The Relationship and Difference between CRM/PLM/SCM/MES and ERP

The construction of enterprise informatization is to increase the efficiency of production and operation of enterprises through the deployment of IT technology, reduce operational risks and reduce operating costs, thereby increasing the ability of enterprises to profitably and sustainably operate.

Through specialized information agencies and information supervisors, enterprises are equipped with automation, intelligent, high-tech hardware, software, equipment, and facilities that meet the requirements of modern enterprise management operations, and establish working platforms including networks, databases, and various types of information management systems. Improve the development model of business management efficiency.

Then, what are the relations and differences between the concepts of technology CRM, PLM, SCM, MES, and ERP used in the enterprise information construction?

Concept CRM: (Customer Relationship Management, Customer Relationship Management)

In order to improve core competitiveness, companies use relevant information technologies and Internet technologies to coordinate the interactions between companies and customers in sales, marketing, and services, so as to improve their management methods, and provide customers with innovative personalized customer interactions and services. the process of. Its ultimate goal is to attract new customers, retain old customers, and turn existing customers into loyal customers, increasing market share.

The implementation goal of CRM is to reduce the cost of the enterprise by comprehensively improving the management of the business process of the enterprise, and to attract and maintain more customers by providing faster and more considerate services. As a new type of management mechanism, CRM has greatly improved the relationship between companies and customers, and implemented in the areas related to customers such as marketing, sales, service, and technical support. The CRM system can timely acquire customer needs and provide services for customers so that enterprises can reduce "soft" costs.

Concept PLM: (Product Life Cycle Management, Product Lifecycle Management)

PLM is applied to the creation, management, and distribution of information throughout the life cycle of a company that is applied within a single-site enterprise, is distributed across multiple sites, and has collaborative relationships in product development. A range of application solutions for applications that integrate product-related human resources.

PLM includes the entire content of PDM (Product Data Management), which is a subset of PLM. However, PLM emphasizes the concept of managing and utilizing all information across the supply chain during the product life cycle. This is a fundamental difference from PDM.

Concept SCM: (Supply chain management, Supply Chain Management)

Supply chain management is an integrated management idea and method that performs the functions of planning and controlling logistics from supplier to end user in the supply chain. From the standpoint of a single company, SCM revolves around core companies to improve the upstream and downstream supply chain relationships, integrate and optimize information flow, logistics, and capital flows in the supply chain to gain a competitive advantage.

The supply chain system can optimize the cost and value of the product. It mainly serves the manufacturing of the enterprise. SCM mainly plans, dispatches, allocates, controls, and utilizes various materials, funds, and information resources in various aspects of supply through information means to form a complete set of users, retailers, distributors, manufacturers, and suppliers. The overall function of the supply process.

Concept ERP: (Enterprise Resource Planning, Enterprise Resource Planning)

ERP is an enterprise information management system that mainly integrates integrated management of material resources, financial resources, and information resources for the manufacturing industry. ERP is an enterprise management software that can provide cross-regional, cross-department, or even cross-company integration of real-time information with management accounting as the core. It integrates integrated enterprise management software for material resources management (logistics), human resources management (people flow), financial resources management (finance flow), and information resource management (information flow).

ERP is characterized by its integration, system, flexibility and real-time control. The ERP system's supply chain management ideology puts forward higher requirements for enterprises, and it is the core management mode for enterprises to flourish in the information-based society and in the era of knowledge economy.

Concept MES: (Manufacturing Execution System, Production Process Execution System)

The MES system is a set of production information management system for the executive floor of manufacturing enterprises. MES can provide enterprises with manufacturing data management, planning and scheduling management, production scheduling management, inventory management, quality management, human resources management, work center/equipment management, tooling management, procurement management, cost management, project management, and production The management modules such as process control, underlying data integration analysis, and upper-level data integration decomposition provide companies with a solid, reliable, comprehensive, and feasible manufacturing collaborative management platform.

MES can optimize the management of the entire production process from the order to the finished product through information transfer. When a real-time event occurs at the factory, the MES can respond and report in a timely manner, and use current accurate data to guide and process them. This rapid response to changes in status allows MES to reduce activities with no added value within the company and effectively guide the factory's production and operation processes, so that it can not only improve the factory's timely delivery capacity, improve the flow of materials, but also improve Production rate of return.

Differences and relations between CRM and ERP

From the management concept, the ERP management concept is to improve the internal resources of the company's planning and control capabilities, pay attention to meet the customer and timely delivery while minimizing various costs, improve the internal operating efficiency to improve the customer's The quality of service can be said to be centered on efficiency. The concept of CRM is based on the establishment, development and maintenance of customer relationships. Their concept is different in the object of attention. Compared with enterprise-level internal resource planning ERP, CRM is more concerned with the market and customers. Because today's customers can access various products and services through the sales forms provided by traditional markets, they can easily find products and services they are interested in through the call center or the Internet. Their consumption patterns changed from passive acceptance to active choice. Therefore, the role of CRM is mainly in the department that is in direct contact with customers. It mainly focuses on the marketing, sales, and service departments of the company, including the management of the entire customer life cycle, and provides enterprises with statistics on customers and purchased products. Information tools and functions such as tracking and service. In other words, if ERP is an enterprise-wide comprehensive management application, CRM is the front-end of ERP, and its role extends beyond the scope of ERP's previous capabilities.

Compared with ERP systems, CRM products are more focused on sales, marketing, customer service and support management. In fact, the value of CRM lies in the importance of highlighting sales management, marketing management, customer service and support, and the CRM system itself. Can be seen as a part of the generalized ERP, the two should be able to form a seamless closed-loop system.

The Difference and Relation between PLM and ERP

PLM is a technology used to manage all product-related information (such as part information, configuration information, graphic document information, structural information, permission information, etc.) and all product-related processes; ERP is all resources related to the enterprise and manufacturing The technology of unified management with the process focuses on the management of logistics in the manufacturing sector. Its representative functions include master production planning, material requirements planning, procurement demand planning, financial system management, inventory management, and so on.

The goal of PLM is to expect effective control of product data or processes, control of product quality from the source of design, realization of “open source” and “production of money”, reduction of direct costs, provision of R&D capabilities, shortening of product life cycle, and improvement of corporate The core competitiveness of ERP is to “throttle” and “to save money”. It is hoped that through effective management of corporate resources, indirect costs will be reduced and manufacturing capacity will be improved.

PLM system advocates innovation, focusing on R&D of products. The goal is to accelerate the speed of profit, promote innovation in both products and processes, and quickly occupy the market with “outstanding” products; the ERP system emphasizes control. The need to manage visibility drives and controls the activities of companies that have financial implications.

The difference and connection between SCM and ERP

SCM is complementary to ERP and belongs to two fundamentally different categories. They have different purposes, different fields and objects, different business nature, and different processes. The required solution structure and system implementation methods are also different. Although many very difficult problems have to be solved in the process of implementing ERP, it is basically a problem within the enterprise. In the implementation of SCM, apart from the internal problems of related companies that need to be resolved, people will also face who is the supply chain. Managers, who are the implementers of the supply chain, how to reflect the effectiveness of the system implementation, who are the actual beneficiaries of the system, who should bear the costs of the system, and how to share the burden.

ERP is an asset-based system that is usually represented as an asset in the balance sheet and amortized in sales management fees. SCM is a cost-based system. The increase in geographic coverage, business complexity, and length of supply chain caused by corporate activities will lead to a significant increase in the implementation and maintenance costs of SCM systems. Therefore, the cost of SCM should be used as the direct cost of the business. Reflected in the company's income statement.

As a "regulator", both an ERP system and an SCM system are required. Through the implementation of ERP, the internal business and management processes of the company are optimized, the information can be managed in a unified way, and the trading advantages compared with the “rules of compliance” are formed. Through these advantages, “regulators” formulate rules and change rules and force “rules of compliance” to follow these rules in various forms. SCM is a tool for "regulators" and "ruling" supply chains.

The difference and connection between MES and ERP

The focus of ERP is on finance, that is, from the financial point of view, the company's resources are planned. The related modules are also developed with finance as the core. The final management data is also concentrated on the financial statements. The MES focuses on manufacturing, which is the management goal of product quality, on-time delivery, equipment utilization, and process control.

The scope of ERP management is larger than MES, and MES management is smaller than ERP. As part of the company's resources, enterprise production resources are also within the scope of ERP management, and also have corresponding functional modules such as production planning, data collection, quality management, and material management, so they are often confused with MES. However, the scope of ERP management is mainly based on the work center, MES can be more meticulous to each manufacturing process, the task of each process is issued, the implementation of the control and data acquisition, on-site scheduling. If ERP is to be managed at the process level, custom development is required.

ERP mainly adopts the method of filling forms and forms to implement management. The manufacturing tasks received on the site are conveyed through the form. The on-site manufacturing data is also collected through the form. MES adopts the way of events to realize management, production order changes and on-site manufacturing. The MES built-in WIP engine immediately triggers relevant events and requires related personnel or equipment to take corresponding actions.