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ERP Suggestions Needed

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In former lives, I've used a couple of ERP systems, whose names I've forgotten. All I remember is that I hated them intensely.

The only thing that could be worse is what I'm using now: a POS system that actually predates any of those ERP systems, that's been patched and kluged to sort of approximate an ERP system as imagined by someone who's never used one.

The acronym P.O.S. has two common meanings; both apply.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
 
We use Made2Manage and are very, very happy with it.
Choosing an appropriate ERP system is a HUGE task.
You really need to fully define what you need/want and call in multiple vendors and let them show you what they have and how their software can fit your needs/wants.

Also make sure you calculate maintenance,support, additional hardware (seperate servers,etc..) costs,etc.. into your decision.

 
We use Made2Manage and are extremely unhappy with it. it was obviously ported to Windows and never updated to use the functionality of Windows. We find it hard to use and easy to screw up. Our materials manager hates it and he is at the end of a very long line.

Steve Smith, C.I.D.
Product Engineer
Staco Energy Products Co.
 
Steve,
What version are you on? (I just don't understand the ported to windows/not update with Windows functionality comment) We are still on 3.5 (6-8 years back) and it works seemlessly with Windows XP.
This is the first time I have ever heard anyone say M2M is hard to use. Heck even without training is such a simple yet powerful program.

It takes only 7 mouse clicks (and a little typing to fill out customer information) on only 3 screens to go from entering a sales order for your product to creating all purchase orders for your raw materials to creating all job orders for assembly people to build the product.

Steve I would HIGHLY suggest you pay to have a consultant come in and evaluate how you use M2M and how its all setup.. Money spent there will easily pay for itself when you are using it properly. We had M2M consultants come in for the initial setup process (and 2 months after to train) and we haven't looked back.

God I don't even work for M2M and I feel like I must stick up for it because it is one of the easiest/powerful ERP systems I've ever used.. And I've been though a bunch..some costing 10 times the price of M2M.. Try using SAP Steve, then tell us what you think about M2M
 
We currently are using 5.6 and have been using M2M for several years. Oh it does work in windows but as I said before, uses none of it functionality. A simple cut and paste is not possible. It has been nothing but a headache since we had it.

We find it very confining. The way it attaches the revision level to the part has frustrated our material manager for years. It’s inability to due bulk changes without a lot of massaging on material list has long been a sore point.

Other companies we have worked with have told us we are not alone with our frustration with this software. One company asked if we could send them a certain report and when we told him we had M2M said never mind and gave us their condolences.


Steve Smith, C.I.D.
Product Engineer
Staco Energy Products Co.
 
huh??Cut/paste works on every screen and every field just like any other windows program. Plus uses Windows standard shortcuts like ctrl+C,etc... You can even copy data without activating/modifying that field.
M2M also has what's called "add and carry" to carry all data from 1 screen into another new entry. (It's like super copy and paste)where it takes all the data and creates a new whatever with all that information already filed in, just modify one part and save.

A part/material should have a revision level attached to it. But you can also have parts without a revision level if you want (You should NEVER want to though). Why would having a revision on material frustrate anyone?..Thats just common sense.

Not sure what you mean by bulk changes on a material list. Do you know about "replace part in standard BOM's" screen for bulk changes? Do you use ECM module/functionality?

Your issues with M2M are CLEARLY, 100%, without a doubt, from under training and the mindset that the program is bad from the start. garbage in..garbage out.
Plus I bet most of the people who have a problem with it have never used anything else but M2M. You really don't know how good you actually have it. Think your frustrated now, go try SAP or Oracle.
 
mcgyvr,

"Add and carry" is good. Windows keyboard shortcuts work but not mouse shortcuts. When we revise a part to add a vendor and change the revision, the parts in stock are now an old revision and have to manually be updated to the current revision or else M2M will order new parts even though there are plenty of the older rev parts in stock. Yes we use ECN control.

We have a new purchasing manager that has worked with several different MRP and ERP systems an agrees this is the worst she has used. And she just went through the training class. At one time I thought that it was bad just from the engineering point of view but our purchasing, sales, and accounting departments despise it as well. Most of us have gone through the training. I would gladly go back to our old Unix based Prime system if given the chance.

I am gld you are happy with M2M. I have yet to find one person here that can say the same.

Steve Smith, C.I.D.
Product Engineer
Staco Energy Products Co.
 
Ok yes..Mouse right mouse click copy/paste/delete do not work in M2M I'll give you that.

I would NEVER up a parts revision because you are simply adding a vendor..That's just silly (or you had an idiot write your ISO/Quality processes). The part isn't changing. If you up a revision on a part and can still use the old part you simply reclassify the old rev as the new rev in M2M..a 2 second process. You want that to be manual and all other ERP systems function the same and should. 99% of the time you will never be able to use the old revision..(well unless you change revisions on parts for no good reason)

Sorry your unhappy with M2M (not the best of reasons though)... This is why I HIGHLY recommend creating a team of people from each department to pick an ERP system..getting a demo and running through day to day operations on a test company,etc...
 
mcgyvr,

Unfortunately when our team" got to select an ERP system the choices had already been whittled down to 3 by management and the engineering representative recommended another of the 3 packages.

I'm glad that it works great for you. But for us it is a poor fit.



Mahlo,

As you can see mcgyvr and I completely disagree on the same software so as he suggested I erecommend that you thoroughly investigate each choice and try to find a company that uses it similar to the way you would and visit them to see if it's a good fit for you.

Steve Smith, C.I.D.
Project Engineer
Staco Energy Products Co.
 
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