More opportunities for the metalworking industry with SAP Business One

Difficult access to high quality raw materials and dumping of cheap imports combined with international trade agreements and tariff increases, the development of Industry 4.0, which integrates the machine, its operator and ERP into a single entity while at the same time there is a shortage of skilled labor due to its aging, are just some of the many challenges facing today’s manufacturing leaders in the metalworking industry.

To remain competitive and grow their businesses, metal fabricators must reassess and reevaluate their operations. The ultimate goal of metal fabricators should be to simplify the manufacturing process with increased efficiency while increasing profits.

SAP Business One offers a special solution for companies that process metals. It is a fully integrated business management solution with a variety of options, such as simple-to-complex assembly, custom or stock manufacturing, and mixed options.

SAP Business One – ERP solution for companies that are involved in metal processing

1. Faster and more efficient product quotes

With SAP Business One steel estimating software, you can quickly calculate the exact product cost, selling price and margin calculation for easy cost estimating.

Compare your planned and actual production and purchasing costs to better calculate your margins and profitability. To complete the picture, we can integrate third-party solutions using a built-in tool to make the quoting process much easier.

2. Optimize your resources

Manufacturers’ resources need to be optimized to maximize production and reduce changeovers and setups. To cope with increasing demand, machine manufacturers need to gather real-time shop floor information.

With SAP Business One solutions for steel production and processing, you can calculate capacity planning and initial delivery dates with finite planning ahead.

Combined with advanced planning functionality, you can schedule material availability and capacity together to calculate the expected delivery date.

3. Managing and coordinating the work of external subcontractors

Subcontract manufacturing is supported as a standard in the SAP Business One solution for metal fabrication and recycling. You can define an external process in the product specification as buying a service (capacity), or buying an assembly (free inventory release).

Using advanced planning and scheduling tools, you can balance supply and demand, reduce inventory levels, and improve the management and cooperation of external subcontractors.

4. Reduce the obsolescence of your inventory

For metalworking, real-time inventory and accuracy of known materials is critical to support production order planning and forecasting of purchase items. This is especially true if some of your suppliers have components that take a long time to deliver or manufacture.

SAP Business One supply and demand management balances your inventory and ensures that the right components in the right quantities are in stock at the right time. This means reducing inventory aging associated with product changes that positively impact your financial bottom line.

5. Achievement of industry quality standards

The metalworking industry is still operating manual paper-based quality control systems. This offline quality system is a waste of valuable time and resources every time you need to conduct a quality audit.

Quality Control allows businesses to determine what, when and which products are inspected by providing complete auditing and electronic documentation of quality control procedures and processes.

6. Real-time control of your business

You have set up your business to make money. The lack of transparency of your business at your fingertips prevents you from making timely decisions. If you don’t know where to improve your business, it limits your ability to grow.

SAP Business One’s metal fabrication solution provides a wide range of functionality to track every important aspect of your production planning. Our solution allows you to quickly create dashboards and define key performance indicators that will provide real-time information.