Product and Technology Management

An effective control and management system is essential for the manufacturing companies. However, without integrating different software packages, it may not be possible for the manufacturing companies to achieve its objectives. In the concerned case, PPQ manufacturing company intends to implement materials requirement planning (MRP), capacity requirement planning (CRP) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) for enhancing the efficiency of its business. This report focuses on recommending some software packages for performing the above mentioned functions.   

Materials Requirement Planning (MRP)

MRP is a production planning, scheduling and inventory management system that helps an organization to manage its manufacturing processes (Gupta, 2010). It helps a manufacturing company to develop sales forecasting for the upcoming years. Some of the popular MRP software have been discussed as under: 

NetSuite Software

NetSuite Software provides a cloud-based solution to the manufacturing firms for managing its production orders and stock level. Moreover, this software performs other important activities such as designing the bill of materials, managing the work order processes and barcode procedures (Software advice, 2017a). 

Pros

This software is suitable for any manufacturing company, irrespective of its sizes. Managing diversified functions such as marketing, CRM and accounting is the major advantage of this software. It can be customized in accordance to the business requirement. Easy identification of the reorder point, has enhanced the user-friendliness of NetSuite. Furthermore, stability of the integrated add-on apps, understandable processes and languages and navigational tools can also be considered as major benefits of this software. It is compliant with the global accounting rules (Software advice, 2017a).

Cons

Manufacturing side for NetSuite is often criticized due to its difficulty level in terms of operating. Time racking system for this software is ineffective. There is no in-built payroll in this software. PPQ Parts manufacturing company cannot purchase individual modules of this software (Software Advice, 2017a).

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Fishbowl Manufacturing Software

This software provides an automated platform to the manufacturing companies to perform its MRP activities. It is widely popular in the manufacturing industry due to its efficiency in managing raw materials, quoting, ordering and purchasing processes (Software Advice, 201b).. 

Pros

The managers of PPQ can use different links that can be used between the modules for procuring information. The overall organization of this software can be highly beneficial for PPQ to control its manufacturing functionalities. Capability of accommodating with the specific business needs is one of the major advantage of Fishbowl software. With the help of this software, the inventory managers of PPQ can track the stock levels in an easier manner and in a short span of time. Customer support system of this software can be useful for PPQ managers to resolve any issues (Software Advice, 201b).

Cons

Inability of the software to schedule the materials planning automatically is a major disadvantage of Fishbowl. This software does not support the customization of reports and also cannot be integrated with other software such as accounting program. Prolonged time (almost 2 months) for setting up the software can affect the operation of PPQ. Highly expensive plugins of Fishbowl can augment the operational expenses for the company significantly. The managers will not be able to edit any names or numbers in the main screens of this software on the vendor or customer module. The grayed out areas of the main screens will be troublesome for the managers of PPQ to read (Software Advice, 201b). 

Capacity Requirement Planning (CRP)

CRP enables the companies to set the production target. It is particularly important for the small and medium scale enterprises to implement CRP for keeping up with the changes in the supply and demand (Gupta, 2010). 

MIE Trak Pro Software

MIE Trak Pro has emerged as one of the most effective, industry specific software for the manufacturing companies to meet the objectives of CRP.  This software can be integrated with the manufacturing system of PPQ for streamlining the important processes such as scheduling (Software Advice, 2017c). Some of the vital merits and demerits of this software have been mentioned as follows:

Pros

With the help of this software, the production managers of PPQ can easily integrate between different modules. For instance, it can help the managers during the transition from quote to sales order or from work order to invoicing. Sound customer support system ensures upgradation of the software and solve other problems during the implementation time. Affordable price of this software can be a huge advantage for PPQ. Moreover, automatic and coherent workflow from one function to another can fasten the operational processes of the company (Software Advice, 2017c). 

Cons

Prior to the installation of this software, PPQ requires to train its staff and it may incur additional expenses. Most importantly, some of the features of this software may fail to deliver the desired results during higher volume production runs. Redundancy in using the save and paste options can be irritating for the users of this software. At times, the speed of this software can abruptly reduce (Software Advice, 2017c).

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Finesse CRP

Finesse CRP can also be a useful software for PPQ to accomplish the functions of CRP.

Pros

This software has been specifically customized for meeting the requirement of the manufacturing firms. With the help of this software, the scheduling of the tasks become easier and the same can enhance the operational efficiency of PPQ.

Cons

PPQ needs to invest in the trainings for the managers, prior to the installation of Finesse CRP, due to its high complexity. Moreover, Finesse CRP software is costlier than MIE Trak Pro (Gu, 2015). 

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) 

ERP collaborates the important areas of the business such as scheduling, purchasing, inventory, sales, marketing, finance and human resources of an organization (Gupta, 2010). It procures real time information and makes it available to the other divisions of the business. Some of the popular ERP software and their pros and cons have been discussed as under: 

Abas ERP

For the small to medium size manufacturing companies, Abas ERP can be an effective software. It allows the manufacturers to browse products, place the quotes and orders with ease (Software Advice, 2017d). 

Pros

The file icon of Abas ERP software allows the flow of purchase order to the users with the least effort and time. This software will help the managers of PPQ to link with the other databases for acquiring the relevant information. With the help of this software, the users can easily drag the required information into an excel spreadsheet. It has enhanced the user-friendliness of the software. It offers enough scopes of flexibility and customization to the users (Software Advice, 2017d). 

Cons

Editing in this software is difficult for the users. The payment module for this software is not user-friendly. In some of the cases, the bugs present in this software can result in a system wide crash. As the source coding is written in German, the managers of PPQ can face problems to edit the programming codes (Software Advice, 2017d). 

Deskera Software

Deskera ERP includes important features such as purchase management, sales and billing management and develop customized financial report (Software Advice, 2017e).

Pros

This software is highly reliable as far as managing multiple applications at a time is concerned. Value added features of this software can be beneficial for the managers of ERP. Most importantly, high-end customization of this software can be a major benefit for the users of PPQ. Customer support system of this software is highly effective (Software Advice, 2017e).

Cons

Graphical interface of this software is not up to the standards. It needs high consumption of efforts and time for the users to operate in the present graphical interface system of Deskera (Software Advice, 2017e).

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Recommendations

The report offered six software for implementing MRP, CRP and ERP in PPQ. The pros and cons for each of the software have been mentioned in this report. Based on this discussion, it can be recommended that the management of PPQ can select either NetSuite or Fishbowl software for implementing MRP. Both of these software are extremely efficient enough to perform its task. Most importantly, these software are affordable for a small scale firm like PPQ. However, in CRP, MIE Trak Pro can be more suitable for PPQ, than Finesse. Due to the high cost, it may not be feasible for PPQ to install Finesse. In the case of ERP, Deskera software involves insignificant cons. In contrast, the other ERP software, Abas ERP is not as user-friendly as Deskera. Therefore, installation of Deskera is recommended for the implementation of ERP.