If you are looking to save some time with your production planning tasks, then Fraction ERP can help.

This short article shares a few of the features of our cloud ERP system that can save you and your team hours every week.

And, for clarification we're using the old fashioned description of production planning as being Bills of Materials (BOM) and Production Routes (the what and the how). If you are interested in the scheduling side of things (the when), check out this recent article.

Quick build BOMs

Being able to quickly build a Bill of Materials record is key to streamlining your production planning activities.

We've tied the manufacturing route and the list of materials into one screen, to help with this process.

With regards to the manufacturing route, we have embraced standard operations to help you do this. When you set up Fraction ERP, you create workcentres and from here you can define a series of standard operations.

These are jelly mould operations to help you quickly create a manufacturing route. Add them fast, give them a tweak and your good to go.

With regards the materials, you can search for existing items or add new ones on the fly. No more jumping between screens; fast efficient production planning.

Adding a new part on the fly in Fraction ERP can speed up the BOM creation process

BOM approval process

Although this feature doesn't directly speed up the production planning process, it does stop accidental mistakes from happening and causing confusion. This confusion can suck away hours from your team and add unnecessary cost into the process.

In short, Fraction ERP has a simple approval process. The people allowed to approve a BOM is based on the privileges you set up in the system. When a changes gets made to a BOM, its approval is reset, forcing someone to approve it.

If a (junior) member of the team accidentally changes something on a BOM it cannot then go into production until someone reviews it and approves it.

Controlling who can approve BOMs is just a couple of clicks in Fraction ERP

BOM templates

Using templates is a great way to speed up your production planning tasks.

Create a generic BOM that resembles a type of product you produce. Apply it to your new part. Tweak the BOM. Done.

Creating templates takes just a few clicks and applying it the same.

Fraction ERP allows you to create fast to use BOM templates

MRP and stock works orders

The last feature I want to share with you is the MRP screen. This is a common feature in many ERP systems and it stands for Materials Requirements Planning.

As an aid to speeding up your production planning, this part of the system helps you to work out what you need to produce, how many and when for.

ERP attempts to balance supply (production) and demand (customer orders). Fraction ERP allows you to create stock works orders which can simplify your production plans if you have repeating quantities of the same production items. Or, you can use the buttons directly on the sales order if you want a one-to-one relationship in your order book.

Either way, Fraction ERP can help you build your works order book fast.

Quickly create your works orders to complete the production planning process

Free two week trial

If you want to find out more about Fraction ERP and how it can help your business to streamline its production planning tasks, get in touch with us.

We offer a quick online demo (about forty five minutes) and a free two week trial. If you like what you see in the demo, you can have your own account for two weeks to properly try out our system. Let your team put some orders through the system and see if Fraction will help your business. This really is the best way to test out an ERP system.