Many small and medium-sized businesses struggle with their manufacturing processes because of poor production planning. Poor planning can lead to problems like increased expenses, delays, quality issues, and weak client relationships. Addressing these challenges is important for a manufacturer to remain competitive in the industry.
Advanced and user-friendly production software can help you manage inventory better, reduce costs, and reduce waste.
In this blog post, we will learn about production planning, its importance, and which software would suit your manufacturing requirements the best.
Overview Of Production Software
From purchasing raw materials to delivering final products on time, Indian SMEs follow a lot of processes everyday. Having production management software can help you automate those processes easily. There are various software such as ERPs, CADs, MES, and many more to help with production management. Production software is designed to help you manage, optimize, and automate processes like production scheduling, inventory, and quality control.
Key Features of Manufacturing Production Software
A good manufacturing production management software has many features, like planning and scheduling. It can be easily customized according to your manufacturing business requirements and goals. Below are the key features of production planning software:
1. Real-Time Updates:
- Provides you with the latest updates on production status, equipment performance, and inventory levels.
- Helps you identify errors in manufacturing processes.
2. Automation:
- Automates repetitive tasks in your manufacturing operations, like data entry, machine operations, and workflow management.
- Reduces the chances of human errors and improves production speed within your business.
3. Inventory Management:
- Tracks raw material inventory, production, and finished goods.
- Optimizes inventory levels and reduces carrying costs.
- Helps you avoid stockouts or overstocking of goods.
4. Production Scheduling:
- Helps you plan or schedule production activities to meet delivery deadlines and optimize resource usage.
- Speeds up and adjusts your scheduling in response to requested changes.
5. Data Integration:
- Integrates with other tools like ERP, SCM, and CRM.
- Provides features like data exchange and collaboration across departments.
6. Quality Control:
- Has quality control modules that allow for the tracking of quality checks, non-compliance reporting, and corrective actions.
- Makes sure products meet quality standards and regulatory requirements.
- Improves customer satisfaction by delivering consistent product quality.
Importance Of Production Management Software In Manufacturing
Production software improves processes like faster purchasing of raw materials and production to timely deliveries of finished goods. It can further improve processes in a manufacturing business in the following ways:
1. Effective Production Control
Human errors like distraction, poor design, time pressure, workload, and much more can be reduced with this software. This results in better planning and productivity in all departments within your company.
2. Reduced Costs Of FGs
It can help you reduce the production time of goods. It also helps you purchase raw materials at lower prices. With this, you can plan to manufacture your products in bulk, be consistent with your deliveries, and reduce overall costs easily.
3. Improved Quality Control
It improves quality control through real-time communication across departments. It helps you make sure stored data of products stays organized during product testing. Its capability to integrate ERPs also boosts your product’s quality.
4. Decreased Resource Wastage
Modern production planning software provides real-time data on equipment performance and waste generation. It helps you keep track of all operations, make informed decisions, and use more sustainable waste management systems. This software also provides you with lean manufacturing features like Just-In-Time and Value Stream Mapping.
TranZact: A Production Planning Software
TranZact is a cloud-based production management software specifically designed for small and medium-sized Indian manufacturers. It has an easy and user-friendly interface. With its only 14 day implementation timeline, TranZact can be a great choice for your manufacturing needs.
Below are some features you get in TranZact manufacturing planning software:
- Multi-Level BOMs: The Bill of Materials is an important document that details the list of materials and components. TranZact offers you the multi-level BOM feature to help your product designs, production planning, quality control, cost estimation, and much more. This helps with accurate product costing.
- Process Tracking: Process tracking allows you to improve your product quality and reduce costs. This feature lets you find operation blockages and other processes related to production in one place.
- Accurate Costing: Above mentioned two features gives you insights and helps you make decisions about pricing, check your profits, and reduce costs. TranZact’s net cost features help you calculate your Bill of Materials and production processes. It consistently helps you reduce production costs.
- Scrap Tracking: An effective scrap inventory management system lets you reduce wastage, production costs, pollution, and more. TranZact scrap tracking allows you to easily track scrap wastage and measure its costs accurately.
- Subcontracting: This is a process of outsourcing specific tasks, components, or processes to external suppliers and contractors. It helps reduces your expenses. TranZact subcontracting feature helps you track subcontracting status and measure its cost easily on a single screen.
- Activity Timeline: This feature of TranZact helps with changes and updates. It could be previous Sales Quotation details, comments etc. Using this you there is no missing history of any quotation. You can see it with all the versions. This feature acts like a mini CRM for proactive action steps and planning and follow ups.
- Transaction timeline: This feature provides you end to end visibility of your production process. It is divided into two parts: pre-transaction processes and post order confirmation processes. Using this, for one transaction, you can see all documents can be seen in one place.
Odoo: A Production Planning Software
Odoo is an open source software that offers manufacturers a range of features and optimizes their production planning and control operations. It allows you to optimize resource utilization, organize processes, and meet customer demands. Here are some features of Odoo:
- Material Requirement Planning: This helps you manage materials throughout the production processes. It creates an exact suggestion that indicates factors like lead times, available stocks, and production orders.
- Master Production Schedules: This lets you create and manage detailed production schedules. It also lets you align those schedules with sales forecasts and resource availability to minimize lead time.
- Effective Gantt Charts: Odoo Gantt charts are interactive and offer you a detailed view of work order planning. With this feature, you can easily modify the schedule and resource allocation effectively.
- Dynamic Bills Of Materials: This feature of Odoo lets you create adaptable and flexible BOM structures that match multiple product configurations.
Odoo production software can be a choice for your manufacturing requirements. However, it has a huge drawback. It comes in a complete package of more than 40+ applications, which can be expensive for an SME.
Feature Comparison: Tranzact Vs Odoo Production Planning Tools
Both TranZact and Odoo are effective choices for your production requirements. Below is a table comparison for you to understand their differences better.
| Features | TranZact | Odoo |
|---|---|---|
| Inventory Management | Yes | Yes |
| Business intelligence reports | Yes | Yes |
| System Integrations | Yes | Yes |
| Material requirement planning | Yes | Yes |
| Bill of Material | Yes | Yes |
| CRM | No | Yes |
| Demand Forecasting | No | Yes |
| Sales Quotations | Yes | Yes |
| Scalability | Yes | Yes |
| Subcontracting | Yes | Yes |
| Financial transaction | Yes | Yes |
| Barcode scanning | Yes | No |
| Customer service | Yes | No |
| Finished goods testing | Yes | No |
| Production planning | Yes | Yes |
Pricing Overview: TranZact Vs Odoo
Odoo Production Management Software Pricing
Odoo's production software prices can be quite high compared to other software. It can affect your cost-cutting efforts within the manufacturing business. Have a look at the Odoo pricing plans.
- It offers a paid subscription starting at INR 1 Lakh per year per company for 10 users, which will cost you Rs.2073.44 per month.
- In Odoo, you must purchase all apps in the package, even if you just want the production management system.
- Further, the implementation charges for Odoo are quite high. It is approximately 3x of a 1-year subscription.
- Additional monthly charges are applied to keep your systems running.
- Pricing may also change depending on the customer field number you use.
TranZact Production Management Software Pricing
TranZact offers flexible pricing plans that allow you to choose one that fits your business requirements. With TranZact, there are no hidden or usage-based charges, and you only pay for what you want. Have a look at these plans in detail:
- Small Plan: It is priced at Rs.3,999/month, with features like delivery and payment reminders, advanced lead management, batch tracking, WhatsApp/Tally/Zoho integration, etc.
- Medium Plan: It is priced at Rs. 9,999/month, with features like multi-level bills of material, e-invoicing, document approvals, Google Sheets MIS integration, etc. This plan allows up to 10 users to operate the software.
- Enterprise Plan: It is priced at Rs. 29,999/- per month and has features like advanced business intelligence and reporting tools, easy comm integration, batch tracking (Barcode), etc. With this plan, at least 15 users (if not more) will be allowed to operate the production management software.
Key Consideration For Choosing The Right Manufacturing Production Planning Software
Choosing the right production planning software for manufacturing requires a strong consideration of facts and features. You need to identify your requirements, involve stakeholders, and understand your budget before investing. Here are the most important factors to consider while choosing:
- It should be easy to operate.
- It should align with your manufacturing requirements and processes.
- It should have required functionalities and features.
- It should have a positive user experience.
- It should fit in your budget margin.
TranZact vs Odoo: What’s better?
Both Odoo and TranZact offer effective production software solutions. Odoo’s strength lies in its various features and integration capabilities with other Odoo apps. On the Other hand, TranZact offers real-time inventory tracking, an easy interface, no hidden costs, and more useful features, making it a strong choice for Indian SMEs.
TranZact has a notably lower implementation time of only 14 days and is done 100% online. With TranZact, you can access live chat and free lifetime support on all plans, including retraining of your employees. Choose TranZact today for a reliable and user-friendly solution to all your manufacturing needs.
FAQs
1. How do I know which production management software is best suited for my business?
If production software has a user-friendly interface, aligns with your budget, and has more features, it’s best suited for your manufacturing business. You can also look for integration capabilities, analytics, barcoding, and more features in an ideal production management software.
2. What level of customer support can I expect from TranZact and Odoo?
With Odoo customer support, you can expect relevant material (guidelines, product documentation, and more). They also answer issues that you might encounter in your Odoo database. On the other hand, TranZact offers 24*7 customer support with instant consultation chats, and more. You can call TranZact at +91-83559 00514 or email contactus@letstranzact.com with any issue to get a support team assigned to your needs.
3. How customizable are TranZact production planning software?
TranZact offers manufacturers a range of customization options. Here are some of them:
- Custom inventory parameters
- Barcode and RFID integration
- Customizable Dashboard and reports
- Integrations with other systems
- Custom QC processes
4. Can I integrate TranZact or Odoo with other business systems?
Yes, TranZact can easily be integrated with other business systems like CRM, accounting software etc. Odoo can also be integrated with other business systems. It uses its APIs, built-in apps, and third-party modules to integrate with other systems.
5. What is the primary difference between TranZact and Odoo Production Software?
The primary difference between Odoo and TranZact is that TranZact production software is specially designed for Indian SMEs, and Odoo is a global and expensive solution.
6. What kind of support options are available for TranZact and Odoo users?
TranZact offers effective online resources like help centers and video tutorials, along with training and onboarding support. On the other hand, Odoo offers community, and training support along with others.
