What would your business look like if your team could:
- Spend more time designing and less time on administrative tasks?
- Move projects from design to delivery quicker?
- Have POs, manufacturing, assignments, tasks, inventory status, and even access to CAD Drawings and data in one system?
In our recent webinar, we reviewed a way to make all these things possible — all through the help of an ERP. Check out our recap below or view the full webinar here.
What is an engineer-to-order company?
Many manufacturers don’t consider themselves to be in the ETO market, but they often are. Any company that accepts an order and ships a product that wasn’t designed or built before is an ETO company!
Even if you produce one base model of a machine, part, or tool, but then offer the ability to customize it, you are engineering to order. One of our customers, FOGG Filler is an excellent example. They are a leader in bottle-filling equipment with their machines in use at several well-known drink companies.
Generally, when an order for a product is placed, even a standard product, there may be many standard parts that are reused, however, typically each customer has unique requirements, products, etc. requiring the machine to be customized with new parts, assemblies, etc. to fit their specific needs. In 2021, FOGG Filler was awarded a project that would involve 23 engineers, 11,000 BOM items, and 45,000 components of which approximately 6,300 were unique.
They needed an ERP that could keep track of transactions, data, schedules, and progress. It also had to work well within a custom manufacturing environment. Enter, COUNTERPART.
What is an ERP?
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software has been around in some form for decades. It takes an organization’s resources and centralizes operations and data across the organization’s various departments. It’s a tool that helps eliminate silos in the workplace.
And while this sounds simple, ERP integration has gotten a bit of a bad reputation. Some can take years to set up with huge costs associated with them. And if you’re an engineer-led custom manufacturer, there’s the possibility that it might not work as well as you hoped. The right ERP, however, can transform your business and open up opportunities to capture more revenue.
Do I need an ERP?
This is a fair question with their reputation for expense and complexity and extended implementation timeframes. But what if we take a step back and first ask a different question: “Do I need CAD to make my business run?” No, you don’t. You could go back to pencils, paper, slide rules, and ledger books to design everything you currently do. It would be slower. You would need more engineers, and there would be more mistakes–but you could do it.
You don’t though, because CAD is superior to the old ways. It allows you a smaller payroll and quicker design times. You also have less human error, and the ability to adapt quickly to design changes. All the other departments from procurement to production benefit as well. Using CAD keeps you profitable. Without it, your company simply wouldn’t be competitive.
And chances are, you are already using an inexpensive ERP. When you use a spreadsheet, like Excel, to keep track of important information it becomes your primary reference sheet.
Unfortunately, spreadsheets aren’t meant to be used this way. As data becomes more complex, spreadsheets get harder to manage. They are prone to human error, too. And that’s where ERP software comes into the picture.
The key is to find the right ERP system for your line of business. In the ETO space, there aren’t a lot of applications built specifically for your line of work. When it comes to handling long lead times and component flexibility, or accurately tracking costs within a project, you need an ERP built with engineering at the forefront.
Long lead times with component flexibility
Customers, engineers, various project managers, or personnel involved in the process commonly change things based on demand, input, and availability of components. When you have a dynamic engineer-to-order workflow, BOM changes are frequent, challenging, and critical to get right.
It is very important to be able to handle changes to a BOM. Components might get added or removed and quantities changed. Counterpart can handle that automatically. We stress being able to get the correct information to the right individuals to make the best decisions.
This happens because COUNTERPART is designed to work backward from your due dates to set priorities. You can have 5 projects going with hundreds or thousands of components. You might have 20 engineers working in varying verticals, and capacities, all with long lead times and other functions. You will now be able to prioritize your workflow so you don’t miss deadlines, due dates, or deliverables.
Effective cost-tracking
With an ERP system specifically focused on ETO, tracking costs is easier. There are costs from inventory, purchases, internal and external manufacturing, assembly, and labor.
In this ever-changing environment, the right ERP can provide you with an accurate, real-time view of where your project costs stand. It will provide you with real data on profit loss for entire projects and the various stages each project goes through. You will be able to see where your process is making money, and where they are losing it.
COUNTERPART is designed for engineer-led custom manufacturers
Most ERPs fall short in the way they integrate with the Engineering Department. COUNTERPART ERP was developed by engineers because we needed a solution that worked for us, too.
We’ve included:
- CAD and Data Management integration
- Integrated project planning timeline from engineering to testing
- The ability to create demand for long lead time components, even before all the information is gathered.
- The ability to revise BOMs on the fly
- Due Date Prioritization for Work Queues
- Dynamic Assembly management
- Best in class ETO job cost tracking.
If you’d like to learn more about how COUNTERPART can help streamline your ETO business, watch the webinar to view all the information and more ways to streamline your ETO business.