Production and inventory management are two spheres of a manufacturing enterprise that involve most of the back and forth, from getting quality checks done with the assistance of management to raising purchase orders, and getting vendors onboard. A lot goes on at the manufacturing company's backend, making it essential for it to opt for a manufacturing production planning software.
As an SME, with markets becoming more competitive and your business scaling up, automation solutions like the best production planning software can significantly help your business to minimize production delays.
In this blog, we will walk you through the basic features and functions of a production planning and control software, and share the best software alternatives available in the market for production planning. So keep reading!
Best Production Planning Software
As an SME entrepreneur, it's important to know all the details of the software and how it can benefit your core business activities. Go through the below details of the top production planning software and make an informed decision:
TranZact
A digital transformation platform that focuses on automating and integrating all the processes of businesses over a single platform.
TranZact is a cloud-based production planning software for small and medium scale companies that can automate your entire manufacturing process including inventory management, material requirements planning and production planning.
With the help of the best production planning software and scheduling modules, TranZact allows you to manage multilevel Bill of Material and testing requirements in real time.
Features:
- It offers live, end-to-end production planning and inventory management solutions.
- It allows seamless collaboration with suppliers, buyers and vendors.
- It allows easy management of quotations and purchase orders.
- It also offers Tally integration for accounting and Excel integration for ease of business.
- TranZact is a production planning software for a small business, specifically.
Pros:
- A production management software like TranZact, comes with advanced functionalities like business intelligence dashboard and reporting to help in visualizing production, demand and sales analyses to plan production accordingly.
- Streamlining the production planning process becomes easy with TranZact's multilevel Bill of Material tool.
- With the best ERP software for production planning in 2023, like TranZact, you can ensure timely production cycles for easy conversion of raw materials to finished goods.
- TranZact's simple to use interface ensures that your production planning system is adaptive, insightful & effortless!
As a free production planning and scheduling software, TranZact's base modules are free forever so you can start exploring and upgrade only when you're ready.
ERP Next
ERPNext is an open-source software offering several key functionalities.
Features:
- It offers a dashboard for activity management, distribution management, inventory management and tracking.
- It also offers invoice management and processing solutions.
Pros:
- It provides real-time notifications of inventory shortages.
- It offers transparent order management solutions.
Cons:
- The software lacks simplicity as most of its approvals and permission processes are complex.
- Getting upgrades in customized versions is fairly difficult.
iON
iON is a pre-configured software to increase production efficiency for mid-sized businesses.
Features:
- It offers activity management dashboards and data visualization.
- It also enables inventory management and tracking with integration capabilities.
Pros:
- It helps you to reduce regular overheads of your business.
- Along with other modules, you get job and labor tracking modules for better human resource planning.
Cons:
- The price of the full version is relatively high.
- You might require to host workshops for your workforce to get them habituated to using this platform.
Oracle Netsuite
It offers diverse solutions to streamline your business process including procurement, production and more.
Features
- It offers features such as order-to-cash, audit trails and workflow management.
- It also provides financial management and order management.
Pros:
- It offers designated workflow creation and human resource management.
- It provides warehouse and inventory management solutions.
Cons
- Packages are expensive and customizations get even more out of the budget.
- Technical support provided by the platform is limited to services.
EPPS PRO
It is an integrated solution created primarily to cater to complex business requirements.
Features:
- It offers material management and production management solutions.
- It also provides administration management, sales and distribution management.
Pros:
- The software offers both on-premise and cloud-based deployments.
- Additional features like production cost management, advance planning system, and order management are provided.
Cons:
- The workflow is not as seamless as it should be.
- The pricing of this software is quote-based.
What Is Production Planning Software?
A production planning software is an automated tool for charting out the manufacturing processes of a company by focusing on both customer-dependent and customer-independent processes.
Digitized production planning techniques ensure seamless organization of production workflows, inventory and resources, in a way that maximizes one's production capacity with cost control. In simpler terms, it ensures that every essential requirement is met to initiate production, within scheduled timelines and as per customer orders.
By automating in-depth production planning across stages, a production planning software brings greater efficiency and reduces overhead expenditures.
Key Features of Production Planning Software
Although there are various types of production planning tools, consider the following features before you shortlist a production planning and control software for your business:
Integration
The best production planning software allows seamless integration with other functions such as sales and inventory to increase productivity significantly. Seamless integration across departments enables ease in production plan monitoring and tracking.
Inventory integration helps to avoid sudden stock out and maintain minimum inventory levels to eliminate chances of delayed productions.
Demand Forecasting
By providing data-driven insights into the complete production process, a production planning software supports demand forecasting and controls excess production.
Identification of defects
When the entire production cycle is planned ahead of time with a production planning software it ensures timely testing and detection of errors across production stages. This is a key feature of a production planning software as it enables higher production efficiency for prompt order deliveries.
Multilevel Bill of Material
Interlinking different levels of Bill of Material for all finished goods eliminates instances of duplicate processes. This equips lean production cycles, effective Bill of Material management and material requirement overview.
Benefits of Production Planning Software
By choosing the best production planning software in India, you will be able to significantly minimize manual errors and accelerate production. Let's look at some of the key benefits and advantages of production planning and control:
- You can avoid recurrent delays and ensure timely deliveries along with balanced demand and supply of the product.
- An efficient production planning software linked with inventory, will reduce overheads by giving you clear insights into what restocks are necessary and which ones you should avoid.
- It empowers to bring efficiency back with the help of a schedule production automation system.
- Production transparency is enhanced with the help of reporting features and dashboards that accurately present important numbers to you within seconds.
Best Production Planning Software - TranZact
As the best software for production planning, TranZact provides you with important insight and helps you to determine how much raw material has been estimated to be used and how much is actually used.
Its comprehensive multilevel BOM functionalities assist production managers to control diverse production stages like, planned, pending and work in progress, on a centralized platform.
To streamline production planning in manufacturing, it enables easy tracking of production orders and work orders, so that the entire team knows the status of each order. These advantages enable an SME business owner to maximize production capacity with reduced operational costs.
Simplify Your Production Planning Journey in No Time
A production planning software is an essential requirement for small businesses as it can bring many benefits to the company, such as streamlined workflows, improved productivity and scalability.
However, the smart thing to do would be to choose an end-to-end business automation tool with a dedicated production planning tool that is integrated with inventory, sales, and testing functions. An integrated solution like TranZact helps you to multiply business efficiency, without investing in different software for each purpose.
FAQs on Best Production Planning Software
1. Which is the best manufacturing planning software in India?
Choosing the most appropriate manufacturing planning software calls for a strategy that can not go wrong. We recommend that you try a free software for production planning and control, so that you don't regret it.
TranZact's production planning tool is easy to use and affordable. It has several base and advanced features, and you can try all of its base features for free, over an unlimited period.
2. Are there any limitations to production planning and control?
Limitations to production planning and control arise when you opt for a system that only focuses on resolving a single problem, i.e., production planning and scheduling. Tools with dis-integrated functions lead to redundancies and delays.
What businesses need instead is a comprehensive solution like TranZact that effectively caters to all the needs of a manufacturing business including quotations, inventory, sales, purchase, accountin and more!
3. Which is the best inventory tracking software for SME manufacturers?
One of the best inventory tracking software for SME manufacturers is TranZact. It is integrated with sales and production modules, and provides insights on real-time inventory movement to ensure effective inventory control. TranZact is a free production planning software with base features available for an unlimited free period.
