How To Choose A Right-sized
Manufacturing System

Chapter #2
Understanding Types Of Manufacturers

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.

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. Mr. Brown 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 this chapter. This chapter of How To Choose A Right-sized Manufacturing System discusses the most common types of manufacturers so that you can begin to identify with one or more groups

Types of Manufacturers

If you have been busy manufacturing for any time, there is a good chance you have never taken a quiet moment to sit down and reflect on the type of manufacturing company your has evolved to be.

The reason this understanding is important is that the function set provided by one software package or another is often heavily weighted to a particular type of manufacturer.

Here is a list of the types I have worked with over the years:

Assembler	Generally takes a number of pre-assembled units and joins them together to meet the needs of a specific customer. Rarely does any original design, engineering, or procurement.
Make to stock manufacturer	Procures and stocks raw materials which are used to build sub-assemblies and top-level assembled items. These items are kept on hand to fulfill sales orders for standard products.
Make to order manufacturer	Procures and stocks raw materials which are used, in combination with other products, to build sub-assemblies and top-level assembled items needed to fulfill a specific sales order. Top-level assembled items are never kept on hand, although commonly used sub-assemblies may be inventoried when fast turn-around is required.
Custom manufacturer	Procures and stocks raw materials and sub-assemblies which are used in a customer-driven configuration. Sub-assemblies may be standard products used in a custom configuration, or variations of standard products modified to meet customer requirements.
Job shop	Generally makes one-off products following a customer specification for which no standard bill of material exists. Raw materials are often provided by the customer. Rarely does any original design, engineering, or procurement.
Process manufacturer	Performs some discreet process on a specific raw material such as cutting, bending, folding, forming, mixing, grading. Rarely does any original design, engineering, or procurement. Sub-assemblies are rarely identifiable.

By listing these I do not intend to imply that these are the only types of manufacturers. These are simply the most common ones.

Now re-read the list. As you do, you will probably identify with one type more than the others, but quite possibly by more than one of these types.

Manufacturing software products are often geared more toward one type of manufacturer than another, so reflecting on the type of manufacturer you are, and identifying with one or more types, will help direct you toward the right kind of software.

This exercise in introspection, combined with your soul-searching of “What do I want to accomplish?” in the previous chapter are important first steps in the process of choosing a right-sized manufacturing system.

The MISys Manufacturing System was designed specifically for small- to medium-sized manufacturing firms like yours.

For more information, including demonstration videos and trial copies of the software, visit the MISys website.