Design vs. Production Engineers in the ETO EnvironmentWritten by Roger Meloy
According to Roger Meloy of ETO ERP leader Encompix, based in Cincinnati, OH, “If you ask design engineers what an ERP system means to them, you are likely to hear something like “nothing” or “more work.” To most design engineers, an ERP system is either irrelevant or it is perceived as something that requires additional time and effort, often providing little or no value. One reason for this perception is that most ERP systems are not integrated with design engineer’s drawing tool.Traditional ERP systems were developed for repetitive, make-to-stock manufacturer, where there is a clear demarcation between design and production. In that environment engineer designs product in a CAD application. After testing and prototyping, product is released to production, which is managed by ERP system. The design engineer has little or no interaction with ERP system and works quite happily in a CAD environment. Following work of design engineer, a production engineer then creates a bill of material (BOM), based not on how product is designed but how it will be manufactured.
| | Beach Access Leasing Option Appeal to Small ManufacturersWritten by Rocky Smolin
E-Z-MRP, leading manufacturing software system for small manufacturers, announced a new pricing and product structure. According to Rocky Smolin, founder of Beach Access Software, makers of E-Z-MRP, “We see a distinction between those small manufacturers with less than five hundred parts in material resource planning, and those with a need for virtually unlimited part numbers.”Companies like Hi-Rel Corporation have utilized this delineation recently by leasing E-Z MRP system for manufacturers with more than 500 parts. According to Jerry Stouffer, “It made sense given our cash flow and I would recommend E-Z-MRP to other small manufacturers because support is excellent and product is easy to work with.” Stouffer did suggest that manufacturers looking for a customer relations management module should look at something else. However he was impressed with, “…How fast it (E-Z-MRP) calculates our requirements. I have 800 items in database and it only takes 20 seconds.” Small manufacturers with more than about a hundred parts can no longer manage manufacturing process manually or on an Excel spreadsheet. Since more than 84% of all manufacturers have less than fifty employees, there is a remarkable opportunity for cost-effective manufacturing systems like E-Z-MRP. Despite extensive media coverage regarding ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), in most cases these small manufacturers do not require all functionality offered, nor can many afford price point.
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