No manufacturer will deny that it's important to have accurate data on each lot made —especially when it comes to compliance audits, recall management, and warranty tracking (to name a few). Often, parts used from other suppliers change based on cost or availability, or a manufacturing process changes as a result from an engineering change order (ECO). Regulatory authorities from the United States Food and Drug Administration to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration can also mandate changes in your manufacturing processes, and often do. This is why being able to track and document product changes are vital to remaining compliant.
Using a ledger or spreadsheets in an attempt to track all these changes can be inaccurate, time-consuming, and often wrong, but a robust Enterprise Resource Planning system can do the job simply and affordably. Sophisticated Enterprise Resource Planning systems have incorporated into their solutions many features once found only in Product Lifecycle Management software.
What ERP Tracks and Why
A well-designed Enterprise Resource Planning system allows you to track every aspect of the manufacturing process. ERP software gives your company structured tools that work in a symbiotic fashion to create order out of the chaos of the shop floor in a secure environment.
The features of an ERP system that help track product changes include:
Bill of Materials (BOM)
The ability to build and keep up a BOM is the cornerstone of an ERP system. Cross-referencing which supplier’s products are in which lot speeds up identifying questionable components if a recall is in order.
Approved Manufacturers List (AML)
Solid ERP software plans using your Approved Manufacturers list (AML). Approved manufacturers are vital as using unauthorized sources can violate a federal contract or regulatory authority rules such as the United States Food and Drug Administration.
Warranty Tracking
Enterprise Resource Planning systems allow makers to find defective product designs or defective parts and find replacement parts from approved vendors quickly.
Engineering Change Order (ECO)
Engineering Change Order management depends on all the above components to accurately document manufacturing changes, but the key is being able to manage all of the above tracking information in a single, integrated format.
When regulators mandate changes, an Engineering Change Order manager helps you track all aspects of process changes that need to be implemented to remain compliant. Also, if your product suddenly lags or rejects increase, ECOs can also help you quickly identify changes in your manufacturing process that might have been responsible for those problems.
A robust ERP system will give you real-time access to vendor, sales, inventory, and transaction records, and make coordinating this data with engineering change orders easy. As a result, you'll be able to track and document all product changes to follow best ECO practices—including Engineering Change Requests, Engineering Change Orders, notifications, approvals, and project time.
