If you look around the modern day office, whether you work in sales, HR or as a manufacturer on the factory floor, you will see that paper is taking a smaller and smaller role in our professional lives.
The decline of paper is especially noticeable in engineering and manufacturing industries. Processes are becoming more automated to meet the growing demand for speed and efficiency.
When you consider in detail all the elements that go into a manufacturing setup, then you will know how much paper it can take to run such an operation. Using paper to form planning systems can have a lot of negative consequences.
Many people are now choosing to use a paperless MRP system. This is part of a drive to cut their carbon footprint and save money on material costs and labour.
Defining Paperless Manufacturing
Paperless manufacturing refers to process of running operations through automated forms of digital data capture. There isn’t any need to use of paper materials at all. Instead of using paper, employees will see data on display units, in-plant screens as well as mobile devices and much more. Essentially any system that involves using technology without the need for paper is “paperless.”
Generally there are a lot of positive implications to using a paperless MRP system. For one, it helps to avoid the chance of manual data entry inaccuracies and speeds up many processes previously completed by a human. These are now now run automatically.
Paperless environments can spread as far and wide as required. Organisations can be taken to the next level as all departments and even supply chains can be involved with the paperless mrp software in one form or the other.
For paperless manufacturing to work however, your business still needs to have an organised and effective team to review the reports being produced and act accordingly. There are lots of benefits to paperless manufacturing. Integration into your business won’t be seamless unless your staff are willing to adopt it fully. Therefore switching MRP software to the right system is vital if the new solution is to be a success.
Get A High Quality Solution At A Lower Cost
The quality of your processes and output is dependant on information being delivered accurately and timely. Data is critical, and so the quicker you can assess certain situations within your setup the better. Paperless MRP systems are designed with quality in mind, enforcing it at each stage of a manufacturing process, output is faster, so the response of your team will be faster as a result
How Will This Work?.
During implementation custom paper MRP systems are designed with automated responses to certain scenarios applicable to your business, to control quality without the need for human intervention. This will speed up processes, make them more accurate and reduce labour costs.
More Time For Innovation
Whilst there isn’t a single reason why a business may or may not be innovative, having a paperless MRP system certainly helps. It gives yourself and your employees space to share and collaborate on new ideas, something that is very difficult to achieve with a paper based solution.
Through MRP software, employees can span across functions, departments and even locations to see data in real time; revising and editing this data and adding their own ideas will nature it and make it grow. This type of solution is much more conducive to innovation than using paper to pass ideas around the plant.
Efficiency & Productivity Increase
As a result of a paperless MRP system being implemented, you will very quickly see increases in your team’s productivity and the efficiency of their output. The finest details of jobs, from planning to research to completion all run seamlessly with features like automated status reports and active job planning helping to the lead the way.
With such systems in place, there is no need for scrolling through reams of paper as everything you need will be available on screen, in an up-to-date format. This means that employees will have more free time to focus on the more important manual tasks they need to carry out to get jobs done.
Take Away The Pain Of Nuisance Paper
Whilst reducing paper usage may not be on the top of the priority list to cut from your overheads, it certainly should be something to consider as it really does add up!
When you think about the common processes in manufacturing you quickly realise how much paper gets used. Reports, routing sheets, orders, schedules, jobs lists and instructions all must be printed in a paper based process. Then there’s the other factors to consider like storing the used paper, and ensuring that enough paper is ordered and delivered.
It’s not just paper though, you will also save money on printers and ink which is quite a costly material depending on your setup.
If you aim to eliminate paper from your process, you will find that a paperless MRP system will help you save money, energy and your plant will also look cleaner and more organised as a result.
Looking To Demo A Paperless MRP System
If you feel that a paperless MRP system could benefit your business, then contact our experts today for free advice and a demo of our innovative system, which is built with SMEs in mind. Our team worked in manufacturing for over 20 years before we created our own system, so we fully understand the requirements of modern manufacturing enterprises when it comes to resource planning.