How an EDI System Makes Manufacturing More Efficient
Many companies, especially manufacturers of durable goods, face constant pressure to reduce cost of goods sold on a year over year basis. Labels, inserts, manuals, tech sheets and cartons have become a commodity, and it’s tougher each year to lower your cost as paper prices and freight costs fluctuate.
Increasing efficiency, reducing cost and adding to the bottom line is your responsibility. What do you do?
Working with a vendor to fulfill your needs in printing, kitting and delivery of these necessary parts may put you on edge. Your current partner is likely good enough and the cost (both monetary and time) of change seem prohibitive.
The question you may want to ask is this: Can the entire system be made more efficient and secure?
An Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) system could help increase efficiency, lower many costs and make life a little easier. Your scheduling system can connect securely to your vendor, sending real-time data to endure the right number of manuals, spec sheet and more get printed and sent to your line in time for final assembly and packaging.
An EDI connection of this nature can reduce obsolescence in printing because you’re printing what you need, as needed, rather than huge batches of material that may get versioned. It also helps decrease the need for storage.
In addition to the printing, do you work with a vendor who can provide the user manual and spare parts in a single bagged kit? Rather than having a separate area in your assembly line for kitting technical publications with extra parts, putting it in the hands of a partner that can handle vendor-managed inventory (VMI) can free up labor costs and line space in your plant.
The right VMI and consignment solution will combine best-practice lean manufacturing and supply chain techniques, sophisticated IT integration capabilities and a scalable, flexible printing and fulfillment infrastructure to reduce your company’s costs of inventory, quality, transactions and transportation – all while beating the market on print production.
Photo by Adeolu Eletu on Unsplash
