It’s hard to enforce common processes across manual procedures, so if you’re running things manually, you’ll find that everybody uses their own methods, limiting your flexibility in cross training people or providing coverage when people leave the company, are on vacation or away for other reasons.
Manual systems are error prone. You may find that information you receive is not reliable for making decisions. You or others may also be relying too heavily on guesswork or rules of thumb, which don't often yield optimum results.
Since manual systems are more time-consuming, your employees spend more time on tasks than they would with automated tasks. As a small company, your resources are limited, and you can’t afford to waste them on non-value added activities.
You have trouble maintaining accurate inventory counts. Physical counts seldom match the perpetual inventory records because there is no system to enforce transaction processes. Not only is this an accounting issue, but it wreaks havoc with production efficiency since parts aren’t available when you need them. In turn, that causes delivery delays that upset customers. Upset customers don’t send repeat orders, so poor inventory accuracy adversely affects revenue.
There may be a lot of paper moving around the company, but there is very little real communication occurring. Information is stored in documents and spreadsheets on personal computers, where people don’t have easy access or don’t know who has the information. You waste resources maintaining multiple versions of the data or arguing over which version is correct.
Wasting resources cuts in to profitability but when lack of information affects customer satisfaction, it affects revenue. Customers expect to be given reliable shipment and delivery dates when they place an order. Customers don’t want to wait for a call back, and they won’t accept bad dates for too long before they move on to another supplier.
It’s difficult to prove that your team is adhering to manual processes, and missing quality and compliance standards can lead to large fines as well as unhappy customers or worse.
You can’t keep up with increasing demand for your product because of inventory issues, lack of resources or unreliable information.
ERP is not just accounting or materials planning, as some people mistakenly believe. ERP encompasses automated processes that touch on every aspect of your business, from managing inventory to order entry to shipping, procurement and quality management and reporting.
In short, ERP helps you become more efficient, helps ensure regulatory compliance and supports growth by improving customer service, resource utilization and production efficiency.