An ERP Designed for Engineers
As an Engineer To Order (ETO) manufacturer, you have the skills and the talent to solve unique problems for your clients. All you need now are Dynamic BOMs!
In fact, your custom-designed solutions are often the source of your success. That makes engineering the engine of your company, a vital part of the production process. So why don’t you have an ERP built for Engineers?
Engineering Teams Love to Work with Dynamic BOMs
As your ETO business grows, the limitations of your existing software also start to grow. Inefficiencies or bottlenecks begin appearing in your operation, putting profitability at risk. Recognizing your current system is a liability means it’s time to implement an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, to improve processes throughout the organization.
Engineers are in awe when they see how well Total ETO integrates with SOLIDWORKS, Autodesk Inventor, and other popular computer-aided design (CAD) systems. It really is an ERP designed for Engineers!
“Total ETO can integrate with SOLIDWORKS and that was very important to our business”
Timm Schaetz, President, Hart Design and Manufacturing.
Working with Dynamic BOMs means your bill of materials is always current and accurate. You can release parts to procurement in stages, even while you’re still designing the system. This allows your team to get a head start on long-lead components and save money from shopping around.
If your subsequent design changes your earlier work, that’s not a problem, we help manage that too. Reducing downtime and clerical work like this is one of the best ways a Custom Machine Builder increases profits. As Stan McLean, former Engineering Manager at Macrodyne Technologies said,
“Total ETO allowed the existing staff to handle an increase in business that would not have been possible with the previous methods of production release and purchasing.”
Stan McLean, Engineering Manager, Macrodyne Technologies.
With such a dynamic approach, your CAD integration becomes even more important. That’s why you need an ERP built for engineers, you need a true Engineer To Order solution.
Why an Engineer To Order Solution is Necessary
This ETO flowchart demonstrates the steps Integrators, Panel Shops, and OEMs often take during a project. For some, the process is much longer with steps for additional design modifications and further procurement. Such downtime can frustrate the client as well as the staff working on the project. It’s also likely to cost your organization money.
With the right ERP/MRP, a Custom Machine Builder can take on more jobs, growing the business, without needing more staff. The key to scaling your growth like this is freeing up critical staff from clerical tasks. This allows your talented team to focus on income-generating projects, rather than paperwork.
In the engineering department, for example, designers typically spend about half their time compiling the bill of materials, reissuing drawings, processing change orders, issuing reports, meeting with sales, etc… Imagine the difference if your designers could spend more time designing!
Handling Specialty, an Ontario-based manufacturer demonstrates the improvements ETO organizations experience when working with the right ERP. Within the first five years of using Total ETO, they doubled their sales. Handling Specialty also reduced their design and shop hours by 10.3%. This led to a six-fold increase in profits. This case study focuses on their gains. First, however, it describes some of the problems they faced. As a Custom Machine Builder, you’ll probably be able to relate to some, such as:
- Customers often request changes to the order during the design process, sometimes even after. This impacts design time and purchasing efforts.
- Engineering often needs to pre-release components to procurement in order to meet deliveries. This requires special effort to manage the bill of materials interaction with purchasing.
- The team often identifies areas where the design needs to be changed. This requires engineering to modify the drawings and the BOM. Furthermore, procurement then needs to change material orders.
If you relate to these struggles, you’ll be happy to hear that Total ETO integrates smoothly with your CAD. This option saves your employees time and frustrations, Additionally, as you can see in the Handling Specialty case study, it also improves morale.
Why Engineering Teams Prefer Total ETO
Total ETO is more than just project management software for the manufacturing industry. And it goes above and beyond enterprise resource planning. Our team of experienced Engineers and former Custom Machine Builders works with you during implementation and training. We understand the unique nature of your Engineer To Order business. That’s why we’re committed to providing you with first-class infrastructure; your business will be better able to handle the growth and changes ahead.
Additionally, even when using popular CAD systems such as SOLIDWORKS and Autodesk Inventor, we’ve learned that numerous users are unaware of the data they’ve collected and therefore aren’t leveraging it. Total ETO helps organize and relay important information. You can track your project workflow and see reporting metrics at all stages of a project. Such real-time information can go a long way when growing your business.
As Kevin Miller, CFO at Mission Design & Automation said,
“We’ve definitely seen a general improvement in the accuracy of data. We’ve gone from thinking a project is going well, to knowing it’s going well.”
Kevin Miller, CFO, Mission Design & Automation
All this insight benefits your clients as well, by improving your customer service capabilities. We’re also pretty sure your engineering department will love:
- True CAD integration: Dynamic BOMs mean you can bring your bill of materials in, without leaving CAD and with no double entry.
- Efficient processes: Purchasing is simple when information is interconnected with engineering, receiving, and the shop floor.
- Improved quality: Knowing where your parts are during fabrication helps to confirm they’re inspected and by whom. It’s also easy to record and follow up on quality issues.
- Save time and money: Easily search the system for previously used parts and their complete history. You can also easily copy parts from a past project’s BOM to a new BOM.
- Knowledge is power: Complete visibility of the shop floor and business processes. Keep a close eye on each project and see reporting metrics at every stage, empowering management with real-time information. You’ll also have access to dozens of predesigned reports that can be exported to Word, Excel, or PDF.
- Clever organization: Reserve inventory by project and see remaining availability.
- Spend less on materials: Designers can cost out the BOM before purchases are made. This includes releasing parts to procurement in stages, such as long lead components. Purchasing departments always appreciate how much money they save from working with Dynamic BOMs!
What Other Custom Machine Builders are Saying
“Total ETO tightly connects engineering, procurement, and accounting. The support has been top notch along with active meaningful improvements”.
Kevin Marrick, President. Zeta Group
“Total ETO has streamlined our Purchasing process and saved us the cost of one full time purchasing agent.”
Nate Hinks, Director of Sales, Farason
“Every day we work with Total ETO and I have not found a better product after all these years”.
Rick Blake, President, Edgewater Automation
You can see why engineers love Total ETO’s Dynamic BOMs, but what about the rest of your organization? Check out our solutions page to see how Total ETO connects engineering with sales, procurement, manufacturing, accounting, and analytics. One solution that improves the visibility into each stage of your business.
Packages start at $7,500/year for 5 users and include human-guided implementation and training.
Total ETO is a Totally Better ERP and MRP system, improving efficiency, accuracy, and profitability. Our software is easy to implement and use, affordable, and backed by a team of industry experts with a passion for the success of every client.
F.A.Q.
1. How does data flow throughout Total ETO?
Total ETO has a logical graphical user interface that mimics the business flow of a typical Engineer To Order organization. Commonly accessed areas like sales, engineering and manufacturing are easily accessible from a main menu, with quick access to all reports, and separate administrative functions to fine tune your setup.
Benefits to you:
- Staff is more effective when the work flow is logical, easy to follow and mimics current procedures.
- Better user experience with natural flow of screens and data.
- Drastically reduce user training time with an intuitive interface that is easy to learn.
2. How does Total ETO manage my bill of materials?
By making your BOMs Dynamic! Total ETO provides a separate engineering screen to manage entire Projects and individual Jobs. A bill of materials (BOM) can be built in a hierarchy, rather than a flat BOM, and is displayed in a flexible graphical user interface. By displaying the BOM visually, designers have greater flexibility to break down assemblies and more easily manage changes to an assembly quantity or parts within the assembly.
Benefits to you:
- Time and money are saved in both engineering and procurement, thanks to the ease of Dynamic BOMs.
- Fewer setbacks as engineers can logically break up complex machinery into a series of nested sub-assemblies.
- Designers and engineers are more efficient as a structured BOM provides them with a quick and organized means of finding materials and managing change requirements.
3. Once I’ve released parts from my bill of materials, can I still make changes or is the BOM now static?
Engineer To Order companies know their BOM needs to be fluid. With this ERP designed for engineers, your BOM is never locked down. Total ETO allows engineers to change and release their BOM as needed, even items they’ve previously released. This includes changes to previously released parts, assemblies and even the entire BOM. Total ETO will communicate any material changes to procurement for you.
Benefits to you:
- Total ETO works with your business processes instead of you trying to adjust your business to suit your ERP.
- Engineering maintains total control of their BOM, even if items have been procured.
- Engineers can release assemblies or individual items more quickly since Total ETO will handle over or under procured items.
- Procurement is immediately notified of items that need their attention, giving them time to resolve issues quickly, saving you money on unnecessary materials or extra shipments.
4. Does Total ETO integrate with my CAD system?
Yes, of course we do! Since we’re partners with Dassault and Autodesk, Total ETO provides integrated 3D CAD linking within SOLIDWORKS and Inventor, embedding our controls in their CAD systems, allowing designers to easily push BOM information to Total ETO.
For other CAD systems, our BOM Import tool can quickly import a BOM file exported from applications such as SOLIDWORKS Electrical, E-Plan, and Solid Edge, among many others, eliminating double entry, and possible data entry mistakes.
Benefits to you:
- Designers can view and edit the bill of materials in ONE central location, giving complete control on the BOM’s development.
- Staff gains flexibility, power and versatility in creating, modifying and controlling the flow of information to and from Purchasing.
- By integrating your BOM with your 3D CAD, we eliminate duplicate data entry and speed up the engineering process.
5. Can I track Non-Conformances in Total ETO?
Total ETO’s Non-Conformance (NC) system allows users to raise NCs from several different areas within the system and allows users to track various causes of the issue such as defective parts, drawing or design errors, and manufacturing errors. Non-conformances are attached to Jobs and can have both labor and material costs associated to them. Coupled with powerful searches and powerful reporting, our Engineer To Order software solution provides the ability to identify the causes of non-conformances and allows users to prevent them from occurring on similar future projects.
Benefits to you:
- Engineer To Order manufacturers are constantly faced with non-conformances and need a simple system to deal with the complexity of this process.
- Knowing how to avoid certain errors in the future will affect your company’s bottom line and improve product quality.