ERP Systems for Manufacturing Operations Training Course

Course overview

Manufacturers depend on accurate, connected transactions to turn demand into material plans, shop-floor work, quality records, shipments and financial results. When master data is unreliable, bills of material are poorly controlled, inventory movements are delayed, or planners work outside the ERP system, the effects appear as stockouts, excess inventory, missed production dates, expediting costs and weak schedule adherence. This course addresses the operational decisions behind ERP use in discrete and process manufacturing environments, helping participants understand how production, supply chain, quality, maintenance and finance data must work together.

Participants learn the manufacturing ERP lifecycle from item and material master setup through sales and operations planning, MRP, purchasing, production orders, inventory transactions, quality management, maintenance integration and production reporting. They practise reading demand and supply signals, maintaining bills of material and routings, interpreting MRP exceptions, releasing and closing production orders, and tracing the cost and inventory consequences of shop-floor transactions. The course uses examples aligned to SAP S/4HANA, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management and Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP while focusing on transferable manufacturing processes rather than one vendor configuration.

Teaching combines instructor-led demonstrations, guided system-style exercises, manufacturing cases and cross-functional workshops. Participants work through a realistic scenario involving a delayed customer order, material shortages, capacity constraints and production variances. They leave with a Manufacturing ERP Process Map and Improvement Action Plan that identifies critical transactions, data owners, control points, exception reports and practical improvements for their own operation.

The course is suited to manufacturing professionals who use, support, supervise or improve ERP-enabled processes, including planners, production leaders, supply chain staff, business analysts and functional project team members. It is equally valuable for managers approving ERP improvement work who need staff able to connect system discipline with measurable operational performance.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Map the end-to-end ERP transaction flow from customer demand through production, shipment and financial posting
• Create and validate item masters, bills of material, routings and work-centre data for a manufacturing scenario
• Run an MRP planning cycle and interpret planned orders, purchase requisitions and exception messages
• Convert planned orders into production orders and define release, issue, confirmation and closure controls
• Analyse inventory accuracy using goods movements, cycle-count results, reservations and stock-status reports
• Use capacity and material availability checks to identify feasible production responses to demand changes
• Trace quality, maintenance and production transactions to their effects on cost, yield and schedule performance
• Produce a Manufacturing ERP Process Map and Improvement Action Plan for an operational process

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Production Planners — who translate demand into feasible material and production plans
• Manufacturing Supervisors — who need timely, accurate shop-floor order and confirmation data
• Supply Chain Analysts — who investigate inventory, replenishment and MRP exceptions
• ERP Business Analysts — who document manufacturing requirements and support process improvements
• Materials and Inventory Managers — who control stock accuracy, material availability and transaction discipline
• ERP Project Team Members — who need a practical manufacturing-process foundation before implementation or upgrade work

Requirements and prerequisites

This is a foundation-to-intermediate course. Participants should understand basic manufacturing terms such as bill of materials, routing, work centre, purchase order, production order, inventory and lead time, and should have some exposure to their organisation’s production or supply-chain process. Experience using an ERP system is helpful but not essential; complete beginners should expect to work carefully through transaction flows and planning logic before applying them to workplace examples. No programming, database administration, ERP configuration or prior SAP, Microsoft Dynamics or Oracle certification is required. A laptop is useful for exercises but no licensed system access is assumed.

Training methodology

The five days combine focused instructor explanations with guided walkthroughs of manufacturing ERP screens, transaction flows and planning reports. Participants work in small groups on a connected manufacturing case, moving from demand forecasts and master data through MRP, purchasing, production execution, inventory, quality and cost analysis. Exercises use sample data and vendor-neutral process templates informed by SAP S/4HANA, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management and Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP. Each day closes with a practical output, and the final workshop converts learning into a site-specific process map and improvement plan.

Course outline

Day 1: Manufacturing ERP foundations and master data

• ERP process architecture for discrete and process manufacturing
• Order-to-cash, plan-to-produce and procure-to-pay integration
• Item and material master data fields
• Bills of material and revision control
• Routings, operations and work-centre definitions
• Units of measure, lot sizes and lead-time parameters
• Data governance roles and master-data change controls

Workshop: Participants audit a sample product master, bill of material and routing, then produce a data-defect log showing operational consequences.

Day 2: Demand, MRP and supply planning

• Demand sources, forecasts and sales-order consumption
• Sales and operations planning alignment
• MRP inputs, planning horizons and netting logic
• Safety stock, reorder points and service-level trade-offs
• Planned orders, purchase requisitions and production proposals
• MRP exception messages and planner worklists
• Capacity requirements planning and bottleneck review

Workshop: Participants run a paper-based MRP planning cycle for a constrained product family and produce a prioritised exception-response plan.

Day 3: Production execution and shop-floor control

• Production order creation and order status management
• Material availability checks and component staging
• Order release rules and production scheduling
• Backflushing, material issue and scrap reporting
• Operation confirmations, labour capture and machine time
• Work-in-progress visibility and order progress reporting
• Production order closure and variance review

Workshop: Participants manage a delayed production order through release, component shortage resolution, confirmation and closure, producing an order-control checklist.

Day 4: Inventory, quality, maintenance and costing integration

• Inventory statuses, locations and stock transfer transactions
• Cycle counting and inventory-adjustment controls
• Batch, serial and lot traceability requirements
• Quality inspection plans, holds and nonconformance records
• Maintenance work orders and production asset availability
• Standard cost, actual cost and production variance concepts
• Financial postings from inventory and production transactions

Workshop: Participants trace a quality hold and equipment failure through inventory, production and cost records, producing a transaction-impact analysis.

Day 5: ERP performance improvement and operational application

• Manufacturing ERP key performance indicators and report design
• Schedule adherence, yield, inventory accuracy and plan attainment
• Root-cause analysis for recurring MRP and execution exceptions
• ISA-95 integration points between ERP and manufacturing execution systems
• Role-based controls, segregation of duties and audit trails
• ERP process standardisation and local workarounds
• Improvement roadmaps, ownership and benefit measurement

Workshop: Participants complete a Manufacturing ERP Process Map and Improvement Action Plan for their own or the course case operation, with controls, owners and measures.

Tools & standards covered

SAP S/4HANA, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management, Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP, ISA-95

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions