With manufacturing one of the key sectors we address, it’s a good time to take a closer look at the MYOB Advanced Manufacturing Solution. That’s because this popular midsize ERP solution has a ‘Manufacturing Edition’ which provides you with everything required for the most efficient and visible operations possible. And that, of course, means accuracy, complete and easy access to all information, a more competitive business, and a healthier bottom line.
For starters, and for those who don’t already know, MYOB Advanced is a ‘localised for ANZ’ version of Acumatica. Founded in 2008, Acumatica is an American vendor, and it has more than 6,000 implementations around the world.
This is worth knowing because Acumatica is well proven as a provider of flexible ‘born in the cloud’ software which is deployed as a cloud service (on AWS or Azure), on premise or hosted.
With the exclusive rights for Acumatica, MYOB has rebranded it as Advanced, and localised the software for our legal and regulatory environment. To great success, as it happens, because there are more than 1100 implementations of Advanced across both sides of the Tasman.
Specialised manufacturing
What’s made Acumatica, and of course MYOB Advanced, so successful is its comprehensive capability as an integrated ERP solution for the mid-market.
But when it comes to the manufacturing version, there are three specific modules you need to know about, and which help you take complete control of your operations.
They are:
- Bill of Materials and Routing
The BOM is the bomb because it serves as the framework for planning, which is so central to the Manufacturing value proposition. Effectively, the BOM serves as the definition of your products, including all components and inputs, and how it is made.
BOM does clever stuff like listing components and quantities, and linking them to specific production steps, defining those steps with instructions included, rolls up costs from inventory, tooling and fixed/variable overheads into finished product cost, and maintain multiple BOM revisions for the same product. - Materials Requirements Planning
MRP, as the name implies, manages inventory and other resources so you have a clear view on your raw materials and other inputs. This information is fundamental in being sure production meets demand, and it’s why we call it ‘the smarts’ of MYOB Advanced Manufacturing Edition.
Among its features is calculation of the required quantities of finished goods to be produced, and the amounts of raw materials required. It does this by taking inputs from sales orders, inventory, and demand forecasts.
It’s flexible, too, letting you select items to be purchased from suppliers, or internally produced, and provides transfer recommendations if inventory is detected in other locations (yes, it works across multiple sites). - Production Management
Production is where the rubber hits the road and Production Management puts you in the driver’s seat by tracking and controlling manufacturing processes, providing the information necessary to manage schedules and consistently hit production targets and delivery dates.
Features of the module include scheduling production orders to meet demand, tracking actual labour and materials volumes, identifying critical production materials, and production performance monitoring. Production Management maintains an audit trail of all events and integrates with Lot and Serial tracking.
What this means in practice is that MYOB Advanced Manufacturing Edition integrates manufacturing, inventory management and accounting. It’s a single view which helps you manage everything from raw materials to production, take control of the manufacturing process, maintain revisions, and track the financials. It’s ‘one version of the truth’, as we like to say in this industry!
The availability of reliable and accurate data, in turn, is the basic material for doing things better. After all, with that information, you’re equipped to make real time, data driven decisions, ensuring your business is set up for growth.
Now, just a note. MYOB Advanced Manufacturing is ideal for medium-sized manufacturers across Australia and New Zealand, which is why so many have chosen it for their operations. However, in some cases, where your manufacturing is concentrated into specific projects – for example, boats or houses within gated communities – and each job is treated as a complete separate entity, then Job Costing may work better for you.
In these instances, we recommend the MYOB Advanced Construction Edition rather than Advanced Manufacturing.
One final thing about MYOB Advanced Manufacturing: it’s rapidly deployed AND affordable. You could be manufacturing better in as little as three months.
If you’re keen to find out more about how Verde can help take your manufacturing into the 21st century, do get in touch.
