If a Cinderella story is possible in manufacturing, Hagler Systems is it. The Augusta, Georgia-based equipment manufacturer went from a seat-of-the-pants operation with no part numbers and little inventory oversight to a state-of-the-art ERP system that helped them reduce inventory by a third - all in just under a year.
A sea of paper
Paper-based manufacturing operations that lack detailed information on work in progress aren't as rare as one might think. The 2015 Manufacturing Report from Chicago-area professional-services firm Sikich found that only 26 percent of manufacturers use an ERP system to prepare their KPIs. Eleven...