NetSuite releases updates twice every year and upgrades its system automatically. Before each release, NetSuite provides its customers with a release preview for every sector. It also issues them with educational materials to help them understand the motive behind the upgrades and keep pace with any significant changes.
In addition, the company dispenses schedules to their users regarding specific dates on which they should expect their accounts to receive the upgrades. This allows a smooth and unimpaired transition into the new system.
In the preview phase, users are given time to test their processes and identify any limitations before the system goes live.
For the manufacturing industry, technological advancement is a critical component in steering growth. Manufacturers need better insight into their suppliers, and access to critical data and information that help to ensure all the operations are working perfectly and efficiently. The NetSuite 2021 release 2 has considered the countless challenges faced by the manufacturers in the past year and has released a few updates to ensure operations run efficiently.
What Are These New Features for Manufacturers?
With the many challenges manufacturers encountered last year due to COVID-19 pandemic, NetSuite had to tailor practical ways to enhance efficiency in face of such hurdles. Some of these challenges include recruiting qualified labor, meeting quality and quantity demands, and delays in shipping. Therefore, NetSuite graced the manufacturing industry with significant upgrades that will hopefully steer its development, even more, this year. The upgrades touched on the industry:
- Supply chain
- Inventory management
- Operations automation
- Financial automation
1. Independent Supply Chain
Netsuite’s 2021 release 2, brought with it a great functionality that gives room for automatic prioritization of inventory allocation to sales orders by gross profit or revenue. The new feature allows the planners to determine the accurate date when particular items will be available in their stock from any given location.
To know the earliest stock availability date, the planners consider the supply chain lead times and the strategy used for allocation. They can also easily view the sales channel allocation and reservations.
On the same note, the industry’s planners are given a chance to study the customers’ changing demands and trends. This allows them to understand the impact of these changes on the other transactions allocations.
The manufacturer’s new features also give the users flexibility in viewing the workbench’s information from which they can accurately predict the demand level and arrange for supplies. Also, the new feature allows the users to access the data-based planning views on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. This limits the number of past days that the supply process will have to look for due and unconsumed forecasts.
Again, the new feature permits the planners to end the previously rejected recommendations to concentrate on the data they need to make accurate forecasts.
Lastly, the administrators can upgrade the existing NetSuite supply planning accounts to accommodate new Material Requirement Planning and the master production schedule functions.
2. Inventory Management
With enhanced NetSuite WMS and packing station, warehouse officials can quickly ship a pallet using a handheld device. It allows them to add or reduce cartons in a pallet. In this feature, the shippers have the flexibility to pack multiple packages heading to the same destination in the same pallet. With this feature in place, the shippers can hold a pallet until it is full thus, optimizing the shipping costs.
Among the features is the inbound processing of the tally scan functionality. This facilitates accurate inbound processes. Moreover, NetSuite allows automatic generation of lot numbers to enable users to configure additional details such as the suppliers’ lot numbers and the manufacture dates.
In addition, the upgraded WMS permits for automatic generation of analysis certificates which shows the customers that their products have been set to their expectations. NetSuite has also provided a mobile app that supports serial tracked items. With this application, customers can scan the serial codes or enter them manually.
3. Financial and General Operations Feature
NetSuite’s 2021 release 2 considered the automation of operations and smart financials. In the finance sector, users can make changes to the costs of goods sold, or assets accounts to allow them to be reflected in future transactions. By setting the system to the latter, they will manage to keep past transactions data accurately.
Also, the new feature allows for an automatic combination of purchase requisition from all the subsidiaries. The system also ensures that items are received in their relevant subsidiaries and that the purchase charges are charged to the responsible entities correctly.
NetSuite provides an online payment portal where customers are linked directly, and their invoices can be pinned to them by the manufacturers. The customers can then access and pay their invoices using credit or debit cards or any other available payment method, either partially or in full amounts, depending on the manufacturer’s payment policies. This new feature makes it possible for the system to keep a clean and accurate record for every client each time they make a payment, and the method used to pay.
Final Remarks
The NetSuite’s 2021 2 release is meant to broaden the manufacturing industry in the remaining part of the year. It will lighten the burdens and challenges that the industry faced a year back through the automation of diverse processes.
To stay on top of new NetSuite releases or to take advantage of new features, it’s important to have guidance from an expert NetSuite partner like MIBAR.
As a leading NetSuite partner, we’ve established a genuine methodology to help maximize every dollar of your ERP budget and ensure NetSuite is meeting your needs. We assist businesses just like yours to identify areas of risk and inefficiency, rescue implementations, assist with NetSuite enhancements and improvements, provide support, training, and much more. Learn more about our NetSuite support services.
Additional NetSuite Resources
NetSuite Support: 5 Ways Personalized Support Can Get You Back on Track
3 Ways to Get the Most ROI from Your NetSuite Implementation
