What is Discrete Manufacturing Software

What is Discrete Manufacturing?

In the world of manufacturing, there are a number of different approaches that are used to produce a product. The product itself and the market to which it is targeted have a lot to do with how it is produced. For instance, manufacturing cars would be very simple if every consumer everywhere wanted the exact same car with the exact same features. Even with this type of production, however, discrete manufacturing would still be necessary as the car is made up of different components to complete the whole.

In discrete manufacturing, oftentimes organizations build products using work orders. The units  can be produced in low volume with high complexity, or in high volume with low complexity.  Either way, the environment still demands discrete manufacturing software that can help you manage the overall process to ensure you meet quality standards and can keep your production time and costs within strategic boundaries.

Choosing Discrete Manufacturing Software

When selecting the discrete manufacturing software that will best fit your environment, gain a clear understanding of what you want the software to do. Ideally, the discrete manufacturing software should include manufacturing planning and execution to ensure you can streamline the process on your production floor as much as possible to reduce waste. The solution should also provide inventory management that allows you to maintain the lowest possible inventory to stay on your production schedule without ever running out.

Order management is also a key element of discrete manufacturing software as you need to know what to produce, when and for whom. This is the lifeblood of your business and if you can’t track orders properly in the system, you will have a difficult time delivering exactly on what the customer wants. This directly ties in with your customer service, which should be a key factor within your discrete manufacturing solution. Customers have expectations, so be sure the solution you select is able to meet not only your internal customer service goals, but also what your customers expect.

Financial management is also a key point within your choice of discrete manufacturing software. Your finances have to flow as easily as the production floor in order to stay on track. Forgetting to pay an invoice that should be standard procedure can quickly stop production when you can’t get the raw materials you need. This type of delay is completely avoidable with the right discrete manufacturing software in place.

When discrete manufacturing is your primary focus on the production floor, you need to effectively balance your MRP for time-phased requirements planning and lean manufacturing principles. With the right discrete manufacturing software, you should have the tools at your disposal to generate purchase requisitions, real-time alerts, tentative production schedules and notifications necessary to create the material plan you need to effectively fulfill every customer demand with efficiency.

In a nutshell, your discrete manufacturing software should provide you with the capability to fulfill orders; manage inventory, quality and assets; and integrate easily into your current business systems to drive success. When discrete manufacturing is your focus, you have a lot of demands in order to get the job done right. Selecting the right discrete manufacturing software, helps you streamline processes and take much of the guess work out of achieving your goals.