“Manufacturing software (also MRP, MRP II, manufacturing systems, enterprise resource planning software (ERP), barcode software, bill of materials, quality assurance software, distribution software) is used in the production planning, inventory control and efficient management of manufacturing processes within a business. Manufacturing software can stand alone or act as a component of a larger, modular ERP system”
In the industry I am targeting with regard to manufacturing, products are not mass produced and are more made specifically to certain requirements, therefore for example ‘Bar Codes’ are not necessary.
, the IT Media ROI Experts, Top Manufacturing/ERP Software Solutions Available from [Accessed 6 May 2009]
Morris, Eric. Ezine Articles. Small Business Manufacturing Software Available from [Accessed 6 May 2009]
This article explains software for smaller sized businesses, which I found useful because my primary data will be from smaller sized companies rather than global organisations.
The article identifies who the stakeholders of the companies would be and there needs and how software can assist with this.
The author states:
“Small business manufacturing software systems should ideally connect sales, support, manufacturing, distribution and finance sections with customers, suppliers and partners. This will enable better customer relations, and thereby encourage repeat sales.”
He also states:
“The best small business manufacturing software has the features of controlling the five main manufacturing processes, namely inventory control, sales and purchase orders, bill of materials, RFQs, and material requirements planning.”
This was interesting as it gave me a good understanding of what should be included within software designed for manufacturing.
- METHODOLOGY
5.1. Data Collection
The information sourced throughout this project has been collected by a variety of methods and are both qualitative and quantitative data.
5.1.1. Primary Data
To collect a range of primary data I have used various different methods as set out below. The data collected is a mixture of qualitative and quantitative.
Questionnaire
I originally set out in my proposal that I was going to hand deliver my questionnaires, however when the time came I found it more cost effective to email them. I had a very good response rate from doing it this way, out of 50 emails sent, I received 28 back. I think this was because I had phoned beforehand and asked for the direct email address of the person who deals with IT, I also left it a week and sent out a follow up email to those who hadn’t already replied. Having chosen this method I extended my range of manufacturing companies throughout the UK, rather than just the local area.
Survey
The survey was in an online format and included the same questions as in the paper questionnaire. An email link was sent out to tank manufacturers that are members of the ATCM. Out of the 15 companies I sent to, I received a fantastic amount of replies, 14 in total. This took an amount of time, I originally only received 5 replies but after placing a small editorial in the associations monthly newsletter, I received emails asking for the link.
Interviews
Within my questionnaires and surveys sent, companies were asked if they would mind being interviewed, I found this to be a good way of getting to speak to the correct person immediately as they left contact details. About a ¼ of the replies were happy to be interviewed. I picked at random two people from tank manufacturing and two people from general manufacturing as I felt this would give me sufficient information.
- Secondary
Statistics from software companies.
Unfortunately when I came to approaching software companies such as PC World they wouldn’t give me any hard figures to work with. Another problem I found
This secondary data was quantitative.
As to the best of my knowledge I couldn’t find that this kind of research had been published before, therefore I struggled a little I finding suitable secondary data but I feel the information founded in my literature review and my primary data was that companies in the industry only specialised in one product such as Sage and didn’t offer the others. I found these companies to be ‘Partners’ of the software manufacturer and this seemed to be the norm throughout the industry.
I did also take a general view to see if any products were on the Amazon website for their best selling software, although this wasn’t specific as it included all software such as Driving Test CD ROMs and Internet Security, it was interesting to see over such a wide variety that Sage Instant Accounts v15, arrived at Number 18 and QuickBooks Pro arrived at Number 32 out of the top 100 software.
This information was taken at 7pm 6 June 2009 – The information is updated hourly.
Amazon (2009) ‘Bestsellers in Software’ Available from [Accessed 6 June 2009, 7pm]
5.2. Statistical analysis
When analysing my data, I transferred also information into an excel spreadsheet so this was then laid out in an easy format to produce graphs and charts with.
5.3. Timescale
I laid out in my original proposal set dates to have different aspects of my project completed by. However due to unforeseen professional and personal commitments I found this hard to adhere to. I would have preferred to have met with interviewees on a one to one basis, but all bar one were completed over the telephone due to lack of time available for travelling etc within typical working hours. I did complete background reading throughout but didn’t allow to seek out the most important aspects over a period of time and thus this was completed in one go. I also left certain aspects until a later stage. If I was to complete this project again I would definitely be stricter on myself when meeting mini deadlines and if I had a prior commitment, I would be sure to complete that stage at the next available opportunity.
5.4. Plagiarism
Whilst collecting data for this research project I have recorded where information was sourced from, including interviews and website addresses.
- Findings
This section shows my findings throughout the project, this will be related back to my original objectives in my proposal.
6.1. Identifying the different types of manufacturing companies to analyse and then making sure these are comparable to my own company.
6.1.2. Other Tank Manufacturers
I targeted other tank manufacturers who are members of the Association, Tank and Cistern Manufacturers as I knew that they all work in a similar way to my company from attending the annual general meetings.
6.1.3. General Manufacturers
When seeking out other manufacturing companies, I made sure these companies made a product not necessarily similar to tanks but on the same kind of scale. I chose people who manufactured wrought iron gates for example, the size, distribution and length of projects to analyse. I didn’t target manufacturing production lines for smaller items such as packaging as I didn’t feel they would be easily comparable with minimal man effort.
6.2. Identifying the different software systems on the market and if there are any that are specifically for the manufacturing industry.
The business software market is huge. There are many different kinds of software for all different companies and users; I have identified the most relevant products to this research project.
- Sage
Sage is one of the leading software companies on the market. With a range of products to suit every business needs.
Sage Manufacturing
This software can be purchased in three different versions each with different components within depending on the business needs.
- Sage 50 Manufacturing for smaller businesses
- Sage 200 Manufacturing for medium businesses
- Sage 1000 Manufacturing for larger businesses.
This software overall covers all areas of manufacturing and incorporates areas for estimating, order and job processing, reviewing of costs and invoicing. It does however stop at this stage and doesn’t allow for areas of purchasing raw materials, payroll or managing the sales and purchase ledger.
Therefore other software would be needed to cover these areas of the business.
Sage Line 50
This software is a product for all over general business management, covering sales, accounts, purchasing and stock lists.
It does not allow for detail within stocks however and you can only say how many for instance ‘tanks’ are in stock, you cannot allocate serial numbers or similar tracking methods. Unfortunately this product isn’t designed to work with other Sage products and ‘Manufacturing’ is supposed to cover other aspects. This is the product we have at my company but we had a bespoke system made to track and allocate stock
6.2.2. Pegasus
Pegasus, like Sage are also market leaders having a wide range of products.
The specific software they have for manufacturing is Operations II, this software is similar to Sage 50 in which it “process data from sales orders, through material requirements planning (MRP), purchasing, production, quality control and finally to delivery and invoicing: a complete production control system”
This software however is different from Sage 50 as it is specifically designed to work with Microsoft software such as Word, Excel etc. It also is typically supposed to be purchased with Opera ii which covers the accounting side of a business. When used together this should provide a total solution.
6.2.3. SAP
SAP is a well known Global brand, whose products I felt are mostly suited to the larger organisations with an organised production line.
There is a product ‘SAP Manufacturing’ which covers areas of planning, execution, quality and maintenance, and environment, health, and safety.
There is also a further 5 products, that this is designed to work with to provide overall manufacturing solutions. This is without even looking at the needs of any other departments and thus further products would be needed to cover areas such as Sales/Purchase ledger control.
6.2.4. QuickBooks
QuickBooks seems to be a smaller organisation than there competitors with less products available and mainly for finance and payroll purposes.
The three they offer is:
QuickBooks Simple Start
This software is a simple package which can be set up in as little as 30 minutes, it offers features to reports sales and expenses and customise paperwork to look more professional.
QuickBooks Pro
This software is a more advanced version of the ‘Simple Start’ with additional features where you can track stock and create customer and supplier accounts for relationship management.
QuickBooks Premier
This software again offers all the features of the above two systems, but has features for remote access, forecasting and more advanced reporting features.
This software would be best suited I think to someone starting out in business, someone with a low budget and possibly someone after a system not too technical that covers the basic business needs.
I wouldn’t automatically associate this software with manufacturing but it could be a useful system if there was another product to look after production and stock.
6.2.5. ERP Systems
These software systems ‘Enterprise Resource Planning’ are generally tailored to the business requirements and implement and manage areas of planning, raw materials, production and all other resources in manufacturing.
These are also implemented in other industries such as government and no longer solely manufacturing.
It was difficult to find suitable information on these systems due to the very vast range available and how they are specifically tailored to the customers requirements.
These systems extend upon MRP Systems ()
Wikipedia States that “To be considered an ERP system, a software package must provide the function of at least two systems. For example, a software package that provides both payroll and accounting functions could technically be considered an ERP software package”
Wikipedia (June 2009). Enterprise resource planning. Available from [Accessed 5 June 2009]
6.3. To establish which software systems other companies use and what they use the software for by sending out a questionnaire/online survey.
From the survey the tank manufacturers completed, I received 14 out of 15 returns which was fantastic.
I found the results a little surprising. My earlier research of the software systems on the market showed that Sage very was limited when covering all ground for a company however this turned out to be the most popular option.
This was further investigated with interviews for which the results can be found further on.
Figure 1: Software Systems in Place by Tank Manufacturers
The results shown in the Bar Chart below identify tank manufacturing companies needs within a software package, with all companies who took the survey needing there software to support sales, followed closely by accounts and stock takes.
This may explain why Sage is the most popular product as standard Sage Line 50 Business software covers Sales and Accounts.
Figure 2: Usage of Software within Tank Manufacturing Companies
The results shown in the graph below show the factors that influence a purchase and the order of importance as per the votes from companies who completed my survey.
In tank manufacturing, Aftersales Technical Support was the least important factor whereas Price was the most important factor with some companies also having Suitability for all departments and training Staff to use product as the most important factors. There is a trend that most companies have the same views on importance.
Figure 3: Most Important Factors Influencing a Purchase – Tank Manufacturers
Below are the results taken from general manufacturing companies throughout the UK.
Compared to Tank Manufacturing, again Sage is still the most popular form of software.
Figure 4: Software Systems in place throughout general Manufacturing Companies
The results below show a difference in the important of certain areas of the software needs with purchasing taking a more prominent position and stock takes not being so important. There was also a company that said drawing/design was a big part of their software. This wouldn’t really be so important in tank manufacturing as products have been designed over a number of years and each company works generally to those specifications, tanks that are specially manufactured are as per the customers design and drawing.
Figure 5: Usage of Software within General Manufacturing Companies
The results shown in the graph below show the factors that influence a purchase and the order of importance as per the votes from companies who returned my questionnaire
Similar to tank manufacturing, Aftersales Technical Support was the least important factor for most however a couple of people said price was the least important which was a strange turnaround. Price was the most important factor for the majority though with some companies also having all others as most important factors. There is a trend that most companies have the same views on importance but slight differences when compared to tank manufacturing.
Figure 6: Most Important Factors Influencing a Purchase – General Manufacturers
6.4. To evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each software system by interviewing/discussing with the people who already use the systems.
After receiving back my questionnaire / survey replies, I sorted out the companies that wouldn’t mind being interviewed and picked at random companies from general and tank manufacturing.
- Out of the four people I spoke to, only one person felt that there software fully covered all the needs of the business departments. This was Pegasus Opera II and Operations II working in conjunction together, this person also informed me the company had paid over what they had wanted to but hadn’t regretted it.
- Two of the companies I spoke to had Sage as their main software, and the main reason was that many people are trained in Sage software so if one member of staff leaves, chances are they will have minimal amounts of training to give the new employee.
- 3 out of the 4 people interviewed stated that accounts was more important than stock control, one person stated that they used excel spreadsheets alone for all aspects of their stock.
- I asked other people if they had considered any other software before making their decision, all of the other 3 people looked at Pegasus but informed me it was just too expensive as they had to buy 2 packages. SAP also was considered but wasn’t much different from others, was more expensive and a large amount of staff training would have been needed.
- Purchasing wasn’t a prominent need for most as hand written orders were sent the majority of the time on purchase order printed paper.
Advantages / Disadvantages
Figure 7: Advantages & Disadvantages Software Systems
Key Quotations from Interviews
Question 2
“We couldn’t find any software that covered all our needs, so we had Sage Line 50 Financial installed and had a bespoke system made for stock control”
“We upgraded to Sage from ACT as most staff had already used it, it really was a matter of installing it, moving data over and away, this proved very cost effective”
“Pegasus was just too expensive to justify in our company, it would be great in a larger organisation”
Question 7
“we like that we can type a letter to a customer or do some costings in excel and save them actually on the system without having various folders located all over the server”
Question 8
“We don’t like to change our software often as that means changing our quality procedures”
“We would love a system that incorporates CAD drawings”
6.5. I will analyse all data received back from my research and compare this to my own company.
From the above results, it seems there is definitely a software system on the market that covers all aspects, this using Pegasus Opera II and Operations II together. This would have been perfect for Precolor’s needs although like another company said, I’m not sure my company would be willing to pay the price of Pegasus.
My own company like Brimar Plastics runs Sage and has a bespoke system; I find this interesting being in the same industry and some of the things Claire Lockley was saying related with my company. Mainly about her saying that the software was dated but it was fine for there needs which is generally the same as us. However Sarena had Pegasus Opera II and Operations II, which also tied in with my company’s needs. It shows that my company and other tank manufacturing companies operate in a similar way, having similar software requirements and views on importance.
I found most of the companies questioned and interviewed were comparable as they seemed to be of similar size to my company. I could relate to and understand when companies were saying that software isn’t the most important factor in there business and it doesn’t have a particularly big budget.
- Discussion
As stated in my project proposal, there were various reasons why I chose this subject to research for my project. Mainly because I would like to be able to contribute more in the IT decision making in my company, this project has allowed me to have a broad insight into the industry so when/if my company decides to have a new system put in place I will certainly be able to point them in the right direction. I also wanted to see if there were any similarities
between the software we use and other companies requirements.
Having gained some information from software suppliers and discussing with manufacturing companies who use the software, I was able to find out the things that influence a purchase and what people want in a software system.
Although I was unable to gain any statistics which proved the ‘Best Selling’ software products, I believe this information would be hard to gather I couldn’t find any companies that sold a range of brands, SAP, Pegasus, Sage - each were separate partners of one. For example our software Supplier – Smith Cooper IT is a Sage Partner and they do not sell or support any other types of software, this was generally the norm throughout the industry.
As I targeted similar sized companies to my own, price was a major factor for most, being relatively small, there wasn’t the budget available for the more advanced systems.
I did gain feedback from a few of the larger companies who used SAP, this generally seems to be a system for the larger company with more of a production line as such rather than similar to my company where products are all different and hand made.
My findings I have to say I agree with but I was surprised to not find a product suitable for all business needs in manufacturing, however after doing research I feel a product that did this would be impractical because many features within certain companies would not be needed and would go to waste. Also because of the how many features would be needed, I am sure this would push the price of the product right up and many explained Pegasus was expensive and that only covered ‘tank manufacturing’ as such and probably wouldn’t be suitable for a fast moving production line.
- Summary
From my research I can say that there is software out there for all business needs. I haven’t found however one complete system that does everything. The closest I found was Pegasus that had two programs designed to run simultaneously together, although from interviewing various companies, people found that this, compared to other alternatives, was an expensive option.
Software was easily comparable to my own company however I wouldn’t say one persons software is better as such than another because if it satisfies the needs of that business then that is perfectly suited, another company may use the same software and not be happy with it for various reasons from staff training to changing there quality procedures.
Out of the companies questioned the majority used Sage as there main software and from general feedback, this was an easy off the shelf purchase that many people are familiar with so less staff training would be needed. Payroll was often on a separate system and not needed to be on the main system. Accounts and Sales were the main departments that the software was necessary for.
The major factors that influence a purchase were equally price and suitability for all departments. Interestingly after sales care was the least important factor, in our company with having a bespoke system, this is one of the most important factors because if a discrepancy occurs, nobody except the developers would know how to correct it.
- Conclusion
I think from the research I have undertaken , that to answer my question I don’t believe there is a package on the market that it suitable for every single manufacturing company, I think a lot of it depends on what type of manufacturing the company is involved in, whether this be a production line for packaging or like my company, hand made tanks.
The software other general manufacturing companies use in comparison to my own company differs for various reasons with a variety of factors from quality control procedures to price.
There are a variety of suitable products on the market available dependant on a businesses needs but I certainly wouldn’t say to use one directly for manufacturing as a whole.
I think a system using Pegasus Opera II and Operations II would be ideal for my company, another tank manufacturing company although larger also had this system in place. I will certainly be recommending this product to my manager when the time comes to change our system. However the expense of the product may not be justifiable when the system we have in place is perfectly suited to our needs even if a bespoke system, again another tank manufacturing company had this system similar to ours, this shows there are definite similarities in the way Precolor and other tank manufacturing companies operations work.
- APPENDICES
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
Starinsky, Robert W. (2002) Maximizing Business Performance Through Software
Packages: Best Practices For Justification, Selection, And Implementation. CRC
Press
Amazon (2009) ‘Bestsellers in Software’ Available from [Accessed 6 June 2009, 7pm]
Money Instructor, Choosing Small Business Software, Available from [Accessed 6 May 2009]
, the IT Media ROI Experts, Top Manufacturing/ERP Software Solutions Available from [Accessed 6 May 2009]
Wikipedia (June 2009). Enterprise resource planning. Available from [Accessed 5 June 2009]
Morris, Eric. Ezine Articles. Small Business Manufacturing Software Available from [Accessed 6 May 2009]
