This post is written by Giles.

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I used to be a production manager. I remember the days of running around the factory, trying to find out where all my productions orders were up to. When I got involved with Fraction ERP, one of the areas I focused my energies on was production control.

I wanted Fraction to be the ERP system I wish I had been able to use during my production days. With that in mind, certain features of our system stand out to me and I want to share them with you in this article:

1. The dashboard

I found over the years that one of the best strategies for running a manufacturing business was the daily huddle. I know them as Sunrise Meetings; short process driven meetings to make sure the production team are on track.

To run a meeting like this effectively, you need good data. It would therefore seem obvious that our dashboard would be one of my favourite features. It contains key data, including exception data that needs to be addressed on a daily basis. With one click, you can drill down into the data.

I would have loved have this data at my fingertips, rather than spending hours trawling my factory...

2. Visual scheduling board

Being able to consider committed capacity when loading your production orders is critical for high, consistent, on time delivery performance.

The visual scheduling boards in Fraction do just this. I can see at a glance how busy a particular resource is and the best way to schedule it. We've also built this tool so it can be used iteratively. Load up the schedule with weekly buckets for items that are in the future. As you get closer, you can schedule them more accurately using the daily scheduling tool. This can save hours if your customers move their order book around.

3. Task management tool

Although this function can tie in with the Sunrise Meeting approach, it can be used for general factory management.

Capturing and managing tasks can be an artform but it is easier when it is built directly into your ERP system.

Our task system is quick to use, ties in with your dashboard and can be used to track ongoing business activities such as health and safety, maintenance and continuous improvement. In fact, if you can think of a meeting category, you can create it!

4. Production tracking page

This tool would have saved me hours every day, in my production management days. The ability to see every job, at a glance, is invaluable to most production managers.

I particularly like this screen due to the visual progress bar. This bar allows you to determine if any jobs are not progressing. It isn't a precise science but a great way to keep your finger on the pulse.

Also, this data ties in beautifully with the exception reporting that comes from the dashboard and the information held in the work to lists.

5. SFDC overview

I could have picked more than five items, but the Shop Floor Data Collection (SFDC) overview page is another one of my highlights. On this screen I can see who is working on what, and whether they have gone over their allocated time (or not).

The SFDC report pages are great to interrogate the plan versus actual data, but if you need to nudge the right production orders to keep everything on track this highly visual screen is a god send.

If you'd like to learn more about Fraction ERP then don't forget to check out our features pages, or request a free online demo using the form below.