5 Manufacturing Software That Will Actually Make Your Life Better
With all the hype around digitization, Industry 4.0, and how technology is making our lives easier in so many ways, it can actually be rather confusing and overwhelming to sort through all the noise and find the best technological solutions for you and your factory. When it comes to manufacturing software, there are lots of types and options. We’ve put together this list of 5 categories of manufacturing software that aim to improve your efficiency and productivity.
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software: ERP is the manufacturing software that you probably hear about the most, and if you are only going to invest in one type of manufacturing software, ERP should be the one. It’s a system designed to help you manage your entire business in one place, including product planning, production processes, financials, and sales. Using a database, this type of manufacturing software allows you to track all of your resources, orders, and business activities in one place that can be accessed and used cross-departmentally so that it is easy to share information.
- Quality Management Software (QMS): QMS is a manufacturing software that helps you track the quality both of the products you produce and the experience your customers have. You can use this type of manufacturing software on its own or – as is more commonly done – it can integrate with your ERP. A QMS system allows you to keep track of inventory inspections, reports of complaints or defective products and the actions taken to correct them, and also provides a place to store any regulatory guidelines. Companies use QMS to audit their entire production process and look for ways to improve it.
- Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) Software: PLM manages all of your data through the entire development process of a product from the creation of the original idea through manufacturing, delivery, and servicing of the product. This type of manufacturing software is used across industries and promotes productivity and collaboration while also leaving room for creativity.
- Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) Software: For any factory with more complex operations, this type of manufacturing software that helps you figure out how best to allocate everything from raw materials to human manpower to best use your production capacity in order to meet the demands for your products. APS software is used to track the availability of raw materials, create production schedules, optimize production schedules, and share information company-wide.
- Performance Monitoring Software: Performance monitoring software provides you with a birds-eye view of everything that is happening with all of the machines on your production line. This tool in the manufacturing software toolbox gathers data from each machine and analyzes exactly how that machine is performing – is it working at capacity, is it experiencing downtime, etc. This information is then used to quickly identify and deal with any issues that arise.
This is not an exhaustive list of all of the manufacturing software out there, but it’s a good overview of some of the key tools that can help your factory get more organized, more efficient and more productive.