What is Contract Manufacturing Software?
Modern contract manufacturers are increasingly investing in digital solutions to optimize their operations, improve traceability, and meet consumer packaged goods (CPG) brand expectations.
Contract manufacturing software is any digital solution that is built to manage production, labor, and inventory for contract manufacturers, contract packagers, and value-added third-party logistics providers. Contract manufacturing software helps co-manufacturers easily manage their complex workflows and production schedules for faster execution, better order fulfillment and greater customer satisfaction.
What Are the Critical Capabilities of Contract Manufacturing Software?
Many traditional software providers (e.g., MES, WMS, ERP) claim to be a fit for contract manufacturing companies, but are inadequate in addressing the needs and challenges facing co-manufacturers.
Contract manufacturing production floors are complex and dynamic, with a wide range of components, bills of materials (BOMs), and customers being handled every day. Purpose-built contract manufacturing software should enable users to easily manage and handle these complexities.
Strong co-manufacturing management software also should be purpose-built to support capabilities such as:
- Production scheduling – Easily manage your production calendar in a visual, drag-and-drop interface.
- Order management – Use real-time dashboards to track production as it happens.
- Labor management – Effectively schedule, allocate, and optimize labor resources.
- Inventory management – Easily track your in-transit and on-hand inventory needed for orders.
- Quality control – Digitally track and enforce quality-related processes.
- Reporting – Quickly export and visualize production data.
Learn why traditional software such as ERP systems are often a poor fit for co-manufacturing environments.
What Contract Manufacturing Services does Co-Manufacturing Software Assist With?
Contract manufacturers are specialists in providing manufacturing and related services for their brand customers. Purpose-built software for co-manufacturers is able to streamline workflows for the vast array of services that co-manufacturers provide, such as:
- Materials Management – Manage sourcing of raw materials, components, or ingredients.
- Customization – Handle complex assembly of components, as well as customizations or configurations to brand specifications.
- Quality – Conduct in-process and final product testing to ensure safety and compliance.
- Compliance – Ensure production meets industry regulations and provides necessary documentation and recall capability.
- Packaging – Fulfilling packaging requirements for customers, including design and production.
What Challenges Does Contract Manufacturing Software Solve?
Many co-manufacturing businesses struggle to get by on Excel spreadsheets and homegrown systems, leading to:
- Scattered information
- Inaccurate data
- Wasted personnel hours
- Higher scrap rates and reduced quality
- Missed deadlines
- Unhappy customers
Further, when these businesses rely on outdated software and clunky spreadsheets to manage their business, they have trouble expanding and growing. Co-manufacturing compatible software should be able to scale easily as the business grows.
Contract manufacturing solutions are built from the ground up to address the challenges that co-manufacturers face every day in scheduling, production, quality, and more.
For more info, check out our article on what capabilities to look for in contract manufacturing software.
What’s Your Shop Floor Visibility Score?
How easily can you collect data about your co-manufacturing production and business? Take our quick Data Visibility quiz to see where you stand.
What are the Benefits of Contract Manufacturing Software?
Contract manufacturing software offers a wide range of production and business-related benefits over other co-manufacturing management alternatives, including:
- Real-time visibility and control over production, inventory, and labor, producing data on active job performance and profitability.
- Increased quality and service levels through paperless control, tracking and reporting on quality inspections and batch records.
- Enhanced agility and responsiveness to changing demand and supply without losing money from safety stock or material obsolescence.
- Digitally tracked inventory and labor management with dynamic production planning and scheduling connected to actual work orders.
These tools help reduce waste, improve quality, and ensure accurate order fulfillment—especially when managing high-mix, low-volume work typical in contract manufacturing.
Learn How to Choose the Best Contract Manufacturing & Co-Packing Software For You
Contract manufacturing is a complex, dynamic business, in which orders can change multiple times a day, exposing risks for miscommunications, delays, inventory shortages, and more. It is critical to choose co-manufacturing management software that is purpose-built to effectively manage ever-changing schedules, production statuses and workflows.
Choosing the right software for your contract manufacturing operation can feel overwhelming. We created a guide specifically to help co-manufacturers and co-packers navigate the software landscape and select the right solution for their needs.
We created a guide specifically to help co-packers navigate the software landscape and select the right solution for their needs.
In this guide you’ll learn:
- A comprehensive checklist of software capabilities
- How to choose the right contract manufacturing and co-packaging software
- Why traditional software systems are ill-equipped to meet the needs of contract manufacturers and contract packagers
Download our free guide today.
