Find the best Manufacturing Project Management Software

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monday.com

monday.com is an award-winning work and project management platform that helps teams of all sizes plan, prioritize, manage, and execute their work more effectively. The platform offers solutions for a wide range of use-cases such...Read more about monday.com

4.6 (4659 reviews)

41 recommendations

Wrike

Wrike is a cloud-based project management platform for teams of 20+ that is suitable for both large enterprises and SMBs. It supports remote work for various teams. This solution comes with Gantt charts, calendars, workload view f...Read more about Wrike

4.3 (2590 reviews)

33 recommendations

NetSuite OpenAir

NetSuite OpenAir offers buyers a collection of applications designed to support every stage of the professional services delivery lifecycle. Offered as Software-as-a-Service, the platform includes applications to manage projects, ...Read more about NetSuite OpenAir

4.0 (39 reviews)

19 recommendations

kintone

Kintone is a cloud-based, customizable workflow management platform suitable for businesses of all sizes. The key features of the solution include compliance management, approval process control, forms management, event monitoring...Read more about kintone

4.7 (152 reviews)

16 recommendations

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Quickbase

Quickbase is a no-code collaborative work management platform that empowers citizen developers to improve operations through real-time insights and automations across complex processes and disparate systems. Here's why Quickbase i...Read more about Quickbase

4.5 (294 reviews)

15 recommendations

Project Insight

Project Insight (PI) is award-winning work & project management software that helps companies manage and visualize projects, allocate personnel, streamline accounting, and track what work is being done throughout their entire orga...Read more about Project Insight

4.4 (60 reviews)

15 recommendations

WorkOtter

WorkOtter™ is purpose-built, by Project Managers for Project Managers, and helps PM professionals to deliver more successful project outcomes and align their work to the strategic objectives of the organization. Our solution is si...Read more about WorkOtter

4.9 (198 reviews)

8 recommendations

Workzone

Workzone is a project management solution that offers document management, project collaboration, customizable reporting, resource and task management and time tracking. The software is cloud-based and offers automated emailed rep...Read more about Workzone

4.8 (205 reviews)

6 recommendations

Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP

Continuous change requires continuous innovation Tomorrow’s leaders are those most capable of adapting to change today. Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP is a complete, modern, cloud ERP suite that provides your teams with advanced capabil...Read more about Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP

4.3 (55 reviews)

3 recommendations

PMware

PMware offers a "ready-to-use" enterprise-class project, portfolio, resource and collaborative work management platform. The software combines robust planning, resource management and in-context collaboration on a single platform ...Read more about PMware

No reviews yet

1 recommendations

Trello

Trello is a visual collaboration tool for planning tasks and projects. While commonly used by agile software development teams, the solution is also used in other departments such as marketing, sales, support and HR. The web-based...Read more about Trello

Basecamp

Basecamp is an efficient collaboration tool used by thousands of teams across the globe. Teams use Basecamp to keep track of assignments, work together on documents, plan projects, chat, and more. Basecamp is opinionated. It's b...Read more about Basecamp

Jira

Jira Software is a business process management tool used by agile teams to plan, track and release software. Jira Software supports Scrum, Kanban, a hybrid model or another unique workflow. Jira enables users to create project r...Read more about Jira

GitHub

GitHub is a project management and code sharing platform that allows users to share their codes with others and create/iterate using collective intelligence. The software can be used for different kinds of coding assignments inclu...Read more about GitHub

Smartsheet

Smartsheet is a work execution platform and collaboration tool with a familiar spreadsheet-like interface that helps teams plan, track, and manage projects in real-time. Smartsheet features include a range of project management to...Read more about Smartsheet

Todoist

Todoist is a to-do list and task manager for professionals and small businesses. Combining tasks, projects, comments, attachments, notifications, and more, Todoist lets users streamline their personal and team productivity and wo...Read more about Todoist

Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk is a cloud-based help desk solution from Zoho Corporation, catering to businesses of all sizes. Key features include management of customer support tickets, a customer support portal, contract management and report creat...Read more about Zoho Desk

Airtable

Airtable is a cloud-based project management solution targeting small to midsize businesses as well as departments within larger companies. This system focuses primarily on data organization and collaboration. The system uses...Read more about Airtable

Microsoft Project

Microsoft Project is a project management software designed for enterprises of all sizes. The tool includes project scheduling features, which allow management to create a project schedule, define and assign each project task, man...Read more about Microsoft Project

Float

Float is a collaborative resource management software for real-time project planning and task scheduling. Features include an intuitive interface, drag-and-drop features, keyboard shortcuts, reports, and analytics, and editing too...Read more about Float

Buyers Guide

Last Updated: March 16, 2023

Businesses in the manufacturing industry need to have well-oiled project management processes to keep their manufacturing and supply chain operations smooth. They need to be able to manage the fast paced activities of their crew on production floors as well as track equipment and raw materials.

While enterprise resource planning (ERP) tools on the market can help manage these functions, they can also be an overkill, especially for small or midsize manufacturers, given the breadth of organizational processes they are designed to support.

Instead, manufacturers can make do with project management solutions that help them in effectively scheduling tasks and tracking employee production hours and equipment inventory.

That said, choosing the right project management solution needs businesses to put in time and effort in software research. However, not all manufacturing businesses have the time to do this.

If you're such a business, this buyers guide will help you get started on all the information you need to make the right software choice.

Here's what we'll cover:

What is manufacturing project management software?

Manufacturing project management software is a tool designed to help a manufacturing company with managing projects, resource allocation, task tracking, team collaboration, and generating business intelligence reports. The tool comes with features such as Gantt charts, Kanban boards, built-in reporting dashboards, and shared team workspaces.

A thing to note is that this software is different from a manufacturing execution system, which comes with features such as production planning, materials requirement analysis, and quality management.

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Tracking project reports in NetSuite OpenAir (Source)

Common features of manufacturing project management software

Manufacturing project management software comes with features that help businesses effectively plan projects planning and track employee performance.

Project planning

Plan projects using Gantt charts to visualize task interdependencies and estimate the time and resources (people and machinery) required to complete a project.

Resource management

Understand the availability and skill set of employees and assign tasks accordingly.

Inventory management

Track the flow and stock of raw materials and the availability of equipment on the production floor.

Task management

Track the status of tasks (in progress/completed) on different dashboards, such as Kanban or a digital calendar.

Document management

Store and organize different project documents, such as product designs, client contracts, and project proposals, in a centralized online library.

Time tracking

Track the time taken by employees to complete specific tasks to understand their performance and productivity levels.

Collaboration

Allow different teams to view project-related information, share documents, and communicate via a built-in live chat app, shared activity dashboards, and task comments.

Reporting and analytics

View analytics of employee performance and project ROI on built-in dashboards.

What type of buyer are you?

To make the right manufacturing project management software choice you need to know which buyer category you belong to. Below are two categories that will help you in your software evaluation.

  • Small and midsize businesses: These buyers are generally concerned about the cost of software as an expensive one can be an added expense and a strain on their limited software budget. The best option for these businesses is to opt for a cloud-based tool that is easy on the wallet as it typically costs less than the upfront investment required for an on-premise product.

  • Large businesses: These buyers are concerned about advanced capabilities such as project portfolio management to effectively manage the project allocations for their massive teams. Another important point for large businesses is relevant third-party integrations, such as with dedicated manufacturing solutions, inventory software, and accounting tools.

Benefits of manufacturing project management software

Below are some of the most notable benefits of manufacturing project management software.

  • Gain visibility into project bottlenecks: Manufacturing project management software offers planning tools such as Gantt charts, which help you visualize project timelines and understand how a project will impact your resources. As a result, you are able to identify any bottlenecks that can cause project delays and make the necessary adjustments to ensure all projects run smoothly.

  • Improve team collaboration: Manufacturing project management software comes with communication and document management features that foster team collaboration. Different teams—engineers, manufacturing designers, and project managers—can be on the same page regarding tasks by commenting on shared activity dashboards and tracking project documents on a single location. Team members can also quickly clarify doubts or share important project information via chat channels, which save everyone's valuable time and effort.

Key considerations when selecting manufacturing project management software

When buying manufacturing project management software, you need to have the following most important considerations in mind.

  • Do you need a dedicated manufacturing system? While a manufacturing project management tool helps you in planning and utilizing project resources more effectively, it's not a replacement for a dedicated manufacturing software such as a product lifecycle management or production scheduling tool. Dedicated manufacturing tools offer specialized capabilities relevant to manufacturing. For instance, while manufacturing project management solutions will allow you to create digital repositories of documents, product lifecycle management tools will come with CAD applications for creating product design documents. Likewise, production scheduling tools will offer more robust reporting and analysis capabilities, helping you create "what if" scenarios for predicting project outcomes.

  • Do you understand the total cost of the software? Manufacturing project management solutions are available for on-premise as well as cloud deployments. Typically, the cost difference between is quite apparent, however, what businesses need to check for are hidden costs such as data migration fees, training costs, and priority phone support fees. These costs can vary from vendor to vendor, so the best way to understand the total cost of a solution is to ask the vendor detailed questions about all costs during the software demo.

Note: The application selected in this article is an example to show a feature in context and isn't intended as an endorsement or a recommendation. It has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable at the time of publication.