When your company receives an order, how do you know whether you can fulfill it? There’s a considerable number of factors that go into creating a product, with raw material availability, employee labor, and the delivery chain all having an impact on when that product can actually make it into the hands of customers.
If you don’t have real-time reporting in your business, then it becomes even more difficult to make any promises regarding order fulfillment. Do you have the parts? Are you sure?
Capable-To-Promise Manufacturing (CTP)
It’s a quite literal name, which means that the business knows whether it can make a promise to manufacture and deliver a product based on a customer order.
CTP uses what’s called the “finite-scheduling model,” which means it considers any constraints for taking on new orders. CTP businesses can authoritatively commit to customer orders (or refuse to commit) because they use ERP software such as Acumatica for proper tracking of various assets, including:
Raw Materials
Know what quantities of input materials you have for your products. Because you can tag each of your materials with a unique code, you will have an exact figure of how much or many of each type of raw material is in stock.
Staff
Know how quickly you could produce a product based on how many employees you have. You can factor in their abilities and skillsets, too.
Inventory
Thanks to warehouse management systems (WMS), ERP software can tell you what products you currently have in stock, where they are, and how quickly they can be shipped out.
Equipment
If you have a breakdown or efficiency problem with any of your equipment, that can affect your lead time for being able to provide products to customers. Acumatica and other ERP solutions can show you which of your machines are operational.
Capacity
See whether you’re already operating at peak capacity or have slack production room for extra production.
Supply Chain Reporting
Being a CTP means having a handle on your own production capabilities, but it also means having the same information for your supply chain. Interruptions can happen (2020 proved that very well), and this affects companies’ ability to produce products.
Having ERP software in place with real-time reporting can show where the supply interruptions are and allow companies to either find different suppliers or report delays to the customer.
Transportation
Sometimes you are the delay in the supply chain. This situation can be because of internal issues such as parts availability or staffing, but it can also be due to transportation woes.
Shipping estimates can vary widely based on location, weather, and other hindrances. You may have the product finished, ready to be used by the customer. But if you can’t transport it to them, the customer experience is that the product may as well not exist at all.
Calculating CTP
As all of the essential ingredients for fulfilling a customer order are tallied, a company can begin to formulate a time estimate for when (or if) the product can be finished and shipped. Production capacity and shipping timelines factor in, but so should the possibility of future purchases.
As a business is working to give an order fulfillment date, they should take into account whether more orders will come from the customer. This information can tell a company whether it will need to order more parts, should wait to ship orders in bulk, and whether it’ll need to set aside manufacturing space again.
Watch our demo to learn more:
Promise Based on Information with Acumatica from Cloud 9 ERP Solutions
If you want to fulfill a CTP order, you need to have a lot of information, and you need it now. You can move at real-time speed with Acumatica! Acumatica Manufacturing Edition is a powerful ERP software solution that gives you control over your entire operation, with inventory and warehouse management, payroll, customer data, and more.
When you turn to Cloud 9 ERP Solutions, you’re getting a Gold Certified Acumatica Partner that will optimize your Acumatica experience. We have the passion, the experience, the training, and the expertise you’re looking for.
Don’t live in the past, do business with information from right now! Contact Cloud 9 ERP Solutions to transform your business with Acumatica today.
