How ERP Software Prepares Manufacturers for Quality and Compliance Regulations

Quality and Compliance Regulations

The global supply chain faces six broad regulation categories—business and finance, information technology, industry compliance, labor regulations, trading partner requirements, and government regulations. In addition, government regulations cross-industries with a high concentration of restrictions on companies engaged in the aerospace and defense, electronics, and process industries such as food and chemicals.

Business & Finance

Business and financial compliance varies by country. Some of the most prominent regulations include Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) financial reporting, IFRS and GAAP accounting standards, tax management for sales tax, use tax, and value-added tax (VAT), fixed asset depreciation rules, costing and inventory valuation regulations, anti-trust laws, and more. Your ERP application should natively support GAAP and IFRS accounting standards. Other business and finance regulations may require specific third-party applications, customization, or manual, paper-based workarounds.

Information Technology

Information regulations include PCI credit card regulations and cybersecurity restrictions. Data security laws include the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA). Acumatica and the Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform are ISO 27001 accredited and provide multiple levels of security for compliance with FEDRAMP, FIPS 140-2, CSA, CAN-SPAM, GDPR, POPIA, and other data security regulations.

Industry Restrictions

ISO is a leading authority for quality standards across most industry segments. ISO accreditation may not be mandatory, but it provides a competitive advantage in all market segments. Other industry regulations are provided by specific industry bodies. Acumatica natively provides a framework to support many industry regulations. Use embedded wikis for documentation, define workflows, and monitor results with real-time dashboards. Marketplace apps provide specialized features for heavily regulated industries.

Trading Partner Compliance

Customers and vendors place numerous quality and compliance restrictions on distributors and manufacturers to meet their unique business needs. Trading partner requirements often include EDI documents and special formatting for electronic transactions such as invoicing, purchasing, forecasting, and shipping. Other standard trading partner requirements include label specifications, product quality tolerances, packaging requirements, allowances for breakage or spoilage, and more. Multiple EDI applications connect to Acumatica for inbound and outbound document transmission between customers and vendors. Tailor Acumatica to manage trading partner requirements with low-code and no-code customizations, flexible business events, Generic Inquiries, reports, and dashboards.

Labour Laws

Labor regulations include safety protocols set forth by the Occupational Health & Safety (OHS), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability, Fair Labour Standards Act, workers’ compensation, trade union requirements, Family and Medical Leave, and others. Connect
to leading Human Capital Management (HCM) applications to manage the employee lifecycle from recruitment and onboarding to development, retention, and separation. Extend the employee record or connect to HCM applications to manage skills, certifications, and training requirements and leverage Acumatica Payroll for worker’s compensation, union dues, and other employee information.

Government Regulations

For example, government regulations for pollution control, fair marketing
& advertising, and product safety apply to most businesses. Heavily regulated industries include aerospace and defense, food and chemicals, and high technology products. Harness the power of connected marketplace applications and low-code and no-code customizations to create solutions for virtually any government compliance requirement.

Connect Data and Processes for Improved Documentation, Training, Security, and Reporting

Few ERP applications support every quality or compliance requirement. Older, legacy ERP systems may provide specific features for some quality regulations. However, legacy ERP software is often rigid and challenging to adapt to recent regulation changes. Modern applications like Acumatica provide an adaptable platform with Open APIs to tailor system workflows, secure data, and connect disparate applications for ever-changing quality and compliance regulations. There are six elements across federal and industry compliance regulations. These elements are documentation, training, security, reporting, accuracy, and process control.

We will discuss these elements in our next insightful blog on how Quality Management Sofware helps manufacturing and distribution businesses. If you enjoyed this quick guide on How ERP Software Prepares Manufacturers for Quality and Compliance Regulations.