Small Manufacturers Avoid Costly On-site Training in Material Resource PlanningWritten by Rocky Smolin
Small manufacturers face same challenges as larger manufacturers without financial depth to resolve same issues. The result has been that some of technologies that allow mid-sized and larger manufacturers to achieve efficiencies have been out of reach for smaller manufacturer until now. Rocky Smolin, President of Beach Access Software and maker of E-Z-MRP. Smolin emphasizes that E-Z-MRP, “was designed to be used by people who do not have degrees or certification in manufacturing systems. It requires no on-site training or consultation. And it has cut standard 18-month MRP implementation cycle to as little as 18 days”. The E-Z-MRP package includes a full-featured Bill of Materials processor, plus a material planning and tracking module which tracks all sales orders, forecasts, work orders (planned, firm, and released), purchase orders, shortages, raw materials and finished goods inventories. It also records a complete audit trail on all inventory transactions.
| | Engineer-to-Order ERP Rationale ExplainedWritten by Roger Meloy
Most ETO (Engineer-to-Order) firms take at least twelve months to decide on appropriate ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system. This lengthy process is due to fact that many ERP vendors claim to be ETO savvy and are not in fact. There are exceptions to rule. Recently, Big Sky Engineering (www.bigskyeng.com) located in Middleton, Wisconsin, just outside of Madison in south-central Wisconsin, made an important technology decision relatively quickly.Formed in 1997, with goal of providing economical automation solutions to ever-changing packaging industry, Big Sky picks standard, off-the-shelf components whenever possible to simplify maintenance and eliminate machine downtime; however all of machines are built with future retooling in mind. Their primary market is packaging automation machinery for consumer goods companies (such as SC Johnson). Chief engineer for Big Sky, Peter Dettmer originally contacted Cincinnati-based ETO ERP leader Encompix (www.encompix.com) via their website in November 2004. Encompix, which usually serves mid-market ETO manufacturer was hesitant to pursue this opportunity because of Big Sky’s small size and spent much effort pre-qualifying. However, due to Big Sky’s recent explosive growth and plans for future growth, Encompix considered this a deal worth pursuing. Despite a much higher price point than competitors, functionality demonstrated in Encompix overview session made Big Sky’s decision quite easy. To keep sales costs down, Encompix combined a site survey and demonstration into a one day session. The three owners of Big Sky were heavily involved in process and able to negotiate directly to get this deal closed by mid-February 2005. In return for a discount, Big Sky agreed to purchase one extra user and pay in full for software and maintenance by March 15. Encompix crafted a somewhat revised implementation plan for this smaller than usual customer.
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