How to Choose the Right MRP Software for your D2C Business

If you are a product-making entrepreneur, you must be constantly looking for ways to improve your business operations and manufacturing processes. Process efficiency is key to profitability, but more often than not small and medium-sized manufacturing businesses find it difficult to choose, adopt, and implement new software.

An MRP software is vital for modern product-making entrepreneurs, but how do you know which solution to choose?

In this article, we’ll look into how an MRP software can help your business be more efficient, clever things to consider before choosing one, and a few examples of such tools.

An MRP (acronym for Manufacturing Resource Planning) software plays an instrumental role in matching the pace of advancement in the business world today. More specifically, MRP software helps product-making business owners to manage:

• Inventory control
• Production planning
• Cost tracking
• Waste
• Resource planning

Management of Resources 

Manufacturers need raw material to be available on time. An MRP software regulates raw material availability to run a smooth manufacturing process. Additionally, it also helps business owners to make informed choices on equipment planning, labour availability vs. requirements, and operational assets.

Real-time Accurate Inventory and Stock Overview

MRP software also helps to stay on top of inventory management from raw materials to finished goods, helping you  to prevent stock-outs. With MRP at hand, business owners don’t need to worry about booking raw materials for manufacturing, effective costing of products, or real-time information on stock levels

Improved Sales Planning

A good MRP system examines the production steps and regulates sales requirements. For example, such a system can help you avoid stockpiling or stockouts. Simply put, you can set up reorder points to optimize your inventory, replenish your stock at the right time, and meet your customers’ demands without going out of stock or increasing your holding costs.

Data Management and Documentation

Huge amounts of data are sorted by the software in a short amount of time. Manual IT operations for data processing are cut down to a negligible amount, thanks to MRP.

Improves Production Planning

Sometimes, ample resources and raw materials are not available. This can cause a stoppage in the production line. That’s where MRP comes into the scene. MRP reconfigures the whole production line according to the materials and resources available. This way, your MRP software can successfully help you keep the production line running.

Saves time and money

By managing such important tasks at hand, in a much efficient manner, MRP saves a lot of time. It’s well known that “time is money”, but in the manufacturing world, time management and efficiency is especially important. Automation is also responsible for the ability to save costs, which can be subsequently reinvested into the business for improved performance.

How to choose the right MRP software

The real question is how one can decide on which MRP software to choose. With the plethora of information and tools available on the market it becomes increasingly difficult to choose the right tools, without overspending or missing out on functionality. Here are 3 clever questions to ask yourself before deciding to implement a specific software.

• What type of challenges can you solve?

MRP software is designed to cater to multiple needs and offer solutions to a variety of problems. Thus, all MRP solutions out there are not the same. Some focus on aspects like inventory management, while others focus on manufacturing processes; so solutions are cloud-based, while others are on-premises; some solutions offer a wide array of functionalities, while others are more specific; some are on the more expensive end of the spectrum, while others are affordable even for start-ups.

What’s important here is to look at your specific business case. Always choose a software which caters to your particular problems and requirements. That said, it’s essential to identify your business challenges, make a list of priorities, and see where an MRP software could help. Some examples may include:

• Stock Record: For keeping a live inventory at hand. This could help in tracking the stocks to avoid running out of raw material.
• Production Planning: For mapping out every step in your production line. It could help you avoid errors and run processes as smoothly as possible.
• Costs: For regulating the costs of raw material along with manufactured goods. This could be effective in calculating buying-to-selling ratios to track any profits/losses.

• How much will it cost to use and to implement?

Here you have to consider if you want to go for a SaaS (Software as a Service) software or you prefer on-premises solutions.

SaaS (Software as a service) is based on ‘cloud’ technology. The developer’s servers are in control of the software product in this case. The data is much safer since it is also being stored with the developers. SaaS allows payment to be made monthly and your software gets regular updates and improved functionality. In general, this type is considered to be more cost effective.

On-premises software is a kind of “boxed” solution which gives the buyer full access to all components of the software. However, the maintenance of this kind of software rests entirely on the buyer. Updates are done manually or for a fee. Although it offers full, local, access to all of the software’s features, it’s still more costly than cloud solutions, and it usually requires more resources for implementation and learning.

• Is it easy to use or does it require additional resources for staff training?

If you don’t have the possibility to allocate significant resources for implementation and training, you should consider an MRP software that is easy to install and easy to use.

Such a type of MRP software is always desirable because it makes the user experience dynamic and interesting. Visual dashboards, ease of use, real-time information, and stellar customer support are mandatory features for any MRP software worth considering.

• Does it integrate with existing business tools?

Modern manufacturing businesses have several sales channels, such as brick-and-mortar stores, e-commerce sites, or market places. They also use accounting tools, shipping software, reporting and CRM systems. Being able to integrate your MRP software with the tools you currently use or plan to use will make running your business much easier, as you’ll have access to all important information from a single dashboard.

Conclusion

Choosing an MRP software to implement in your business is not a piece of cake. However, if you take a good look at your business’ challenges, your goals, and available resources, you’ll be able to create and prioritize a list of problems you need help with from an MRP software. 

After researching different tools available on the market, narrow it down to three solid potential solutions and make a trial account. Then, investigate each options’ functionality, pricing, and support, and you’ll soon be able to make an informed decision.