How Enterprise Resource Planning eases production in metallurgical industries Metallurgy is the physical and chemical study of metallic elements, compounds and their alloys. An alloy is a combination of two or more elements where one of them must be a metal. A metallurgical industry applies metal science in the production of metals for consumers and manufacturers use. These metals are produced through processing of ores.

There are two types of metallurgy, ferrous and non-ferrous. Ferrous or black metallurgy involves processes and alloys based on iron. Non-ferrous or colored metallurgy involves processes and alloys based on other metals.

The extraction of Iron is much more difficult when compared to that of copper and tin though the production of ferrous metals account for over 90% of world metal. Metallurgical industries undertake extraction by removing valuable metals from their ores in order to be refined into pure form. Other metals such as copper, lead and tin are extracted from their ores through smelting.

Many metallurgical industries have a high order to manufacture alloys of copper, iron, aluminum, chromium, magnesium, nickel, titanium and zinc. These metals are mostly used in the manufacture of many metal products. Metallurgical industries can be divided into two categories, primary and secondary.

Primary metallurgy refers to the production of metal from ore. Secondary metallurgy refers to production of alloys from ingots and to recovery of metal from scrap with primary metallurgical industries including the production of both ferrous and non-ferrous. This is done by the emission of large quantities of sulfur oxides and particulate. Secondary metallurgical industries involve processes that emit particulate in the form of metallic fumes, smoke and dust.

The earliest enterprise resource planning system was started in the late nineties and there are many roles played by the enterprise resource planning in metallurgical industries. It helps the companies carefully evaluate their performance and keep track of changes and trends in production over a certain period of time.

The useful paradigm found in enterprise resource planning ensures that metallurgical industries manufacturing decisions are made taking into account their impact on production chain. Production decisions are affected by and affect all other major areas of the business including manufacturing, accounting and marketing.

Industries take into account all these important factors because they can affect manufacturing processes in one way or another. It is obvious to note that enterprise resource planning systems are commercial packages that ensure integration of all information in a company to flow from the human resource department, finance and accounting department, supply department and customer care department.

The enterprise resource planning works by imposing its own logic on a company’s strategy, culture and organization. It uses a pattern to fill up necessary information that may not be provided by a company. It ensures accuracy and efficiency when relaying reports which assist in good decision making, budgeting and making supplies for the sake of manufacturing.

Metallurgic industries decided to invest in enterprise resource planning because the system’s database is single and non-redundant. The system also provides extensive functional scope.

Many enterprise resource planning systems work in terms of modules that are broken down to handle several functional departments in a company. In spite of being divided, these modules still manage to interact freely. This is helped by the fact that business processes require information exchange among different departments. The interactions are made in real time using the information stored in a single database.

Modules typically found in the enterprise resource planning system include inventory control, purchasing materials, lowering purchasing costs, configuring prices and managing payroll. There are dozens of other modules but each work separately inside the system to produce the same information.

Metallurgical industries have found out a significant increase in production and sales after incorporating the enterprise resource planning system in their business. The few metallurgical industries that don’t use the enterprise resource planning system cite the high cost of purchase and installation, and also complexity. All in all the truth of the matter is that enterprise resource planning has vital importance to metallurgic industries.

The enterprise resource planning system facilitates product planning and metallurgic industries focus and dedicate their resources in planning for the next product to be manufactured. Companies can use reports to determine the type of the product, the target market, price and release date. There is no room for guess work in the system as the information used is accurate and relayed in real time. Metallurgic industries that use the enterprise resource planning system save a great deal of time and production price because of the automated system.

The system allows inventory optimization, sales records tracking, invoice, purchase orders and product coding all at the same time. This saves precious time that could have been lost doing things manually. Metallurgic industries that use enterprise resource planning provide quality and efficient services to their customers and other manufacturer’s.

This in turn translates to increase in customers and sales. Such a business enjoys a smooth internal and external running. All these things lead to dominance in business. The enterprise resource planning system is very secure which in turn means that all the data and records saved cannot be easily hacked because it uses military grade coding system.

Security is very important in metallurgic companies as employees data needs to be secured at all costs. Leaking of employee’s personal information can make a company get sued, or in some instances lead to closure.

The use of enterprise resource planning in metallurgic industries support upper level management by providing vital and relevant information that help in decision making. Tough times call for tough measures, so do tough choices. Companies find it easy to make decision to simply reading and interpreting data that they already have. Those companies that don’t use ERP find it frustrating to access such information because they have to spend a long time researching products and get customer feedback.