Manufacturing is all about precision and quality. Parts are made to exact dimensional specifications, precise formulations, and measured against fastidious engineering standards. Managing manufacturing businesses and operational processes requires the same attention to detail to boost sales, contain costs, improve efficiency, and grow profits. Mark Twain once said, “If the metrics you are looking at aren’t useful in optimizing your strategy—stop looking at them.” This is undoubtedly true for manufacturing executives who measure the wrong things expecting to find hidden insights to grow their businesses magically. In this guide, we discuss manufacturing metrics that matter.

Many wholesale distributors carry like products with only slight variations in size, style, or other attributes. These small variants result in hundreds or thousands of combinations of unique items. Managing extensive product portfolios of like items is tricky. It is difficult to tell products apart during order entry, picking, or other activities. It is equally challenging to manage costs, pricing, and other details with so many similar products. In this guide, we discuss how traceability simplifies item management.

Retailers are constantly challenged to attract and retain profitable customers. Today’s business environment has evolved quickly for merchants, as consumers demand a much richer buying experience with convenience, personalization, and choice driving their expectations. Retail commerce companies must stay ahead of their competition and customers’ demands. Hence, managing customer-facing and back-office operations requires strict attention to detail to boost sales, contain costs, improve customer loyalty, and grow profits. In this guide, we discuss retail-commerce KPI metrics that merchants need to track.

Numbers may not lie, but they do not tell the whole story, especially when based on incomplete or outdated information. For decades, leaders struggled to identify how specific operations influence successes and failures. They sought to measure performance and quantify progress against their goals. However, defining Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that measure success and proactively expose pending disasters proved challenging. The metrics rarely provided a complete picture or revealed necessary course corrections. Isolated metrics deliver limited value. Therefore, growing organizations need a holistic KPI approach and technology that collects strategic metrics and presents them in a meaningful and timely manner. In this guide, we discuss how to create a holistic KPI strategy that promotes success.

Inventory and manufacturing data entry is historically time-consuming and prone to manual data entry errors. It is imperative to promptly capture paper shop floor documents, inventory receipt documents, and other physical information. Growing companies coming off entry-level accounting systems lack fully automated data collection. They may have a tethered barcode reader for some inventory and manufacturing transactions. A modern ERP application with native automated data capture is the next logical step to automate business processes for continued growth. In this guide, we discuss automated data capture for manufacturers.

Inventory valuation and manufacturing costing features are crucial for wholesale distributors and manufacturers. Entry-level applications support limited inventory valuation with marginal features for manufacturing costing. These restrictions often serve as a catalyst, prompting growing companies to move to more robust midmarket ERP systems. In this guide, we discuss inventory valuation and manufacturing costing for inventory-centric businesses.

How are wholesalers supposed to add value while fending off larger competitors, growing profits, and managing daily challenges? Metrics help. Metrics provide a clear picture and a single source of truth of what is happening in every corner of the business. A comprehensive business application eliminates data silos providing centralized, accurate, and insightful data to keep everyone on the same page. Used correctly, key performance indicators help distribution executives to outmaneuver competitors, build customer trust, and maintain employee loyalty to take their businesses to the next level. In this guide, we discuss a few distribution metrics that really matter.

Siloed marketing and sales programs cannot drive ongoing growth. Acumatica accelerates growth by revolutionizing marketing and sales. Automate operations and empower teams with real-time insights that maximize results. Metrics-driven marketing empowers sales to solve customer problems and seize opportunities. Real-time insights inform decisions and advance customer satisfaction. In this guide, we discuss how CRM puts profitability in the driver’s seat.

Architectural products manufacturers are underserved by today’s ERP business applications. For example, few ERP systems provide native applications to configure dimensional products such as doors, windows, cabinets, staircases, millwork, or prefabricated buildings. As a result, architectural product manufacturers are forced to customize inferior product configurators. Alternatively, they must invest in costly custom integration projects to connect expensive best-of-breed configurators that are difficult to maintain and support. In this guide, we discuss the ideal ERP for your architectural manufacturing business.

Few organizations can afford to invest heavily in a technology platform without the assurance it can fuel long-term growth. Companies that cannot quickly extend their infrastructure to exploit emerging applications will lose business to those that can. On-premises ERP platforms become obsolete in a few years due to their limited scalability and inability to integrate technologies without extensive software development. Although cloud platforms are more scalable, not all cloud ERP systems are equal. Long-term growth hinges on the platform’s ability to rapidly integrate new business entities and applications with enhanced security. In this guide, we discuss choosing an ERP platform that facilitates long-term growth.