News & Blogs
Stay updated with the latest news, insights, and expert blogs from Emixa. Explore industry trends, digital innovations, and company updates all in one place.
Manufacturing Menu: Master Cash Flow with Financial Management
Although manufacturing companies are primarily producers, good financial management (invoicing, accounts payable, accounts receivable, bookkeeping, payroll, cash management, banking, planning, budgeting, reporting) is an essential part of doing business. The control of cash flows in and out of an organization is a prerequisite for solvency, business continuity, cost optimization, productivity and a strong competitive position. This is why financial management is also a key element within Exima's manufacturing menu. Control and reporting are two core elements at the heart of good financial management. They provide transparency, structure and accountability, allowing you to get and keep a grip on your financial processes, transactions and buying and selling strategy. As a general rule, the larger, more complex and more diverse a company is, the more difficult it is to manage its finances accurately. However, modern IT technology offers fantastic opportunities to professionalize your budget management and use a data-driven approach to make operational costs and business results easier and faster to understand. That is why this is a regular feature of the Manufacturing Menu.
How SAP Signavio Enhances S/4HANA Migration & Process Standardisation
Do you find that inconsistent processes often create confusion, errors, and delays in your business? Whether it's invoicing, purchasing, or financial closing, employees executing processes in different ways can lead to significant inefficiencies. These inefficiencies often result in errors, delays, and employee frustration, hindering the smooth functioning of your business. But what if there was a way to streamline and standardise these processes, ensuring consistency, efficiency, and reduced errors across your organisation? The answer lies in leveraging SAP Signavio with your SAP S/4HANA migration.
Engineering and Manufacturing Demand a Central Data Platform
Consumers increasingly demand new product variations. To meet this demand, machine builders and high-tech suppliers must dramatically accelerate innovation and production. Designing, building and testing new machines – or modifying existing ones – can happen much faster when all company departments interlink data. Or better yet – centralise all data. Does your firm have a shared data repository? It will come as no surprise that consumer demand directly impacts suppliers. The growing consumer demand for new product variations results in shorter product life cycles. This means that new products, and consequently machines, need to come to market faster. To stay ahead of the competition, manufacturing companies must be able to cope with this increasing pressure on time-to-market. And that’s not all. Customers not only expect faster delivery of new machines, but also demand simultaneous improvements in quality and reductions in cost compared to previous versions. This pressures machine builders to enhance flexibility and efficiency across design, testing, and production. Only by optimising these critical processes can they stay competitive. Data in silos Digitisation is key here. The presence of a 360° view throughout the entire product lifecycle – from design to production and after-sales service – ensures optimal collaboration across all departments for effective product development. The end goal is staying ahead of the competition. Now, let's shift to the practical scenario. Business departments still often operate in silos, each equipped with its own systems and data. Once the product design is completed, engineering colleagues metaphorically toss the design over the dividing wall to the production department, which operates with its unique set of systems or, at times, relies on traditional tools like Excel, pen, and paper. There is no automatic flow of data between the departments. Drawing from personal experience, I've observed that engineering is frequently advanced in terms of digitalisation. However, a brief visit to the production department reveals a different story: paper-based work instructions, scattered emails, and Excel sheets dominate the landscape. The considerable investment in engineering digitisation doesn't reach its full potential unless production similarly embraces digital integration. Brakes on efficiency The lack of digital alignment between engineering and production can significantly impede the efficiency and flexibility that the company so desperately needs. Non-integrated, paper-based workflows make it challenging to provide feedback from production to engineering. Connecting with ERP systems proves difficult, requiring manual transcriptions of paper slips and bringing the risk of errors. Plus, there's no clear view of the production run status, delivered quality, errors, interruptions, and the like. Without exaggeration, engineers in such environments can dedicate up to 50% of their time to data collection and validation. When production alterations are required, the disjointed data systems often lead to unnecessary hours spent syncing updates. The lack of digital data flow also limits visual operations in production due to the absence of a link with engineering's 3D data. All these factors contribute to extended lead times. Shared data platform A company aiming to streamline engineering and production can achieve this by initially establishing a shared data platform. Goodbye to silos! Once the data is centrally available, the departments can collaborate more seamlessly. This leads to a quicker time-to-market, fewer issues related to production quality, and reduced recalls. In my opinion, digitalisation in this context begins with a unified repository for documents and bill of materials, alongside all mechanical, electronic, software, and simulation data. This single source of truth provides a solid foundation to optimise collaboration between departments, addressing the efficiency and flexibility of your Product Lifecycle Management strategically. Get in touch Curious about our advice on streamlining your Product Lifecycle Management? Contact us, and we’ll provide you with all the details.
Asset Intelligence Network (AIN) for Data Exchange in the Chain
One of the most important trends within Asset Management concerns increasing the availability of assets through the application of data. To achieve this, information is needed. Information that is produced and recorded by various stakeholders in the chain during the entire life cycle of an asset.
Emixa Enterprise Solutions Announces Strategic SAP PE Build Partnership
We are excited to announce that Emixa Enterprise Solutions has established a strategic partnership with SAP under the PartnerEdge (PE) Build program. This collaboration is a major step forward in enhancing our ability to deliver advanced, innovative solutions to our clients.
How Can Construction Companies Adopt New and Innovative Technologies?
Innovative technologies have the potential to help the construction and infrastructure sectors operate more safely, efficiently, and sustainably. For example, using data to predict infrastructure maintenance or employing 3D modelling to collaborate with real-time construction information. How can construction and infrastructure companies start leveraging these new technologies?
VORM’s Story: How the Champion of Affordable Housing Stays in Control of Its Projects
The 105-year-old VORM is a top player in construction and development. Known for leading urban projects in cities like Rotterdam, Amsterdam, The Hague, Eindhoven, and Utrecht. Under the motto A Good Neighbourhood For Everyone, VORM operates across the entire construction sector with a focus on affordable, unique homes in liveable, sustainable neighbourhoods. We speak with (interim) CFO Marc Springvloed about the company’s unique challenges, such as working smarter with suppliers and maintaining control over costs. How does the company manage to achieve so much with a relatively small team? And how does Emixa help to get the most out of their brand-new ERP system?
Efficient Meeting Room Reservation with Emixa Room Tablet Application
Reserving a meeting room has never been easier.
How do you Rent Reusable Transport Packaging within SAP
With regular rental, you register directly with the lending company when the assets are returned. Availability, invoicing and other processes can be covered with standard solutions. But what if the return flow is leading in the rental process and control must take place from logistics? Does SAP still offer a solution? Companies that rent moving boxes, crates, containers, barrels or other reusable packaging materials have their own unique challenges. Most tenants also want to arrange the transport of packaging materials at the same time. In addition, the reusable packaging is usually used for third parties. This can create a chain of 'subtenants'. In this chain, the exact return time is more difficult to determine, the deposit registration becomes more complex and the condition in which the rented property will be returned is more difficult to predict. When renting reusable packaging: manage return flows; the lead time must be high; extra attention to inspection and cleaning is required; an integrated approach keeps the process manageable. Renting out reusable packaging is all about logistics When renting reusable packaging, it is not the standard rental process that plays the leading role, but the logistics process. The lessor not only supplies packaging, but also ensures that it arrives on location. This requires the use of SAP's logistics modules. But they are not designed for the return of goods. Solution with customization? Preferably not Rental companies of reusable packaging often solve this problem by using custom solutions. This could be a complex series of Excel sheets, or an expensive proprietary application. Such solutions help initially, but quickly become impossible to manage. The link with invoicing and administration causes problems. Because customization must keep pace with updates to regular business software, costs increase over time. Setting up a logistics rental process within SAP It can also be done differently. SAP can set up its own process in which rental based on logistics is central. Planning and stock reservation are safely separated from current stock. This creates space to take the unique requirements of reusable packaging rental into account. These adjustments support the entire process within SAP. At the end of the rental, further processing (invoicing) can take place via the regular channels. Working within the SAP standard With this approach, the rental process works within the SAP standard. Goods movements are registered and invoiced based on sales orders. The same applies to the planning of inspections and the cleaning of the rented equipment. By providing returned packaging with a batch number, cleaning and inspection become a seamless part of the rental process. All data within one integrated dashboard Because all data remains within SAP, it can also be accessed integrally and used more effectively. This way, all data surrounding the rental process can be integrated into one dashboard. This makes management based on exceptions possible. A planner immediately sees what is in stock, what is on its way and what still needs to be checked. By filtering for deviations from the standard, problems can be responded to immediately. Management reports keep the process manageable The same data can also be used to reliably predict stock. In addition, other details can be recorded. This makes it possible to gain more insight into surrounding factors, such as working hours per shift, water consumption per order and wear per packaging. With such reports, management can focus on figures and better substantiate longer-term plans. No circular economy without reusable packaging The rental of reusable packaging is an important aspect of the circular economy. The sector that offers this is therefore growing steadily. Challenges in the field of registration and process management appear to be slowing down that growth. It is not necessary. Renting based on a logistics process can be easily integrated within SAP. This keeps the rental process manageable and improves the provision of information to customers. Get in touch Ready to make a business change? At Emixa, we'd be glad to share our comprehensive insights. Contact us to discover how our approach can help your organization thrive in the cloud era. Let's embark a journey towards enhanced efficiency and effectiveness together! Martijn van Dam Martijn van Dam is a senior consultant and has more than 20 years of experience in the field of Supply Chain Management and digitalization.