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Eliminating Excel Chaos in Plex-Driven Manufacturing Supply Chains with Boardwalk Velocity

Published on December 2024
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For manufacturers running Plex ERP, Excel continues to be a critical but problematic tool for managing supply chain operations. While Plex provides cloud-based ERP and MES capabilities, many supply chain teams still rely on Excel for supplier collaboration and purchase order tracking, demand planning and inventory adjustments, production scheduling overrides and capacity planning, and custom reports and data aggregation from multiple sources.

The Bottom-Line Benefits

  • 0-6% increase in margins
  • 70-80% efficiency gains
  • 2-4% reduction in duplicate supplier orders
  • Lower inventory costs
  • Better forecasting and capacity utilization
  • Improved customer satisfaction and better talent retention

Key Perils in Manufacturing Supply Chains Despite Plex ERP

Supplier Collaboration is Disconnected: No real-time collaboration tools are available for supply chain. Excel keeps track of purchase orders, lead time adjustments, and supplier commitments—resulting in conflicting versions.

Disconnected Reporting Leads to Bad Decisions: Plex's MRP and forecasting tools don't account for rapid changes in demand, resulting in missed adjustments.

Demand Planning Requires Workarounds: Manufacturers must export data from Plex into Excel to manage inventory projections, planning, and manual adjustments.

Production Schedules Lack Real-Time Data Updates: Manufacturers rely on Excel for work center scheduling and capacity adjustments, as Plex doesn't always provide instant updates.

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