Manufacturing ERP for Refractory Manufacturers
Refractory manufacturers produce a wide range of insulating, abrasion-resistant and corrosion-resistant refractories, ranging from firebricks, insulating refractories to a wide variety of high alumina, silica, basic and speciality refractories to cater to the diverse needs of the user industries. Any manufacturing ERP focusing on this sector needs to take care of Production Planning, Inventory Management and Production Control.
Some of the common challenges faced by faced by refractory manufacturers:
- Machines are huge and expensive: refractory manufacturers have to crush, screen, sort and then pack huge amounts of materials. Raw Materials include Quartz lumps that are heavy and bulky. As a lot of capital goes into purchase of these machineries, it is important that these machines are utilised fully.
- Industry environment inside the factory: Crushing process and then subsequent screening, pressing into bricks are processes that generate a lot of dust. In such conditions, usual IoTs and electronic instruments do not work.
- Transportation of material: Inventory system should be very robust as refractory material is very voluminous. Standard unit of measure is Tonnage and not kgs. This means that there will be lot of transportation of material and hence Inward of Raw Material and shipment of Finished Goods will be need to be monitored through a good Inventory Management system. Also as this is a continuous manufacturing industry, timely management of inventory is key for non-stop running of the capital intensive machinery or the value chain in the refractory material industry.
- Recording of Power consumption and relationship with per unit of finished goods produced. Power is as big a cost to production of refractory material as the raw material itself. Hence it is important that manufacturers track the power consumed across sections and output in a factory
- Planning: Refractory manufacturers have huge plants, a lot of manpower and huge machinery. Refractory manufacturers have to plan and give forecasts to their customers, many of whom are Iron & Steel producers. Refractory Manufacturers need a good Production Planning system and Production Management system.
- Maintenance: Machinery in refractory manufacturing does heavy duty work. It is important that there are preventive maintenance schedules, proper maintenance management so there are minimum breakdowns in the plant.
Keeping this in view, ManufApp has implemented a Manufacturing Execution System or Manufacturing ERP for multiple refractory manufacturing units. Manufacturers are able to enjoy the following benefits:
- One system that manages entire manufacturing from Maintenance, Production Planning, Inventory Management to Production Control.
- Easy to Use interface means that roll out of such a system was smooth. Production Managers, Store Managers, Planning & Control have an intelligent tool that makes their lives easier.
- Less upfront cost: Being on a subscription basis, the entire software did not need heavy upfront investments. There was no need to purchase high end servers or development fees.
- Dashboards and Reporting: Reports and Dashboards are providing decision makers key-insights about the operational efficiencies.
- Customers reported reduction in downtime of machines by ~ 7 to 8%; improved On-time delivery scores.
A system suitable for refractory manufacturers: Having deployed the system with multiple refractory manufacturers, ManufApp’s Manufacturing ERP for refractory manufacturers caters to all their needs