Salesforce for Manufacturing: Boost Efficiency with Document Generation, OCR & File Storage
In the manufacturing industry, managing documents goes beyond merely keeping things organized. It is essential for maintaining compliance, preventing delays, and ensuring that products arrive at the right location at the right time. From purchase orders to quality checks, each step in the process must be executed with precision to ensure this success. But the harsh truth is that most teams are drowning in multiple documents, manual approvals, missed emails, and disorganized file & folders, hindering their efficiency and productivity. So, how can manufacturing companies break free from document overload and build a system that truly works? The Answer: Leveraging Salesforce with Smart Document Management Solutions Why? Because Salesforce is transforming the way manufacturers operate. With Salesforce Manufacturing Cloud, you can do more than manage customer relationships. By connecting sales, operations, and partners on a single platform, you gain better visibility, smarter forecasts, and control over every step. But even with all that power, there’s one thing that still clogs the gears: the document-heavy manufacturing process itself. Think about it, Purchase Order Management, Production & Quality Control, and Inventory Management, they’re all document-heavy, approval-driven, and deadline-sensitive. If you’re still stuck in manual mode, it doesn’t matter how powerful your CRM is, you’re always prone to errors, delays, and inefficiencies. That’s where document automation and external document management systems come in. When these integrate seamlessly with Salesforce, everything clicks into place. That’s when you stop wasting time on manual file management and start speeding up processes across the board. In this blog, we’ll break down exactly how all of this fits into your manufacturing process—from purchase orders to quality control—and why automating documents is the next step in building a more efficient, scalable operation. Purchase Order Management Picture this. Your purchase team urgently needs to source materials for an upcoming manufacturing unit. They’ve found a few solid vendors, and it’s time to request quotes, negotiate pricing, and raise a purchase order. Sounds straightforward? Not really. Here’s how it usually plays out: You raise a purchase request, which goes to the Department Head for approval and then to the Procurement Head. Once it’s green-lit, the RFQs go out, vendor quotes trickle in, and after some evaluation, you generate the Purchase Order(PO). The vendor confirms, shares invoices, and sets delivery timelines. But now you’re juggling Work Orders, Bill of Materials(BOMs), Vendor Quotations, Inspection Reports, NCRs, and of course, contracts. Production & Quality Control Once the PO is confirmed and the materials start arriving, it’s time to get into the thick of production. This is where your operations team kicks into high gear, and where the paperwork continues to pile up. From production schedules to inspection logs, everything needs to be tracked, verified, and approved Here’s what the usual flow looks like: Materials are received and logged Work Orders are issued Production begins Quality checks kick in at different stages NCRs and inspection reports are generated Final product is approved or sent back for rework You’re now managing Material Inspection Reports, WIP Checklists, QA Forms, NCRs, Compliance Certificates, and final QA sign-offs. Inventory Management With production rolling and quality checks in motion, it’s now up to inventory management to keep everything balanced. Raw materials in, finished goods out, and somewhere in between—real-time stock visibility is everything. Sounds easy in theory, but in practice? Things can get chaotic fast. Here’s how the typical flow goes: Goods are received and logged Inventory levels are updated manually Items are moved to production or storage Finished goods are recorded Dispatch and delivery details are entered Stock reports are generated for finance and procurement teams. You’re now working with GRNs, Stock Transfer Forms, Inventory Count Sheets, Dispatch Notes, and Delivery Challans. But even if you’ve managed to stay on top of these documents so far, it only takes one slip to disrupt the entire chain. Here’s Why Manual Handling of Operational Documents Holds You Back Let me ask you, if a document goes missing, how quickly can your team recover, and at what cost? And when documents are generated manually, how confident are you that every field is filled, every signature captured, and every version tracked? If you don’t know the answer, or if your answer starts with “it depends,” that’s already a cause for concern. Manual processes might’ve worked back when operations were simpler. But today? With everything moving fast and expectations even faster, managing documents by hand is like trying to race a jet with a bicycle. If you manage your Purchase Orders, Vendor Quotes, and Work Orders manually, you already know the pain. One missed email, one outdated version of a BOM (Bill of Materials), or a missed detail in the Inspection Report can suddenly throw your whole workflow off balance. You’ve probably seen it firsthand: That NCR (Non-Conformance Report) form that went missing just before a final quality audit The GRN (Goods Receipt Note) that didn’t make it to the inventory team in time The Dispatch Note that was saved in the wrong folder, delaying shipment The QA Certificate that never got signed off, holding up production There is a risk of missing details when documents are created manually. This issue becomes more pronounced when there is no automated workflow for review and approval. As a result, you may be losing valuable production hours. Many manufacturers assume that implementing multiple software solutions will be expensive and technically overwhelming, but that’s not the case. Did you know document-related issues can cause up to 21.3% productivity loss? A Heavy Equipment Manufacturing Industry, known for powering infrastructure with high-performance machinery like cranes and excavators, struggled with scattered files, poor folder sync, and unclear access controls. That’s when XfilesPro stepped in. By streamlining document storage, syncing, and access management, they increased efficiency, saved time, and ultimately boosted overall productivity. Download the case study to know more Meet XfilesPro: The Automated Document Management Suite You Need XfilesPro is purpose-built for managing documents within Salesforce. It aligns seamlessly with your industry’s compliance and operational needs. Let me walk you through
WEBINAR SYNOPSIS: File Archiving: The Future of Salesforce File Management
Our much-awaited webinar session finally happened last week and without further ado we thank everyone for such a phenomenal response. A big thank you to everyone who made the session a great success. But even the people who missed attending the live session can reap the rewards as we bring this article which will quickly walk them through everything that went down in the event. The webinar, that was aimed at introducing & discussing the revolutionary ‘file archiving‘ capabilities of the XfilesPro application, was hosted by two of our eminent Product Consultants, Vedant Srivastava and Sutirtha Roy. The action-packed 30 mins long discussion began as Vedant gave everyone present there a brief overview of the primary file storage in Salesforce followed by discussing the common challenges faced due to unmanaged exponential files growth. Whether it is the difficulty in managing large volumes of Salesforce files or the struggles of an unstructured file/folder system or simply the difficulties that arise during setting up collaboration among files. Vedant explained how all those challenges could easily be addressed by simply integrating different external Cloud (SharePoint, AWS S3, Google Drive, OneDrive & Dropbox) and on-premise (FTP, SMB & Network Drive) storages with the Salesforce system. It was then that he explained how XfilesPro was the ultimate solution to overcoming the Salesforce file management problems & setting up the integration between external storages and Salesforce. He explained its multifold features in great detail and also shed light on some of its primary benefits like 80-90% file storage costs savings, easy set-up & implementation, faster ROI and support for multiple storages. Don’t worry if you missed the live session. We got you covered with the recording of the session here. After this he finally moved on to the main topic of the webinar session and discussed file archiving with everyone. He meticulously explained how archiving a large volume of Salesforce files and attachments to different external storages was now possible with the help of XfilesPro. Not only can such trigger-based archiving job be automated and auto-scheduled to reduce repetitive manual intervention, but it also has no impact on the ongoing business processes. He also talked about the role seamless file archiving played in creating a centralized file management system by promoting community file management, file/folder syncing, internal team collaboration, collaboration with external users, better file management in proper folder structures, and an overall improvement in user experience. This was followed by Sutirtha taking over to show a quick demo of XfilesPro & how easily it can be set-up in the Org. During the course of the webinar, three customer use cases belonging to the industry leaders from the logistics, educational & financial industry were also showcased. After highlighting the specific challenges they faced in Salesforce file management, they went on to explain how each one of them addressed those challenges by implementing the next-gen file archiving strategies of XfilesPro in their Org & what benefits they achieved. You can also see the slide-by-slide presentation of the complete webinar here. Towards the end of the insightful session, our Salesforce file management experts quickly summarized the advantages of using XfilesPro’s seamless file archiving capabilities to completely revamp the way files/attachments are managed in Salesforce. Following this, they answered a few of the questions posed by the webinar attendees after which the session was successfully concluded. There is a lot more in stock for our Salesforce customers as new and exciting webinars are planned for the coming months. Please follow us on our social media handles for latest updates about the upcoming webinars. AMARLAL
