Today’s landscape for manufacturers is ever-evolving and fast-paced, so staying ahead of the curve is vital for your organization’s success. In the latest release of Acumatica, 2024 R1, the cloud-based ERP introduces several groundbreaking features designed to enhance efficiency, improve planning accuracy, and provide greater flexibility for manufacturing operations. In this blog post, we’ll explore some of the new manufacturing-specific features in Acumatica 2024 R1 and how they can benefit your business.
What’s New in Acumatica 2024 R1?
Acumatica has always been at the forefront of innovation, and the 2024 R1 release is no exception. Here’s a snapshot of the new features that will revolutionize your manufacturing processes:
- Automatic Backward Reporting
- Kit Components Included in Inventory Planning
- Specifying the Planning Horizon for Inventory Planning
Automatic Backward Reporting
As a manufacturer, you know that operations are rarely linear. You will often have multiple processes running simultaneously, making it crucial to have a system that can handle reporting on parallel operations. In past versions of Acumatica, it wasn’t possible to report the number of widgets made during operations that were outside of a pre-established sequence. Now, in 2024 R1, Acumatica enables manufacturers to create swimlanes, meaning processes can be performed in a nonsequential order. This means the ERP will have strong reporting capabilities attached to those various swimlanes, even though they aren’t being performed in a sequential order.
Key Benefits
- Flexibility: Production workers can now report on operations running in parallel, providing real-time updates and insights into each process.
- Efficiency: This feature minimizes downtime and ensures that all aspects of the production process are accounted for, improving overall efficiency.
- Accuracy: No longer do you need to rely on team members manually entering transactions/data into the system in sequence for each production order, reducing potential human error.
By disabling the previously always-on automatic backward reporting setting, Acumatica 2024 R1 empowers workers to manage complex workflows more effectively, leading to increased productivity and reduced bottlenecks.
Kit Components Included in Inventory Planning
One of the standout features of Acumatica 2024 R1 is the enhanced inventory planning regeneration process. Previously, companies using stock or non-stock kits faced challenges in planning the required components to assemble these kits. This resulted in inefficiencies, lack of awareness into if sales orders could or could not be fulfilled, and no forecasting capabilities.
What’s Changed?
- Demand Generation: 2024 R1 supports generating demand requirements for the components of a stock kit included in a sales order.
- Sales Forecast Integration: You can now use sales forecast functionality to plan for non-stock kits, allowing for better anticipation of demand.
With these new features and how it ties into Acumatica’s new distribution requirements planning (DRP) functionality, companies that work with kits have more insight and control into inventory. That means they know which kits to build and when to build them based on either actual or forecasted demand. These enhancements ensure the components needed to assemble kits are considered planned demand, leading to more accurate inventory planning and smoother operations.
Specifying the Planning Horizon for Inventory Planning
Efficient planning is the backbone of any successful manufacturing operation and being able to set horizons in your ERP is very important in ensuring you are making the right decisions for your processes. Acumatica 2024 R1 allows users to specify a planning horizon, refining the inventory planning process. This is a critical function for manufacturers that set specified lead times for their supply chains.
Key Benefits
- Customizable Planning Horizon: This reduces the number of item plans processed, shortening the run time for inventory planning regeneration.
- Optimized Process: By excluding distant future demands, companies can focus on immediate needs without compromising long-term planning.
This feature is particularly beneficial for companies with extensive item plans, allowing for a more streamlined and efficient planning process. It is vital to have a horizon in your ERP to ensure that you are assessing your needs in the right timeline. If you don’t have a horizon set, it can have a significant impact on your business. For example, if your horizon is too short, you may not have enough time to make the necessary adjustments to your supply chain and if it is too long, you are most likely going to waste resources on products that won’t be sold.
Conclusion
Acumatica 2024 R1 offers a suite of powerful features designed to enhance manufacturing efficiency, improve planning accuracy, and provide greater flexibility. By incorporating these new capabilities into your operations, you can stay ahead of the competition and ensure your manufacturing processes are as smooth and efficient as possible.
Ready to take your manufacturing operations to the next level? Sign up for a free demo of Acumatica 2024 R1 and experience the benefits for yourself.
