What's the idea behind Manu Online?

Manu Online's name comes from Manu facturing. The idea is a cloud business software that is dedicated to small and mid sized manufacturers. While Manu Online checks all of the boxes for the basic business processes of order handling, inventory control, planning, procurement, production, invoicing etc. it does it in a way specifically for manufacturers. This puts it apart from generic business management software packages.

The idea of the software is to automate the business processes of our customers' organisations. Benefits result from many improvements. Payback of a well run system easily exceeds the costs.

The end result of a well implemented system is that the owners and managers will sleep better at night.

What are the benefits of automating business processes in manufacturing?

We see many benefits in manufacturing companies when they implement good systems. For growing companies, the main advantage is to keep control of the business during growth, particularly without ramping up administrative personnel and inventory costs in proportion to growth. For other companies the advantage is to reduce inventory costs (and so extract cash to pay for other developments) and reduce through put time to improve customer service. Implementing a good system in a small company also reduces the dependency on key staff that are maintaining personal spreadsheets of critical data. In either case compliance is important, especially in materials that need traceability.

Is this called "ERP" and how does it relate manufacturers?

ERP is a generic term that applies to  the main business software of a company. It stands for "Enterprise Resource Planning." It is a software system that helps businesses manage and optimize their workflow, from product development to production and delivery. ERP systems help reduce costs, increase efficiency and improve visibility into operations.

What other systems are related to ERP?

Here are some of the software systems typically used by a manufacturing company. Some ERP systems will cover multiple features of each to a greater or lesser extent. Rather than a single overreaching, complex software package, many companies these days choose to use a selection of "line of business" applications that are integrated using cloud technologies. The industry is moving away from monolithic ERP.

• CRM - Customer Relationship Management - used by the sales team to manage customer contact
• CAD - Computer Aided Design - used by the design team to design products and sub assemblies
• PDM - Product Data Management - typically associated with the CAD system to manage the library of designs
• MRP - Manufacturing Resource Planning - the logic of calculating the future plans for purchasing and manufacturing. This is rarely a separate application but is typically part of the main ERP system.
• MES - Manufacturing Execution System - manages the details of the day to day operation of a factory. Not typically used by small companies who can maintain manual visibility.
• WMS - Warehouse management system - used for inventory such as allocating storage bays, optimising forklift operations and pick and place.
• Financials or Accounts - Manages the financial transactions including payable and receivables management, tax returns and annual accounts. While traditionally part of monolithic ERP, in cloud business system this is often a separate application connected to the other line of business applications.

How does manufacturing ERP software work?

In the manufacturing process, an ERP system works by helping businesses to both plan and schedule production activities, establish inventory levels, track costs and materials used in the manufacturing process, and more. It can also provide visibility into customer demand for products in real time.

What kind of companies is Manu Online suitable for?

We have been setting up manufacturing companies between 5-150 employees for over 10 years now. Manu Online is a perfect fit for organisations that are making a start in the ERP/MRP space or replacing old/complex systems that are not future proof.

What is the difference between Mini Enterprise, Enterprise and Multi Company Editions?

In short, Mini Enterprise Edition is semi-automatic, and is an "out of the box" experience. Enterprise Edition is highly automatic and is configured by us to your requirements, also using more advanced options that are not available in the Mini Enterprise Edition.

Multi Company Edition is specifically if there is more than one business in your total operations. This might be because you have multiple factories or warehouses as separate companies, or you have sales offices abroad. 

Is the Enterprise Edition suitable for small companies?

Yes it is. We even have companies of less than 10 employees. Typically these are owner-managed business that want high levels of automation so that they can run with minimal administration costs while the owners have time to sail and ski.

What is "Concurrent" user licensing?

Manu Online service fee is based on the Edition and also the licensed number of concurrent users as a maximum. You can create an unlimited number of named users on the system. When these people are logged in and using the system up to that number, the next person will be unable to log in until one of the existing users logs out. If the user does not logout, it will timeout after two hours.

Compared to traditional "per seat" licensing, we think this is a fair way of measuring system capacity as it does not penalize occasional users. There is less temptation to "share" user names. 

"Kiosk" users for production data collection and direct sales do not use from the current user license pool.