Browse Business Software Categories
Read the latest Manufacturing software articles, news and reviews.
S&OP and IBP in Manufacturing ERP: Aligning Sales, Operations and Finance on One Plan
By Nathan Rowan | Dec 08 2025
Why Manufacturers Need More Than Operational Planning Daily production schedules and MRP runs are important, but they don’t answer bigger questions: Can we support that large new customer? What if demand drops in ... Read More
Make-to-Order and Engineer-to-Order Manufacturing: How ERP Handles One-of-a-Kind Work
By Nathan Rowan | Dec 08 2025
Why Custom Manufacturers Need a Different ERP Approach Standard ERP setups often assume repeatable products and predictable demand. But make-to-order (MTO) and engineer-to-order (ETO) shops live in a different world: long lead times, unique ... Read More
Manufacturing Costing in ERP: Standard vs. Actual Costs and Why It Matters
By Nathan Rowan | Dec 08 2025
Why Costing Is More Than a Year-End Exercise Manufacturers live on margin. But if you only look at product costs once a year, you’re flying blind. Material prices, labor rates and overhead all move. ... Read More
Maintenance Management in ERP: Keeping Manufacturing Assets Running Without Surprise Downtime
By Nathan Rowan | Dec 08 2025
Why Maintenance Belongs in Your Manufacturing ERP Production planners hate surprise downtime. Maintenance teams hate being seen only when something breaks. When maintenance management lives outside ERP, it’s hard to coordinate schedules, costs and ... Read More
Quality Management in Manufacturing ERP: Traceability, Compliance and Fewer Escapes
By Nathan Rowan | Dec 08 2025
Why Quality Can’t Live in a Separate System  Quality teams often manage inspections, nonconformances and audits in separate tools or spreadsheets. The problem: it’s hard to tie issues back to specific work orders, suppliers, machines ... Read More
Inventory Optimization in ERP: How Manufacturers Balance Service Levels and Working Capital
By Nathan Rowan | Dec 08 2025
Too Much Inventory, Still Too Many Stockouts  Many manufacturers live in a paradox: warehouses full of slow-moving items, yet constant shortages on critical parts. The root problem is usually siloed spreadsheets and rules of thumb ... Read More
Bills of Material in Manufacturing ERP: How to Control Complexity as Products Evolve
By Nathan Rowan | Dec 05 2025
Why BOMs Are the DNA of Your Manufacturing ERP In manufacturing, the bill of materials (BOM) is where engineering intent meets production reality. Get it wrong, and you’ll suffer from shortages, rework and cost ... Read More
Real-Time Shop Floor Data in ERP: From Clipboard to Live Manufacturing Analytics
By Nathan Rowan | Dec 05 2025
Why Yesterday’s Production Report Isn’t Enough If your plant managers only see production data the next morning, they’re always reacting to yesterday’s problems. Scrap spikes, downtime events and schedule slips go unaddressed until it’s ... Read More
Production Planning in ERP: How Manufacturers Turn Capacity into On-Time Delivery
By Nathan Rowan | Dec 05 2025
Why Spreadsheets Break Down for Production Planning Many manufacturers still run production planning in spreadsheets sitting next to their ERP system. Planners manually juggle orders, lead times and machine capacity—and hope nothing major changes ... Read More
Composable Manufacturing Platforms: Building Modular ERP and MES with Microservices
By Nathan Rowan | Oct 08 2025
Composable Manufacturing Platforms: Building Modular ERP and MES with Microservices Manufacturing software is undergoing a major architectural transformation. Traditional monolithic ERP and MES systems, once the backbone of industrial operations, are giving ... Read More