Industrial Equipment and Machinery
The industrial equipment and machinery industry struggles with complex engineering requirements and a need to tightly track and control capital expenditures. As such, industrial equipment and machinery manufacturers need ERP software solutions with strong software functionality that is designed for their industry. This industry specific software functionality includes product engineering and product life cycle management, forecasting and budgeting, inventory management and quality control, as well as robust cost accounting and financial management.
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.
The below 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 |
