Engineer to order (ETO) manufacturers retain only the supplies they need to fill customer orders as they come through. Because of this, supply chain management and organization becomes an industry imperative. Unfortunately, many ETO organizations find themselves without the proper tools, such as engineer to order ERP, to successfully plan and execute jobs in a timely and cost effective manner.

Because few ERP solutions exist to help ETO manufacturers, they are often times stuck using manual processes, disparate systems, and other practices that do not allow them to optimize their processes. Engineer-to-Order manufacturers experience costly rework and missed delivery dates due to inconsistent and ineffective change management and other challenges such as:

• Products are designed to the customer’s specifications.
• inability to accurately predict order-to-fulfillment lead times
• meet commitment dates
• Customers are heavily involved in the entire manufacturing process.
• Products are often very complex and require additional sub assemblies.
• Raw materials are purchased with long lead times.
• Frequent engineering changes are common.

These challenges, among others, are why these organizations have a tough time with standard ERP systems. Luckily their needs have been met with Engineer to order ERP systems from publishers who understand their struggles. Engineer to order ERP systems are designed to address the challenges mentioned above and give ETO manufacturers the tools they need to support their specific processes with real-time insight into their operations to help them plan, schedule,and purchase accordingly.

Some of the features to look for in your engineer to order ERP include:

• Complete system integration
• Current information for all financial and technical data
• Warning and alert systems for each project component
• Enhanced inventory control
• Capacity planning for improved on-time delivery
• Vendor management
• Functionality to evaluating estimates and quotes
• Engineering change management including workflow
• % complete functionality
• Revenue recognition
• Date-driven schedules and project task timeline estimates

As with all ERP projects comes the importance of proper ERP selection to ensure you are investing your time, money, and energy into a solution that will help you overcome the challenges you face in your daily operations.

There is no one-size-fits-all and you have to do some research to find the best ERP solution for you. Read more here.