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7 Must-Have Production Management Tools

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Allen Bauman
7 Must-Have Production Management Tools

It's no secret that keeping your production schedule and progress organized is critical. When you don't have a system in place to follow, you risk missing deadlines and leaving clients waiting. While there are many tools out there to help you keep your production schedule organized, here are seven of the best.

1. Production Scheduling

Production scheduling is not just a tool, but an essential component of project management. It's the process of planning and organizing all the activities, personnel, materials, and equipment needed to complete a project on time and within budget.


A critical aspect of production scheduling is shop floor control which allows you to monitor and control your manufacturing processes to ensure quality and maximize productivity. It’s a powerful tool that allows you to manage your production schedule, control the flow of materials and resources, track labor hours and costs, and most importantly, produce products with optimal efficiency.


Production scheduling is a critical component of any production process because it ensures that everything runs smoothly so that you can meet your deadlines. If you don't schedule properly or have bad data in your schedule, it can cause delays or even cost overruns.

2. Supply Chain Management

Supply Chain Management software is a key part of any successful business. It helps you manage your inventory, purchasing, and sales activities with ease.


The following are some of the best supply chain management tools for small businesses:

  1. Freightos: This is an online marketplace that allows you to buy and sell freight with other businesses or individuals. It also offers a number of services such as logistics planning and booking, customs clearance, shipping rates, and more. You can use this platform to find the best price for your shipment and compare prices from several different carriers before choosing one.
  2. Zoho Inventory: This is an all-in-one inventory tracking software that allows you to track your inventory online in real-time, manage financials and automate tasks via email notifications or SMS text messages. You can also create custom reports based on your specific business needs using this tool.
  3. Salesforce Commerce Cloud: This platform helps retailers plan their future sales by using predictive insights from big data analytics to identify trends in consumer behavior so they can adapt their marketing strategies accordingly thus increasing sales revenue while lowering costs associated with failed products launches

3. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is one of the most important business software solutions for production management. It's an all-in-one solution that allows you to manage all aspects of your business from sales and marketing to finance, human resources, and operations.


An ERP system can help you streamline processes and maintain a clear overview of your business at any given time. It also provides a central hub where you can gain access to all the information you need without having to log in to multiple systems.

4. Quality Assurance Software

The core of any production management system is quality assurance software. This software helps track all aspects of your production, including time and costs.


Quality assurance software makes it easy for managers to keep track of their team members' progress at each step in the process. It provides a centralized location for all tasks, allowing managers to see exactly where bottlenecks may be occurring and how to solve them.


Quality assurance software also allows you to monitor each step in the production process and determine whether or not something is going wrong. If a problem occurs, you can quickly identify what went wrong and fix it before things get out of hand.

5. Costing

Costing is one of the most important tools a product manager needs to have in their toolbox. This is a task that every company will have in common and it's important to know how to do it correctly. There are many different costing methods, but the most popular ones are average costs per unit and marginal costs per unit.


Average Costs Per Unit: Average costs per unit are used for products when there are no fixed costs (i.e., when you sell one, you don't incur any extra expense). They are commonly used in manufacturing industries where there is little variability in output.


Marginal Costs Per Unit: Marginal costs per unit are used when there is varying output and fixed expenses such as rent or insurance payments need to be divided among units produced. Use this method if you want to determine the least expensive way of producing goods (with an emphasis on minimizing variable costs).


For companies looking to go beyond these methods, Finout provides a FinOps solution that can create any unit cost, such as cost per customer, event, transaction, scan, and more. This allows businesses to gain more detailed insights into their costs and make more informed decisions.

6. Document Control

Document control is a critical part of any project, and if done well, it can help you avoid costly mistakes and delays. The key is to have all of your important documents in one place — preferably with an electronic copy as well as a hard copy for storage purposes. This way, when someone asks for something like a spec sheet or design mock-up, you don't have to search through piles of paper files on your desk or in filing cabinets. Instead, everything is easily accessible in one location and everyone has access to it at all times.

7. Automated Data Collection

Automated data collection is the process of gathering data directly from an asset or equipment. This data can be used to monitor and report on the performance of equipment and assets, as well as provide early warning of impending failures.


It is important for production management teams to have access to this information in order to make informed decisions about when equipment needs repair or replacement. Without this information, a production manager may have no idea that there is a problem until it's too late.

Takeaway

At the end of the day, no matter what kind of business you're running, it's important to have an efficient process in place so that you can stay within your budget and get the job done right. With the right tools, getting projects off the ground can be a breeze, and these ones are bound to come in handy.

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