How To Choose A Right-sized Manufacturing System

How To Choose A Right-sized
Manufacturing System

About this series. This series of whitepapers is intended to help owners and managers of small- to medium-sized manufacturing firms choose a manufacturing software system that is sized right for the needs of their company. The author notes “In our 20+ years as developers and installers of software for small- to medium-sized manufacturing firms, we’ve learned a lot about what works (and doesn’t work) for companies of all shapes and sizes. In this series of whitepapers we’ve tried to distill the key elements of what has proved to be successful – with fair warning about certain pitfalls into which the uninitiated are likely to fall.”

While writing these whitepapers, the author (who is usually involved in the sales and marketing of a specific software product) has remained as objective as possible, sticking to broad topics and specific elements related to the acquisition of manufacturing software in general, and carefully avoiding reference to any specific product.

About the author. David Brown began his professional career in 1972 with Prime Computer, Inc. where he designed peripheral interface equipment with particular focus on manufacturing and testing issues. In 1977 Mr. Brown left Prime to develop manufacturing control software targeted to small- to medium-sized manufacturing firms. Brown and his associates first produced the MISys Manufacturing System for proprietary microprocessor-based computers and then in 1985 ported the software to the IBM PC running MS-DOS. The MISys system was soon integrated with Accpac, a PC-based accounting system now owned by Sage Software, Inc. and marketed as Sage Accpac ERP. The MISys manufacturing and the Accpac accounting software has been co-marketed successfully for over 20 years and has 7,000 installations worldwide. In 2007 Manufacturing Information Systems (MISys) released a new Microsoft .NET version of its software which continues to work with Accpac and also integrates with a number of popular small business accounting products. Today MISys has strategic relationships with Sage (the makers of Accpac ERP, Peachtree Quantum, and Simply Accounting) as well as Intuit (the makers of QuickBooks). Mr. Brown frequently writes on the subject of manufacturing control best practices for small businesses and is a popular speaker at trade shows as well as manufacturing and accounting conferences.