A single software application or a suite of applications that connect a company’s manufacturing data from one or more sources to an integrated system and provides end-user access to employees who manage, report and analyze the data.

Manufacturing software typically includes functions for managing sales and orders, costing, engineering, supply chain, inventory, production, logistics, finances, data analytics and customer service. Depending on the vendor, manufacturing software may include any or all of these modules and may be designed for specific types of manufacturing, specific industries, or companies of specific sizes.

Manufacturing software evolved from early mainframe systems in the 1970s and Material Requirements Planning (MRP) systems in the 1970s and 1980s to on-premise enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems based on client-server technology. Today, advances in digital technologies and cloud computing have fueled the growth and popularity of cloud-based ERP software for manufacturing.