Global Shop Solutions ERP software has been simplifying manufacturing for 40 years. A good chunk of our customer base is make-to-order manufacturing shops and often, those are some of our best users.

Luckily, I get a chance to speak to these users and business owners regularly as they frequently attend our free ERP Boot Camp at our global headquarters in The Woodlands, Texas.

When I get facetime with them I normally ask them – why do you stick with us?

Those answers usually focus on the best customer service in the industry and feeling like part of the family, success with the entire system – from quote to cash, simplifying our manufacturing, and helping us deliver a quality part on-time, every time.

Recently, a fifth reason is sneaking into the majority of those conversations – customization. More and more manufacturers are looking to customize their ERP software to meet very specific business needs or processes that they believe give them an efficiency, cost, or speed advantage over their competition. Years ago innovation was limited to what the software provided or how many people you can hire, but today innovation is not limited. Leveraging technology like Global Shop Solutions Global Application Building software development kit (SDK) customers can create applications, screens, dashboards, or reports that sit on top of the core ERP system calling data in real-time.

You might be thinking to yourself that this sounds awesome. You are right, it is. You might be thinking to yourself, give me an example. Well, here you go.

Let’s take make-to-order manufacturing shops. The bread and butter of these shops is making sure open sales order match open work orders because if you have a sales orders that don’t have parts being made against them you are losing money. If you have work orders with parts being made but no open sales order then you building inventory – which goes against your make-to-order philosophy. Many of our make-to-order customers asked us if there was a simpler way to see all the open sales orders and all the open work orders tied to them. Leveraging our Global Application Builder, we built just that – ARC Project 4180 – Open Sales Order with Work Orders – Make to Order Customer.

The Open Sales Order with Work Orders for Make-to-Order Customers Dashboard allows a customer to pull in real time the open or past due sales orders and filter by customer name, part number, part description, customer PO, order number, due date, work order, work order quantity, schedule date, or work order due. You can also view if the shipment has been scheduled and any notes related to the order. Talk about simplifying your manufacturing! Everything you need on one simple and easy-to-use screen that allows you to drill into the data you require.

Adam Grabowski is the Director of Marketing for Global Shop Solutions. He is responsible for strategically positioning the company and its ERP software product to make existing customers more successful and compete for new business opportunities in the manufacturing industry.