As many industry leaders and national newspapers are reporting, the UK is currently in the midst of a supply chain crisis. In part, this has been caused by increased retail demand.
Although increased demand in the UK economy is a good sign, especially following the low levels seen during the pandemic, demand has increased much quicker than supply, leading to widespread supply chain issues.
Many supermarkets are already facing supply shortages, with some using
cardboard cut outs to hide gaps left by missing products.
ERP Software
To correctly manage and streamline supply chains, it’s important for businesses to track their materials, production time and job scheduling. To do this, it’s necessary to invest in an effective ERP software.
ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is a process utilised by companies to manage and integrate the key departments of their business, from marketing to purchasing to HR.
An ERP system meant for supply chain management will automatically create demand when orders are received. ERP software also ensures that production policies are consistent with demand, replenishment is done at the right time, and inventory is lean.
Sage 200 & Sicon Distribution
At Onesys we recommend Sicon Distribution for small to mid-size businesses that need to manage their supply chain.
Sicon Distribution is specifically designed as an enhancement for Sage 200 and is fully integrated with the Sage 200 Stock and Order Processing modules. The module allows distribution organisations to improve their costing, reduce stock holdings, manage seasonal trends, increase telesales productivity, and incorporate sales forecasting within future stock projections and suggested purchase order creation.
Sicon Distribution consists of 9 individual modules:
- Warehouse Replenishment – for topping up multiple remote warehouses such as consignment warehouses and production plants.
- Material Planning – provides suggested purchase orders to handle future stock shortages. Uses current stock levels and sales orders to determine when stock is required based on supplier lead time.
- Reserves & Call Offs – holds allocated stock for customers within Sage 200 and releases via SOP or directly from the reserve. Use SOP & POP contacts to manage commitment to purchase and track progress.
- Future Sales – uses historical sales and seasonal trends to forecast future sales demand to drive purchase recommendations.
- Purchase Order Management – an enhancement for purchasing including supplier delivery KPIs, inspection of goods, expanded landed costs, supplier quantity breaks and minimum order values.
- Pre-Allocation Management – links purchase orders with sales orders to ensure immediate allocation at goods in.
- Container Management – manages the full cycle of container creation, linking multiple purchase orders, managing the stages of loading, travel and customs clearance.
- Stock Matrix – handles the creation of colour/size/style/season stock items with grid style SOP/POP order entry for speed of processing.
- Sales Order Management – an enhancement for sales processing including telesales, copy historical orders, complimentary, superseded & discontinued products.
Why Onesys?
At Onesys we’re certified Sage 200 specialists and we know all about Sicon Distribution and the other highly integrated software modules that run alongside Sage.
If you’d like to know more about ERP systems, or how we can help your business run more efficiently, please contact our sales team on 01423 330335 or email us at
sales@onesys.co.uk.