Top 10 Job Shop ERP Software

What are the top 10 Job Shop ERP Software systems available? Based on our experience and software currently available in the market, we have put together a list of likely Job Shop ERP Software that a company may look at when choosing their next ERP solution.

Job Shops are unique and don’t fit into the realm of traditional ERP systems with their large batch run MRP (Manufacturing Resource Planning) systems. What Job Shop ERP Software must provide is the ability to plan and account for small run or even one-off parts manufacturing. A traditional MRP won’t cut it.

Job Shops are often sub-contracted manufacturers who specialize in small jobs or specific small runs of a particular machined part. Often specializing in a particular metal fabrication, or a specialization around certain types of products, ie. fasteners or machined bar stock. They provide unique services for larger manufacturing operations such as working with unique materials, incredibly tight tolerances, the ability to generate quickly manufactured prototypes, design and CAD assistance, reverse engineering, quick-turn parts, in-house tooling amongst other services.

Job Shops serve a number of industries, including Aerospace, Automotive, Furniture Manufacturing, Machining, Medical, and specialty manufacturing. While this is a broad list of industries, the key elements of a job shop remain the same. They all have small runs or batches, unique parts for a contracted order, demands upon them to reduce costs while shortening delivery times, and the requirement to be flexible in their design, setup and manufacturing processes.

Because of these unique factors, most off the shelf manufacturing software does not fit these smaller manufacturers. As such, we have listed below our Top 10 Job Shop ERP Software solutions (in no particular order). Were possible, we have included links to request a demo or get a price quote.

Our List of the Top 10 Job Shop ERP Software

1. Fitrix ERP
About | Demo | Pricing

2. Epicor Manufacturing Express Edition
About | Demo | Pricing

3. Made2Manage ERP
About | Demo | Pricing

4. JOBSCOPE Enterprise Edition
About | Demo | Pricing

5. Intuitive ERP
About | Demo | Pricing

6. E-Z-MRP Manufacturing Software
About | Demo | Pricing

7. ECi M1 ERP Software
About | Demo | Pricing

8.DBA Manufacturing
About | Demo | Pricing

9. Global Shop Solutions
About | Demo | Pricing

10. Exact Globe Manufacturing Software
About | Demo | Pricing

Worth Noting: (Not an ERP software, but a Job Shop floor control system)
Shopvue Job Shop Floor Control System
About | Demo | Pricing

Other Job Shop ERP Software

The list above is 10 potential vendors, but you may want to look at our Vendor Directory for other candidate Job Shop ERP Software vendors. Keep in mind that sometimes a vendor can support Job Shop ERP Software requirements, but that is not their primary focus. This is something to look for, but also should be something to watch out for. Just because they say they can handle job shop requirements, does not mean that they are successful at it.

If you need more assistance in your search, you can talk to the experts at Software Advice to help you narrow down your search. Call them to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation.

Be sure to check out the Free Software Evaluation and Selection tools we offer. These tools can save you time and money as you proceed on your evaluation of different systems.

We hope that this top 10 list has been useful.
Let us know if there are other Job Shop ERP Software that you think should be included.

Job Shop ERP Software

Top 7 tips for getting an ERP Software Selection on Track

You’re looking to find out how to get an ERP Software Selection back on track. This means that you probably have an evaluation that is going poorly and you are being led by the ERP software vendors, right? The ERP Software Selection process can be a struggle, but they don’t really have to be. If the ERP Software Selection follows a clear process, then things will run smoother. The trick is to not let the software vendors drive ERP Software Selection process.

Key ERP Software Selection Tips

1. Get Senior Management on board now
2. Be sure you have clear goals
3. Define your both your technical requirements and business requirements
4. Have a neutral third party manage the process.
5. Eliminate vendors early, and without regrets
6. Be sure you are working with the right software providers
7. Reassess your internal team

One of the top things you can do to ensure success of any Enterprise Software Selection project is to ensure that senior management is on-board with the project and that they fully support the goals of the project. If top-line management is not supportive of the project, there will be departmental and division contentions during the implementation. Often these arise during the selection process. Usually it is the case of one department competing for the same resources as another department. This often will show up on conflicting requirements for the system. Senior management must be the tie-breaker and define the future path the system should take.

If the project does not have clear goals, it is bound to flounder. Goals should not be general such as replace our system by next January. The goals should have significant business impact. A goal like “Reducing inventory by 25% while increasing sales throughput by 15% one year after implementation” is a clear goal that benefits the business and lays a stake in the ground that the system must achieve. You may find that the system can help you exceed that goal, but if you do not measure in a clear goal such as this, how will you know you have succeeded? The pain and inconvenience of an implementation will create a lot of problems within the company, but a clear goal is a great focus agent to get past the disagreements and personality conflicts.

ERP Software Selection Requirements

Often a company will define a set of requirements for a system and these requirements will have no impact on the decision of the system. Requirements need to be business driven and be tied to the factors that make your company successful. Look at the following two requirements and see which one makes it easier to help in a selection:

1. System must have serial and lot tracking.
2. System must be able to report on all shipments by a particular lot with traceability back to the original batch or incoming receiving document.

These two statements are essentially asking for the same thing, but when it comes time to solve a problem, the second requirement will distinguish of the system can solve the problem. Define your requirements around business processes, not about system features.

Maximizing Business Performance through Software Packages: Best Practices for Justification, Selection, and Implementation

Additionally, most systems nowadays can handle most of the key things you need. They all do General Ledger, Accounts Receivable, Inventory, etc. The question is, what are their strengths and what are their weaknesses. Defining specific business process requirements around the things that you do frequently is the best way to ensure that you get a system that matches your needs.
Many times when companies get in trouble with an ERP Software Selection, it is because they tried to manage it on their own. Often the IT manager or even the Controller will get the task of defining requirements and shepherding the system selection and all the vendors, value-added-resellers, and reference clients. Since they already have a key role in the company, it often a daunting task to get them to manage the selection process and do their day job. Because of this, it is often advisable to get a third party consultant involved to manage the process. The key thing about this consultant is that they should not have any financial ties to any vendors. They need to be non-biased and have experience in many ERP Software Selection projects.

Why does this help? There are a few reasons, but the key reason is that they can supplement your time and handle all of the details around gathering requirements, building scripts, arranging demos, and being the one to have to tell the vendors “no” at the end. Further, they usually come with a broader vision of how the end result can be achieved. They also make a living out of doing these selections and they know the pitfalls and can help you avoid many of the vendor “tricks” that are often played to ensure that the salesperson wins the sale. If your selection is already off track, bringing in a consultant can often help realign the various team members and refocus the selection.

As you move into the ERP Software Selection process, it is important that you eliminate as many potential candidate software systems early on, so you are not wasting your time and efforts looking at a broad range of systems. Ideally, you start with a long list of 10 and whittle that down to the top two or three. Get the software vendors that are clearly not matching your requirements out of the running as soon as possible. Use resources to help you define the best fit for your company. Many times, the vendor will bow out if they see they are not a clear fit to your requirements. But with each elimination, document why they were eliminated, so that at the end, when someone asks, “What happened to XYZ software, I thought they were a good fit”, you will have the answer as to why they are no longer being considered.

Once you have chosen the two or three candidate software systems, you want to make sure that you are working with the right provider. Software is sold either direct or through indirect channel partners. The channel partners, or value-added-resellers (VARs) each come with their own specialties. You need to find out are you dealing with a VAR or with the Software company itself. If you are dealing with a VAR, you need to make sure that they are the best VAR to help you implement the software. Do your research early, because the last thing you want to do is to change VARs late in the process. This causes all sorts of problems, most of all it delays the selection by weeks or months.

When dealing with VARs, talk to the Software Developer (see our directory of ERP software vendors here) and get their take on the VARs strengths and weaknesses and see if there may be another company you can speak with. Interview the two implementers (VARs) and see which company is a best fit to work with your company. Often it comes down to personality, one group was too arrogant, one group just didn’t get us, or even that VAR’s sales rep had a horrible personality. Find the fit because if you select their ERP software, you will be living with these people for 6-9 months or more. You want to make sure that you can work through the implementation with them as well as later rely on them for ongoing support.

If you are dealing with the software company direct, the same questions apply, but in a sense of is this the software to get married to? You need to be sure that not only the software works for you, but also that the people and company are a good fit to work with your company.

Lastly, take a good, hard look at your team. Do you have functional members from each department? Do they each bring a wealth of experience about their area? Often the hardest thing about the ERP Software Selection process is getting the best people in your company and pulling them out of their jobs to take part in the critical task of selecting a new system. They are usually the person most in demand. They need to be the one to help select the system as they know the current system and business processes inside-out.

Often an ERP Software Selection will go badly because the best people can’t give the time to make the process happen. This is why it is so important to have senior management involved and have a clearly stated set of goals for the project. Having a third party to help move things along and to look at your business objectively will aid tremendously in making the ERP selection process easier. Most of all, by putting all seven of these tips together, you will ensure that you have a successful ERP Software Selection process and that you end up with the best software for the success of your company.

ERP Software Selection

Adding Value to your ERP Requirements

ERP Requirements Refinement

When you start a system selection, you first need to determine which business process are the “value add” processes. In other words, which processes in the business add to the value of the service or product you are providing to the market. The customer is only willing to pay for those activities that help you produce, ensure quality, or account for your product or service. All other activities are waste.
ERP Requirements

When defining your ERP requirements, you need to be cognizant of these “value add” activities. These are the activities that should be captured in your requirements. Non-value-add activities should not be included in your ERP requirements. These do not produce results that create additional value to the product/service and these are only distractions when it comes down to the actual implementation.

ERP Requirements and Lean

All of this comes from Lean Manufacturing or the Toyota Production method. Essentially, as stated above, you want to eliminate “Muda” or waste in the process. Many firms have successfully implemented this in their manufacturing processes, but a smaller group have implemented this Lean system in their business office processes.

Consider this example. When defining your ERP Requirements you determine that there is an accounting process that has people spending 2 man days per month reconciling the cost of keeping track of the tools used in manufacturing. Does this process add any value to the actual production of the product? Possibly, but it sounds like this process can be reworked and possibly using the new ERP system you can eliminate this process and drive the data down to the actual transactions on the shop floor. You don’t need accountants researching the transactions. What you might need is a system that tracks the tools and their usage as part of the production process and can give a report on what these transactions cost. These transaction costs can then be factored into the pricing of the product, without the overhead of 2 man days of reconciliation.

The time when you are defining your new ERP Requirements is the perfect time to start looking critically at your processes and keying in on what brings value to the process. Then you can design your new system (both process and software) around those items that bring value to not only the customer but also the bottom line.

Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, Revised and Updated

Mapping your ERP requirements

When you are cataloging all of your ERP Requirements, you should write down all of your requirements (perhaps on a spreadsheet) and then give them an identifying number (such as R1, R2, R3, etc.) You can then evaluate each of these requirements with the business team to determine if the requirement is one that you want to carry forward into your deliverable of requirements that will be provided to the ERP software vendors. There is an excellent article on how to do this mapping, by author Brett Beaubouef, that describes this process.

He advocates that “Starting with the desired business results ensures that we drive to only those requirements that directly support true business value. First, it is an exercise that really puts into perspective the purpose of a business model (results). This exercise is not only useful to the project team but also the business stakeholders. Second, it is an approach that can help you justify why certain existing business activities are not being carried forward in the new business solution. Third, taking a business results oriented approach enables your project team to be more successful at focusing on the right business requirements and not wasting time on capturing requirements for non-value-add activities. ”

Another useful article that you may want to examine is the article 7 Ways to Fail in an ERP Selection

Keep in mind that some ERP Requirements that you identify may not seem valuable at first, but you need to review these requirements with the functional user team to ensure that key processes are not eliminated by mistake. There may be requirements that are a requirement because of a legal concern or perhaps a health and safety issue.

In the end, if you have successfully mapped out your business processes and defined these in your ERP Requirement list, then you will be a lot closer to selecting a system that actually functions in a way that brings value to everyone.

We hope that this will aid you in better defining your ERP Requirements.

Enterprise Resource Planning Training Tips

Enterprise Resource Planning is complicated and requires a lot of hands on training. Trainings should occur just before implementation go-live, soon after go-live, and refresher trainings through the life of the system. Many people miss the fact that employees change both in terms of jobs and also their roles within a company. So a system that is even one year old can have many untrained people working the system (or rather struggling with the system.) To keep the system operating and extend the useful life of the system, you should provide training on these systems as frequently as each major release of the software. Further, you should allow the employees the time and money to maintain their skill with the system.

Moving to a new Enterprise Resource Planning software requires a lot of training of various types. Of course there are many different Enterprise Resource Planning applications. Each is usually delivered by the vendors or their implementors. But there are other resources for Enterprise Resource Planning Training. These can include in-person training classes, online classes, self-study books, and vendor provided training modules.

Enterprise Resource Planning Training Resources

For many Enterprise Resource Planning software, there are no resources outside of having the vendors provide the training. Many ERP software providers are too small and so the only training is from them.

Some systems, including most midrange systems, will provide CDROM Enterprise Resource Planning Training, or they may have tutorials built into the system. For larger systems such as SAP, Oracle, or others, you can buy training Enterprise Resource Planning Training modules through a variety of providers.

Other ways to obtain Enterprise Resource Planning Training include various training centers such as New Horizons or Learning Tree. These are usually more expensive than online trainings, but they include a live instructor and simulations that make the learning experience true-to-life.

The Essential Guide to Training Global Audiences: Your Planning Resource of Useful Tips and Techniques

Enterprise Resource Planning Training offered by ERPandMore.com

We now have many Enterprise Resource Planning and Related Training Products available to you. Please click on a category to learn more!

If you are looking for Enterprise Resource Planning Training, be sure to check out our ERP training page.

ERP on the iPad

Mobility is becoming more and more key to managing corporate information. As such, we have seen individual users moving entirely from their laptops to their iPad. This provides easy access to the internet, with information anywhere. This is especially true of cloud computing. With a simple iPad, you can access anything anywhere.

ERP on the iPad can be used in Sales with CRM solutions. In fact, Salesforce.com has a native iPhone app that works on the IPAD, but bother, when you can use it on the web browser just as well? Many ERP solutions now have an html interface, so using the iPad is quite easy.

Apple-iPad-Tablet-NEWEST-MODEL

Examples of ERP on the iPad

Imagine if you will, a manager of a manufacturing plant browsing the production cells and being able to pull up real-time stats on her/his iPad and having the ability to discuss the results with the employees?

Or take an example of an HR Manager in an interview with a candidate in a random conference room, looking up on their iPad the available job postings for other divisions to better suit the candidate at hand.

Working on a campus environment, many times managers are running to meetings between buildings. Carrying an iPad with access to the ERP data is most convenient. These are just a few examples of mobility with ERP on the iPad.

So if these things are now possible, is it possible to run a Terminal Emulation program on the iPad to connect to a legacy ERP on the iPad? As far as we can tell, yes you can do that as there a number of Terminal Emulation programs for the iPhone and iPad. Are these as convenient as a web or even a native iPad app? Probably not, but it can be done.

ERP on the iPad on the Road

What about remote access to the central ERP system? Can you use an iPad while on the road to access your corporate data? Well that really depends upon if you have access via Virtual Private Networking (VPN) to the corporate network. You can setup VPN on the iPad and use it to connect securely to the corporate system. But it does require some setup. If the ERP has a web interface and it is exposed on the public web, then you can log in directly there. This is the easiest for the user, but requires additional layers of security from the IT department.

Security for ERP on the iPad

A key are of concern would be for ERP on the iPad to be able to wipe data for lost iPads. In other words, you’re at an airport. You turn around for a moment and your iPad is gone. You know it was on the seat next to you for a second. You have saved your passwords and access to all your corporate data is gone.

As it is now, the only thing you can do is to set a password and in the iPad’s settings, you can set it to wipe the data after so many bad attempts at the password. Of course, you have a copy on your computer in your iTunes right? So this is one method, but for the release of corporate data being accessible through the iPad, currently, you would probably be using a web browser.

If corporate ERP software providers come out with a dedicated App for their product specifically for the iPad, then they would need to build in some sort of password protection. This will not prevent the iPad from being accessed though, so Apple needs to come out with a function similar to what is available with the iPhone, to wipe corporate data. Without this, there probably won’t be a widespread migration to the iPad until this feature is available.

To summarize, it is possible now to use the iPad for mobile ERP access provided that the ERP is exposed to the Internet or by way of some sort of VPN. But it is probably not the most elegant solution, especially on older ERP systems. Ideally, ERP vendors will start to come out with native applications for the iPad which will ease the complexity for the user. This is already happing with cloud based providers. We hope that it will become more prevalent in the near future.

What do you think? Are you using the ERP on the iPad now? Please post your comments and let us know. Thank you.

Addendum: After posting this, we saw this press release about an iPad Enterprise Development kit for putting ERP on the iPad.

Click here to get great Ipad Training

ERP on the iPad.

ERP Vendor Directory – Updated!

ERPandmore.com is excited to announce that we have updated our ERP Vendor directory to include a lot more features and functionality.

This directory is a great resource for discovering ERP, CRM, and other enterprise software for your selection, or for other research. It is searchable and very fast. We will continue to be building the listings out over time, so continue to check back!

The directory includes listings for many common Enterprise Software:

Business Intelligence Software
Customer Relationship Managemen
Enterprise Resource Planning
Human Resources Management
Product Lifecycle Management
Professional Services Software
Supply Chain Management
Time and Attendance

Some of the key features that you will find:

Social media login
Demo Requests and Pricing links on many of the listings (where available)
The ability to search by category or location

Additionally, there are listings for Implementors and Service Providers.

If you are a software vendor, please claim your listing and update it with the latest software. If it doesn’t exist, please add it! We have listed many of the common providers in the United States, but we welcome any non-USA providers as well.

Further, we ask everyone who is familiar with these software companies and providers to provide a rating and review.

Ultimately, we would like this to be a very useful tool for the Industry, especially for those who are doing research, or wanting to find the latest software available.

View the ERP Vendor Directory here!

The Top 10 Process Manufacturing Software

Top 10 Process Manufacturing Software

Process manufacturing is a unique vertical market that is unlike traditional manufacturing in that thecompanies in this niche process liquids, chemicals, and fine blended ingredients. Usually the inventory is combined in a batch based on a recipe or a formula, the inventory is not assembled, but rather blended.

Many different industries use Process Manufacturing ERP software. Companies that make paints and coatings, chemicals, foods, or any other liquids based product manufacturers would benefit from this type of software. This results in some unique properties, including yield factors and re-blended waste products.

Because of these unique factors, traditional manufacturing software does not fit these manufacturers. As such, we have listed below our Top 10 Process Manufacturing Software solutions (in no particular order):

Our List of Top 10 Process Manufacturing Software

Other Process Manufacturing Software

The list above is 10 potential vendors, but you may want to look at our Vendor Directory for other candidate Process Manufacturing Software vendors. Keep in mind that sometimes a vendor can do Process Manufacturing, but that is not their primary focus. This is something to look for, but also should be something to watch out for. Just because they say they can do process manufacturing, does not mean that they are successful at it.

If you need more assistance in your search, you can talk to the experts at Software Advice to help you narrow down your search. Call them to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation.

Be sure to check out the Free Software Evaluation and Selection tools we offer. These tools can save you time and money as you proceed on your evaluation of different systems.

We hope that this top 10 list has been useful. Let us know if there are other Process Manufacturing Software that you think should be included.

ERP Software Demos – 7 Things to Watch Out For

ERP Software Demos are usually a key step in the process is evaluating ERP Software. This is usually performed by the software provider, but sometimes it is the value added reseller who demonstrates the software. There are usually two software demos provided by each vendor during the process.

The first step is an high-level demonstration of the overall look and feel of the software and it shows general functionality. This is usually to help you narrow down your list of prospective vendors.

The second ERP Software demonstration is very detailed and speaks directly to your unique software requirements. Ideally, you have provided a list of requirements and even better a demonstration script to the vendor that explains step-by-step what you want to see from the software.

We’ve compiled a list of seven items that you should watch out for when evaluating ERP software. These are common things to tune into when watching the software demonstration to ensure that you are getting to see the real software functionality in action.

ERP Software Demos – key things to watch for

1. Tell, but no show

Vendors tell you, but do not show you

One of the most often used tricks in demos is where the vendor discusses a requirement and yet does not show how the system works. You should enforce a demonstration of the methods that the software uses to fulfill the requirements. Often this maybe on oversight on the person demonstrating the software, but many times this could be a very difficult process that they don’t want to show you.

2. Unnatural fit to requirements

Vendors spend time working on getting your requirements to work in the demo but, does it feel natural that it can be done in “real life”?

Often a complex requirement can be done by the system, but it takes a number of “unnatural acts” to make it work in real life. This is a red flag for a process problem. There are two solutions, one is that you adapt the business process of the software, or two, you live with the complex processing in order to fit your business method. If you think you can live with the software process, then mark this down as a good function. If you cannot live with the software’s best practice and you must use your process, resulting in a work around method in the software, then consider this feature as a negative response to your requirement.

3. The “herky jerky” ERP Software Demo

The speed of the demo changes with certain functionality

This can be related to number 2 above. This is more a feeling to the flow of the software. An unaturally paced demonstration usually means that there are some features that the software does not do well. Sometimes it relates to your evaluating user’s questions. Be aware of the pace and determine if the unnatural flow is due to software issues or some factor in your demonstration script.

Many times the vendor will ask if they change the order of the demonstration script to fit the flow of the software. This is usually okay, so long as they have hit upon all the areas that your script requires. If you limit them to sticking strictly to your script, then you may end up with an unusual flow to your demonstration.

4. “Its in the next release!”

Vendors offer solutions that are they are not able to show

This is a classic ERP Software Demos maneuver. Your requirements cannot be fulfilled by the current revision of the software, but the vendor assures you that it is slated for the next release. According to them, this will be available by the time you go live on the software. This is often true, but keep in mind that new release features often bring bugs with them and are not as polished as older functionality. Further, you may end up being the first ones to use this new functionality. Just keep this mind and consider using this as a point of negotiation, or simply document these features for your reference so that during the implementation you can keep track of when these items will actually be released. It is not uncommon for something that is slated for next release to be bumped and postponed until a later release.

5. How can I get there from here?

Vendors fly around the screens, but there is little sense to how they are navigating

Many systems have shortcut keystrokes. You sometimes can type in a short code and the screen will jump to another window. Or, the code is a numeric value representing the screen you want to go to. So the real question is how useful is this to the typical user within your company? Will they be able to grasp the jumping around shortcuts or will they rely on the navigation menus. Are the menus cumbersome? Often these shortcuts are implemented in systems where the navigation is not so straightforward. Test a few use cases out on how a typical clerical person might get around in their daily work. Good systems allow you to create custom menus for individual users.

6. Great feel getting data in, but can’t get data out

Overall feel to the software: is it efficient, can you see yourself using it on a daily basis, and does it provide the information you need?

Often you will run across a great ERP software. The look and feel is good and your users will really like it. But the question is, can you get the information you need out of it? How are the lookup screens? How are the data views (information providing screens)? You need to be careful of systems that require all data inquiries in the system to be only output as a report. Ask the vendor to demonstrate things such as an A/R or A/P account information screen, or Supplier/Customer profile screens. How easy is it to see on-screen the data you need to run your business? How easy will it be to answer customer inquiries?

7. The mystery reporting system

Input screens, Output screens and Reports

This is closely related to number 5 above. There are some ERP systems that don’t have a native reporting system and require you to use Crystal Reports, or some other tool to get at your data. Be aware of this and be sure to have a demonstration of the reporting system. Don’t look solely at the reports themselves, but find out how easy or hard it will be to create and organize custom reports. This is especially true of financial reports as they often have their own report writer separate from the main system report writer.

ERP Software Demos Summary

Lastly, if you are in the process of looking at vendors and deciding who you should have in your ERP Software Demos, you should look at this free vendor analysis tool from SoftwareAdvice.com that helps you evaluate the best vendors for your company. Also be sure to check out ERPandMore.com’s ERP Vendor Directory to find candidate vendors for your ERP Software Selection.

ERP Software Demos – Anything else?

Any other useful ERP Software Demos tips? Please post your comments below.

ERP Software Demos