The complexities of today’s industrial vehicle manufacturers are unique. From managing vehicle parts and chassis inventories to quoting customer vehicles and managing production scheduling, industrial vehicle manufactures are relied on to produce a slew of much needed parts within short time spans. For one project, they may need to design and build a completely custom vehicle, while another project requires them to produce a configured body with pre-engineered options built to customer specification. Needless to say, this is a high stakes industry where mixed mode manufacturing support is critical.
With over 20 years of experience, WorkWise ERP has developed a reputation for making the lives and jobs of manufacturers easier. From shop floor to delivery, our one-stop-shop solution gives manufacturers complete visibility into their manufacturing process to help streamline operations, improve efficiencies, lower costs, manage complexity and support growth.
Our team at Marion Body takes pride in providing the exact custom vehicle or truck component needed for each customer’s application. WorkWise ERP helps us do that, because depending on the nature of the product, we may design and build a totally custom vehicle, or produce a configured body with pre-engineered options, all built to each customer specification. This support for “mixed-mode” manufacturing, plus inherent engineering integration, gives us the competitive advantage we need.
Vincenzo Speziale,
Marion Body Works
As with every industry, industrial vehicle manufacturers face unique pain points including, complex supply chain processes, fluctuating demand, rapidly evolving technology and scheduling and planning challenges. Daily business operations and tasks can easily fall through the cracks without the proper ERP software in place.
Do you struggle to create quotes quickly and efficiently due to a lack of streamlining quote preparation?
Does your business have issues with establishing a consistent production schedule?
Not being able to see your shop floor and inventory is a problem for your business and your customers may ultimately pay the price.
Do you constantly run into issues with producing, ordering and planning controlled products?
Can you maintain accurate records for unique warranties and serial numbers?
Do you manufacture both custom and pre-configured parts and vehicles?
The WorkWise ERP Product Configurator allows industrial vehicle manufacturers to simplify the production of vehicle parts (ordered, planned, engineered and controlled) that are assembled for customer order. This tool helps with producing faster and more accurate quoting as well as reducing order lead times and engineering costs.
WorkWise’s Bills of Material application allows manufacturers to outline the structure of products that they sell, assemble, cost and plan. Manufacturers can directly associate materials to an operation, which improves planning and scheduling and save a significant amount in carrying costs.
The Quotations application saves time and effort by converting quotes to orders through streamlining the process. Accurate quotes helps industrial vehicle manufacturers generate sales, create accurate quotes and complete quotation content. Save time and improve production.
Manually updating spreadsheets or using a homegrown quotation system can end up taking a lot of time, effort and potentially lead to losing important company information or slowing down processes due to a lack of software integration. This may become especially apparent as your business grows. The WorkWise ERP Quoting application helps sales reps streamline quotation preparation. Using this application, users are able to seamlessly convert customer orders without re-keying data to streamline the order entry process. The entire process is quick and efficient and can help you drastically cut down on the time it takes to prepare quotes.
Whether specifying a work truck body, dump body, plow, rescue vehicle or custom bus, the answers to a set of pre-defined, logical questions can help determine option choices, to specify and price the parts, dimensionality, and value-added labor needed. The WorkWise Product Configurator allows sales teams and customers to select, configure and order products from manufacturers while making sure that only valid features, options and dimensions are selected.
When designing new vehicle components, CAD, also known as Computer-Aided Design, uses 3D technology to assist with the creation, modification, analysis and/or optimization of a design. Whether you use SOLIDWORKS, Inventor, or other CAD systems, that CAD software integrates with WorkWise ERP so that both systems can work together. Engineers can create a design of how they would like their vehicles accessories to appear and operate, and with the ERP/CAD integration, accurate, bill of material data is integrated so production has faster access to the data for planning and scheduling.
Homegrown systems or other antiquated methods of scheduling can cause vehicle manufacturers to order extra materials based on gut feel, rather than real needs. This may reduce the fear of running out of materials but may also cause shortages or overages, which slows down the production process and can inflate inventories. Whether scheduling fab, welding, paint, sub assembly or final assembly bays, with WorkWise ERP’s Planning suite of modules, the shop can schedule production based on constraints of people skills, machines, materials, and tooling with the ability to balance it all.
Satisfied customers are a function of effective customer service, which is achievable with the help of WorkWise Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, which comes fully integrated with WorkWise ERP software. The all-in-one sales and marketing automation software can help strengthen the bond between vehicle manufacturers and their dealers, distributors and end-users. Ultimately helping to grow the vehicle manufacturer’s sales. WorkWise’s CRM also offers the ability to track all customer communications, order history, support tickets, incidents and resolutions, and more. These features can help in highlighting the need for proactive corrective actions and the reduction of incidents.
Customer Service. Industrial Vehicle Manufacturers service large numbers of people for a number of reasons and at the basis of all business is customer service. WorkWise ERP provides OnContact CRM integration, which delivers powerful sales, marketing and customer service functions including:
Accounting and Financials. In order to manage the overall production of industrial vehicle manufacturing parts, taking command of your financials is key.
Production. The WorkWise ERP production suite streamlines manufacturing processes in order to keep up with shop floor changes and quality management.
Business Metrics. Complete “Fingers on the Pulse” pro-active alerts and KPI Measurements including email, dashboard and mobile alerts will keep you on the leading, not bleeding edge of the ever-changing dynamics of your business.
WorkWise ERP provides a host of benefits and business value to industrial vehicle manufacturers, including:
Ready to see how our powerful ERP software can benefit your business? Schedule your personalized, one-on-one demo today.