I hear this a lot from executives at small and even mid-sized companies. Most are focused on growth, growth, growth – as they should be, especially as competition intensifies.

Many growing businesses eventually hit a wall of operational constraints that limit their ability to deliver goods and services or branch out into new markets. They can’t grow anymore because their business operates on a patchwork of cobbled-together processes, organizational structures, and IT systems that can’t scale and adapt.

It’s easy to think that business simplification is something you worry about after your business gets big enough to be complicated. Big companies are notoriously bogged down with overly cumbersome processes and locked into fragmented legacy systems and inflexible network architectures. But there’s never been a better time for leaders of small manufacturing companies to think about business simplification. Run simple, and you can avoid this costly, frustrating scenario entirely – and keep the doors of innovation and growth open now and in the future. 

Chart a Better Path to Sustainable Growth by Running Simple

From an IT perspective, running simple means saying goodbye to deploying stand-alone apps and patching your infrastructure here and there to meet immediate needs. Because over time, it will become overly complex, rigid, and less effective. 

And that means building a flexible, scalable operational platform that can deliver on your corporate growth strategy. The manufacturing industry will always remain a critical driving force for the global economy. SMEs need to invest in a simple yet intelligent ERP solution that can scale up as the company grows and positively impact end-to-end manufacturing processes. 

An ERP for small business manufacturing can benefit your organization in many ways. With the right ERP software, you can pursue growth while remaining resilient and adapt to market changes swiftly. ERP software allows you to support new business models, sell across multiple channels, and go global with the resources needed to meet regulatory, linguistic, and currency needs with ease. That’s the power of running simple.

And according to a Knowledge Wharton paper, the benefits of business simplification are huge: better customer experiences and retention, higher profits, lower costs, greater employee engagement, and retention, increased operational efficiency…the list goes on. They can also react faster to market changes and customer needs, lighten employee workloads, and accelerate time-to-innovation and time-to-market.

Small and midsize manufacturers face multiple issues including international competition, compliance problems, production downtimes, and increased labor costs. These are just a few of the challenges faced by small manufacturers. 

What are the 10 most significant challenges faced by small manufacturing businesses?

The US produces more than 18% of the world’s goods. Also, in the third quarter of 2020, manufacturing accounted for 11% of the overall US GDP. So, manufacturing is one of the driving forces in the US economy. Still, there are some challenges this sector faces, and ERP is the only solution to streamline and combat it. Below is a list of small manufacturing challenges:

• Changing regulations
• The rising quality of offshore manufacturing 
• Shortage of skilled workers 
• Increased automation
• Rapidly advancing technology
• Smarter customer base
• Lower costs overseas 

ERP is the one-stop solution to overcome all manufacturing challenges. An ERP platform allows you to make critical business decisions with real-time operational visibility and integrated ERP applications in a single database. 

OptiProERP in the Cloud

“57.5% of small businesses strongly agreed on investing in cloud and hosted solutions.”

OptiProERP brings all core manufacturing processes together into one database and delivers a connected system. It allows you to effectively manage such things as the Supply Chain, Accounting, Sales, HR, CRM, Purchasing, and more. 

OptiProERP with SAP Business One for SMEs makes it easy for you to run simple. This ERP for manufacturers is tailored to your business needs and is quick to implement. It’s a solution that will help you succeed now – and as you grow.

For more information about ERP and its benefits for small companies, please visit our website, call us at (949) 340-7262, or email at info@optiproerp.com