Take the stress out of your operations with ERP software

It will probably come as no surprise that even before the global pandemic, the rate of self-reported work-related stress, depression or anxiety had shown signs of increasing, according to HSE statistics resulting in related mental health issues accounting for 50% of all work-related illnesses in the UK. 

The top reasons given were: workload pressures, including tight deadlines and too much responsibility and a lack of managerial support. 
 
How many more cases of severe stress went unreported, especially among decision-makers in manufacturing? After all, the fight is on to keep the wheels of industry turning to deal with current demands, economic factors and socio-political changes. 
 
Explore how to stop and take measure of your stress level, to reduce escalation and long term effects could be the check you need. Workplace automation across your manufacturing facilities and teams could help to ease the pressures many of us are facing. 
 

Automate to free up administration time 

Before digging down on practical solutions let’s look more closely at the issues you might need to tackle. 
 
There is much talk of lean manufacturing and finding ways to do things quicker, better, cheaper and with less waste. However, the average manufacturing supervisor, manager or executive will be regularly dealing with challenges that include supply chain disruption, material and labour shortages, order backlogs, updated or complex legislation, and machinery maintenance and optimisation. 
 
Even something as fundamental as the UK weather forecast can throw off shipping and logistics, and in turn inventory availability and delivery timings. This is all setting aside the still-tangible rippling effects of Brexit and Covid-19. 
 
This makes it even more vital to find ways to make as many tasks as manageable as possible, through automation if you can. Mundane paperwork tasks can be reduced and free up managers and manufacturing support teams while making production processes or progress more transparent and controllable. 

Manage manufacturing with automated workflows 

The best ERP software solutions can offer you the platform to achieve this. Business process assessments required early in any implementation project can also reveal gaps, overlaps or issues you were simply unaware of. In other words, taking the time to review and invest will have a high potential of making your team’s lives easier and in turn less stressful 
 

• Streamline 
  Enterprise resource planning, or ERP, software brings with it a chance to streamline operations, makes production planning far quicker and helps to identify everyday ‘stressors”. 
   
  For example, when used effectively it can foster better communication between you and your entire supply chain, including providing data on historic lead times and order levels, enabling you to conduct predictive analysis to understand and underpin more intuitive ordering methods. 
   
• Achieve transparency  
  Access greater levels of stock transparency. With impending materials shortages, you can set red flags earlier, and shortfalls in inventory can be dealt with in advance of them impacting your operating capacities. 
   
• Optimise 
  Unlocking new powers to optimise your workforce and increase both people and equipment productivity. Eradicate bottlenecks and highlight underutilised resources so you can make your planning and production processes less stressful too. 
   
• Understand performance  
  With a centralised ERP system, you are collecting business intelligence all the time, whether it’s in relation to processing the flow of orders from the point of sale to the point of delivery, to enabling everyone from your stock controllers or your sales teams to be better informed. Being able to see this data together can help you to improve swifter and more accurate invoicing or assembly and in turn help you to improve your financial performance. 
   
• Deliver on time  
  Managing manufacturing processes with automated workflows or shop floor apps, can help you to streamline shipping and logistics, giving you to edge to provide customers with progress and delivery updates. 
   

 
By implementing software to support business efficiencies, you too can benefit from calmer work-life interactions. Automation of quality and compliance controls, such as recording allergens batch numbers or sources will enable you to track every aspect of an order and record reliable data. 
 
If you’re curious about the ways ERP software can help you manage your stress – and your team’s productivity or your business profit – please get in touch.