The industrial equipment and machinery industry faces complex engineering requirements and a need to tightly track and control capital expenditures. This industry-specific software functionality includes inventory management, product engineering and product life cycle management, quality control, and forecasting and budgeting, as well as robust financial management and cost accounting.
Industrial Equipment and Machinery Software Requirements
- Budgeting
- Demand forecasting
- Advanced manufacturing resource planning (MRP)
- Automatic scheduling
- Standard costing
- Product engineering
- Product lifecycle management (PLM)
- Engineering change notices (ECN’s)
- Online product configurations
- Inventory management
- Consignment inventory
- Quality control
As we have discovered in our experience with more than 150 ERP solutions, each ERP software package has its strengths and weaknesses. We track our extensive selection and implementation experience with various enterprise systems in our proprietary ERP Solutions Database. Below is a summary of a small sub-set of data from that database, which our project teams use to help clients select the right ERP software for their organizations.
This table identifies the generalized functional strengths of each of the listed ERP solutions for industrial equipment and machinery manufacturing and distribution. Our ERP software selection process leverages more detailed information from our database to conduct a more thorough assessment of software fit with each client’s business requirements.
ERP Software Packages for Industrial Equipment and Machinery Manufacturing and Distribution
| Industrial Equipment and Machinery Software Functionality |
SAP ERP 6.0 | Oracle EBS | IFS | Epicor Vantage 9 | Lawson M3 7.1 | Glovia ERP | Infor Syteline | Friedman |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard ERP Functions | ||||||||
| Document Management | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | Medium |
| International HRIS | High | High | High | Medium | High | __ | High | Medium |
| Customer Relationship Management (CRM) | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | Medium |
| Advanced Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP) | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| General Ledger, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| Standard Costing | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| Integration with 3rd Party Systems | Low | Medium | Medium | Medium | Low | Medium | Medium | Low |
| Auto Advanced Pricing | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| Auto Scheduling | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| Inventory Management | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| Role-based Security | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| Robust Portals | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| ANSI x 12 EDI Capabilities | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| Business Workflow Management | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| Remote Access | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| Custom Report Writer | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| User Defined Dashboards | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | Medium |
| Drill Down Capabilities | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| Audit Logs | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| Key Differentiating Requirements | ||||||||
| Engineer To Order Discrete Manufacturing | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| Advanced Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP) | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| Demand Forecasting | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | Medium |
| Bar-coding | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| Labor Tracking | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | Low |
| Product Configurator | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| Portals | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | Low |
| Multi-lingual | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| Multi-currency | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| Track Country of Origin | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| NAFTA Customs Compliance | High | High | Medium | High | High | High | Medium | High |
| Material Lot Traceability | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| Inventory Consignment | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| Project Management | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | Medium |
| Quality Control | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| Freight Management System | High | High | Medium | Medium | High | Medium | High | High |
| Multiple Warehouses | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| Warranties and RMAs | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | |
| Function Specific Requirements | ||||||||
| Customer Service | Low | High | Medium | Medium | High | Medium | High | Low |
| Financial Management, Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable | High | High | Medium | Low | High | Low | Medium | Low |
| Product Configurator | High | High | Medium | High | High | High | Low | High |
| Production Scheduling | High | High | Medium | High | High | High | Medium | Low |
| Purchasing | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| Inventory Management | High | High | Medium | Medium | High | High | Medium | High |
| Shipping | High | Medium | Low | Low | High | Low | Low | Medium |
| Receiving | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | High |
| Sales | High | High | Low | High | Medium | Medium | Medium | Low |
| Marketing | High | High | Medium | High | High | Medium | High | Low |
| Product Engineering | Medium | Medium | High | Medium | Medium | Medium | High | Low |
| Manufacturing Engineering | High | High | High | High | High | Medium | High | Medium |
| Quality Control | High | High | Medium | High | High | Medium | Medium | Low |
| Tech Service | High | High | Medium | Medium | High | Medium | Medium | Low |
| RMA | High | High | High | High | High | High | High | Medium |
| Operations | High | High | Medium | High | High | Medium | Medium | Low |
| e-Portal | High | High | Medium | High | Low | Medium | Medium | Low |
Disclaimer: For illustrative purposes only. Assessment for your unique needs may vary based on specific business processes and requirements. You will want to develop more detailed requirements as part of your software evaluation and selection process.
Panorama’s ERP consultants provide a complete service offering that can assist your organization throughout the process of ERP selection, ERP implementation and organizational change management.
Our consultants are aware of the potential pitfalls of ERP selection projects and can help hedge against project cost overruns, software that is misaligned with business needs, and lack of return on investment. The ERP team has industry specific expertise that helps achieve measurable business improvements.
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