In preparation for our appearance in The Manufacturing ERP Experience, Global Shop Solutions paid a visit to one of our oldest and favorite customers, Wilshire Precision Products. Currently in its third generation with Global Shop Solutions One-System ERP Solutions™, we couldn’t think of anyone more qualified to present the benefits derived from implementing our software.

“Global Shop is a huge part of our success”, praises Tom Lewis, President of Wilshire. Tom goes on to describe how rapidly he’s watched his business expand after implementing Global Shop Solutions in 1986. “Our business has easily increased by at least 30% in the past few years without adding any new personnel,” …Read the rest of this entry »

Global Shop Solutions has always had many things to be proud of—from unparalleled customer service to perfectionist programmers. With that in mind, nothing brings us more pride than seeing our customers succeed. So you can understand why having 22 customers “go live” with Global Shop Solutions software this week really makes our chests swell.

Every manufacturer knows that implementing is the hardest part of an ERP software purchase. …Read the rest of this entry »

Why is having a single system enterprise resource planning (ERP) software solution the most desirable approach to manufacturing control? The answer is simple, but not always evident: It’s because everyone gets on the same page. Data gets entered one time and one time only. Time is not wasted trying to find information. You see the whole picture so that you can spend your time improving the business and increasing sales.

It starts with generating an estimate, which in most cases, only takes a few seconds. Then a customer quote with automatic multiple requests for vendor quotes. Upon receipt of the order, a sales order gets generated with a few keystrokes. …Read the rest of this entry »

Can ERP really improve shop labor performance, making a big difference on cost, quality and on-time delivery? Yes, a lot more than you think. Envision a shop where all clock (payroll) time is accounted for on a job, whether direct or indirect, and there is almost no input – only biometric identification and selection of the job recommended on a touch screen. All documentation, including prints, quality instructions, setup sheets, are at your fingertips. Some companies experience a 25% improvement in labor costs, typically resulting in enhanced on-time delivery and improved quality.

Here is where many manufacturers using enterprise resource planning software (ERP) realize their quickest and biggest return on investment. How? …Read the rest of this entry »

Looking at the title of this blog entry, you may ask yourself, ‘Why are we talking about increased sales? Isn’t enterprise resource planning (ERP) about cost reduction and streamlining operations?’.

Well, stop and think about delivering a part or assembly with a 99+% on-time delivery with impeccable quality. Then think about how much time is freed up because quoting is more accurate and easily generated. Because it requires very little input generating a sales order, work order, packing list or invoice. Because purchasing and scheduling are automated. Because shop floor control is easy to use with minimum input and very little, if any, paper. And so on, and so forth. …Read the rest of this entry »

Is it possible to get a complete, fully integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) software package where the whole process is ISO and QS-9000 compliant? They’re some ERP systems out there that do this, and through them you can achieve the sort of compliance levels you need to document and exhibit ISO and QS-9000. Or, rather, you should be able to do so.

ISO certification requires documenting what you do and proving that you do what you document. Some ERP software has complete traceability including lot, heat and serial number for getting a real edge on quality audits. You can also catch non-performance before it really starts on designated screens in real-time or on each day’s early morning reports. …Read the rest of this entry »

What if every time you saw an inventory quantity or dollar amount on the screen, you didn’t just guess, but knew it was accurate? What if, when you take an order you can instantly see whether you have a quantity left over from a previous overrun, so that you can reduce run quantity on the new order? What if your cycle time to process a part was significantly reduced, whether for parts or assemblies? These are the results you should be expecting from your use of enterprise resource planning (ERP) to manage inventory.

With ERP software, most inventory transactions require little, if any, input. Inventory management is very automated, which leads to even more savings through reduction in labor. Customizable options allow for the lot, serial and bin tracking required in many precision industries such as aerospace. Plus, if your ERP software system is a good one, you should also have the ability to cycle your inventory, keeping inventory accurate and dramatically reducing the costs of physical inventories. …Read the rest of this entry »

Living in the Internet Age has meant a couple of things: Living faster, and doing business much differently. Small and medium-sized businesses, in particular, may be feeling the greatest impact. With advances in technology breaking down geographic barriers, even companies with just a few million dollars in annual revenue find themselves operating on a global scale, with customers, suppliers, and other business partners located the world over.

Most small business owners welcome these changes because they have given them access to markets that previously were open only to the largest corporations. On the other hand, small business owners are realizing that competing with mega-enterprises for access to markets also forces them to deal with many of the same problems that confront big organizations. …Read the rest of this entry »

Nothing’s small when you own and operate a small business. This is especially true when your small business just happens to be in the manufacturing sector. Small manufacturers encounter many of the same challenges that medium and large companies do, including pressure from competitors; global economic volatility; the need to attract and retain new customers; and the need to reduce expenses and increase profitability.

However, many small manufacturers have myriad other issues to contend with that big businesses don’t have, or have an easier time facilitating by virtue of economic scaling. Certainly, in today’s tight credit markets, limited access to financial resources is a key hurdle for small businesses. This is exacerbated by increasingly higher operational costs and the constant difficulty in finding qualified people to work for you. …Read the rest of this entry »

Are the functions of a manager truly different in a lean manufacturing environment when compared with a traditional management structure? Of course they are. It is all a matter of the degree to which each incorporates production variables of their specific models that they will differ in some ways, and don’t differ very much at all in other ways. It’s important, though, to understand these differences for seeing what model—lean or traditional—works best in your own shop for managing people and processes.

So what are the differences? In a lean manufacturing environment production is based on real customer demand. In a traditional manufacturing environment production is based on what you hope to sell. …Read the rest of this entry »