How To Choose A Right-sized Manufacturing System

How To Choose A Right-sized
Manufacturing System

Chapter #4
Maintaining The Perspective

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 information you have gathered about yourself and your requirements and how to manage that information as you begin to look at potential manufacturing solutions.

Maintaining The Perspective

If you complete the introspective steps along the path of choosing a right-sized manufacturing system, you will develop a better understanding of yourself as a manufacturer and the particular aspects of a manufacturing control system that will meet your needs.

Before you step off and start contacting software vendors about the capabilities of their products, we need to have one last heart-to-heart about what you are likely to encounter.

I remember, early in my career, starting the search for a new automobile. Newly married, we had no children at the time, and we hardly ever ventured more than 100 miles from home. Moreover, my salary as a junior designer of computer equipment put serious constraints on the kind of automobile we could afford. To be frank, we were a Chevrolet kind of couple.

As we visited one automobile showroom after another, salesmen eagerly displayed their wares, pointing our the benefits of a more powerful engine than the one that came in a Chevrolet, the optional 6-speaker stereo radio, the model with more chrome, heated seats, and remotely controlled side mirrors. As an engineer, I listened and understood. I drank the Kool-aide. But soon I was thinking about purchasing an automobile twice as expensive as what I could afford.

In the end, none of these salespeople sold me a car. Instead I purchased a used Buick, with a more powerful engine that consumed a lot of gas, heated seats that worked mostly in the summer, and a remotely controlled passenger side mirror. Oh, and if you could receive any radio station on the car’s 6-speaker stereo radio, you could surely look out the window and see the station’s transmitter tower. Right-sized? Sadly, no.

Looking back, many years later, I realize this purchase decision was not one that I am proud of. But, as is so often the case, it was an instructive one. I can see that, even though I went to the market with a firm understanding of my needs and the features most important to me, I allowed well-meaning (OK, perhaps self-interested) salespeople to distract me. In the end, I failed to purchase a right-sized automobile.

Later in life, in the process of helping clients select a right-sized manufacturing system, I have observed the same conflict in action. The client starts the process with a carefully constructed list of the benefits he wants and the features he requires, only to be distracted by demonstrations of products with all sorts wiz-bang features, but way beyond his means and needs.

Today I urge clients to consider their objectives in the context of what you think they can reasonably achieve using their available resources. A 3-person assembly house shouldn’t be spending money on software that automates the Sales/Manufacturing relationship. Spending thousands to achieve a 10% reduction on inventory worth only $10,000 doesn’t make sense either. Expecting to implement new production and purchasing procedures without hiring additional staff is impractical, too.

Once you and your staff have compiled a list of manageable objectives, the next step is to determine whether any of the desired gains justify the cost of a computerized manufacturing system.

Over the years, we’ve found that most justifications for the deployment of a computerized system fall into one of three categories which we will examine starting in the next chapter of How To Choose 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.