), the unified method, etc.

The ERP system in question comprises several modules that can be implemented independently for later integration into a whole.

ERP.Production
Allows production processes of manufacturing companies to be planned, monitored, analysed and managed.

ERP.Construction
The ERP.Construction module is designed for the planning, analysis and management of the construction activities of the company as well as automated data preparation for the financial accounting of construction projects. 

ERP.Repair
The ERP.Repair module is designed for the organization of the operating process of a company providing repair and maintenance services.

ERP.Finance
Designed for automated data preparation for the financial accounting of the facilities of a manufacturing company.

ERP.Storage
Designed for the automation of goods traffic management, organization of relations with suppliers and consumers, goods traffic analysis and forecasting. 

ERP.Client
Designed for the automation of customer relations management.

ERP system implementation services for 10–20 users generally take between 3 and 9 months. The price and duration are established on a case by case basis depending on the scope of software adaptation processes for the needs of the particular company. Project budgeting requires a preliminary analysis of the Customer’s company technology in order to understand the peculiarities and needs of the business, collaborate in establishing the requirements for the future solution and use the above information to suggest the future solution.

The software was developed using Microsoft Access and Microsoft SQL Server.