Third Gear – Automate for Efficiency

Sometimes accuracy and efficiency go hand in hand.  An example of this is the elimination of using paper or manual data collection with batch data entry later.  By converting a process to have on-the-spot data entry, the task can be completed faster and several causes of error are eliminated.  A common term for this is “real-time”.  When a system operates in real-time, business rules can be enforced on-the-spot, when and where the work gets done.

All data is instantaneously shared with the central system. With central data being immediately available and accurate, mobile transactions can be validated field by field to inhibit errors from being entered into the system. The need to re-key data is eliminated and there are far fewer errors to back out of the system.

On-The-Go Functionality

Acumatica was built for the cloud and for the mobile workforce,

acumatica mobile

  • it runs on any device using a browser,
  • it has responsive, also called adaptive, design, meaning the screen resizes based on the device being used
  • Real work can be performed using any device without learning a new user interface
  • Acumatica’s mobile toolkit makes it easy to display screens on an iOS or Android phone. This maximizes productivity when users have minimal ‘screen-estate’ and takes advantage of phone features such as cameras, GPS tracking, and phone applications such as maps.

Often, the most cost-effective way to improves your processes is to make better use of the system you already own.

The Acumatica Distribution Edition Warehouse Management option includes workflows made for real-time material handling processes.  Users are guided, step by step through common inventory transactions.  Workflows can streamline the use of your forms to comply with your business processes and requirements. Business users can customize forms by adding new fields in multiple forms in each of the modules without a programmer.

Notifications can be created to automate communications with users. Automatically send emails, push notifications, event reminders, activities, and tasks. Users can view all documents requiring their approval on a single form and set up personalized preferences.

Notification Example: A B2B distribution company running Acumatica has created numerous notifications to keep sales reps and managers up to date on order statuses.  For example, when orders are shipped, sales reps receive e-mails to let them know.

It is critical that the system matches the process. For example, in processes where multiple items or pallets are transacted together, the mobile application must allow items to be transacted in exactly that way. If users must work around the system, they will make more mistakes.  A good rule of thumb is to have the material handlers enter exactly what they do at the time they do it and to have the system confirm success before they move on to the next transaction.

Acumatica’s platform is unique.  Unlike most legacy and early cloud applications …

  • All Acumatica functionality and customizations are designed to interact with other applications via web-services.
  • Acumatica allows you to modify all business logic and does not charge hidden fees for external connections.

Web Services Example: A manufacturer of consumer goods wrote a web services integration to allow consumers to register product returns on a company website, which would automatically create the return in Acumatica against which the warehouse would receive the returned goods.  This automation eliminated the frequent manual transcription of data from the commerce website to the ERP.

When your warehouse’s process requirements exceed the capabilities of your ERP, you can enhance your system in one of two ways – build or buy.

The Acumatica xRP platform is a versatile architectural framework and application development platform using standard web technologies and development languages.  You can modify your business logic using the platform-tools or a separate integrated development environment.

xRP Example: A manufacturer of printed banners and trade show booths uses the Acumatica kit function to document the components of each custom banner.  They automated the processing of the kit assembly transactions to improve the efficiency of their fulfillment.

Building customizations to improve specific tasks is cost effective for some situations.  For requirements with broader scope, there are likely many purchase options available off-the-shelf that are already designed to work with Acumatica.  Some are written in the xRP framework, but more are written as separate applications and have web service integrations or import/export integrations to synchronize data with your ERP.

With physical processes, accuracy, and efficiency in place, it’s time to consider making use of the data that is collected with every ERP transaction.

Fourth Gear – Learn from Business Intelligence

Many companies never get out of third gear. They may be operating accurately and efficiently, but they haven’t been able to upshift into fourth gear – using the data that they already collect.  Every ERP transaction made is stored in the database.  This can be a treasure trove of information that can help make better business decisions.

Analytics Example: A third party logistics operation was being penalized by clients for picking errors.  They analyzed the timestamps on every pick transaction to determine that the errors came when pickers were multi-tasking and working ahead of the system.  They implemented a simplified user interface to keep the physical picking and the ERP pick transactions in sync, resulting in more than an 80% reduction in errors.

Business intelligence is all about using that data.  Your ERP system is the central repository of all financial and most transactional data.  Acumatica includes self-service BI tools that allow you to gather your own data into list form and then apply filters and conditional formatting.  This data is then available for use in reports, pivot tables and dashboards without the need to leave the security of your ERP. Of course, data can be exported as spreadsheets or shared using APIs for use in external BI systems too.

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