What once was considered a technology trend, cloud ERP is becoming a strategic choice for manufacturers who want to compete on a global scale without having to revamp the entire business. Cloud ERP now reaches all the way from materials in the supply chain to the employees and equipment on the plant floor to the hands of the customer. This connectivity enables everyone in the enterprise the ability to share information, create better processes, and streamline operations.
For Quatro Composites, a contract component manufacturer and developer offering a full line of services for advanced composite structures, cloud ERP was a way to not only connect but also collaborate better to handle growth and expansion.
Connecting the Manufacturing Enterprise
Quatro had expanded eight times in ten years to accommodate 25-50 percent year-over-year growth, with the largest expansion in 2012 when the company doubled its manufacturing space. The company’s inherited legacy ERP system couldn’t keep up with the demands for visibility into operational performance. After an exhaustive search, the company found a manufacturing cloud ERP solution that would give everybody access to critical information needed to ensure the highest levels of performance, including employees in remote offices and on mobile devices.
Collaborating on Operational Efficiency
Connectivity enables levels of collaboration for the company that were previously not feasible. For example, the company’s customer requirements for metallic to composite part conversions must be readily available for engineering to complete product design. The transfer process from engineering to production is equally important. Customers and prospects want to see a product prototype, a “first article” that has come from the production line and is representative of the final design specifications, as well as the manufacturing process that will be used in mass production of the part. Connectivity with the cloud enables Quatro to define the transfer process as a workflow so that the process is well defined and efficient, speeding the time it takes to get from development to prototype to final production quality without the limits of geographical boundaries.
Gaining Visibility into Production Performance
Now Quatro collects as much production data as possible, centralizes it within the cloud ERP system and makes it visible across the company. Rather than creating multiple spreadsheets to capture parts specifications, for example, the data is easily accessible and searchable. With a coordinated effort across multiple departments—including engineering, development, and accounting—a closed-loop process has been designed to enable users across the organization to track progress and savings for continuous improvement for reducing scrap.
See how a manufacturing cloud ERP helps you connect and collaborate. Get the white paper: Why the Cloud is More Than Hot Air for the Manufacturing Enterprise.
