What ERP software do you use?

[Greatwhitenorth]

Hi.  I'm looking for some recommendations on ERP software for our medium-sized engineering/manufacturing company.  It would need to have Inventor to ERP BOM capabilities.

We currently have engineer-to-order software in place, but the developer is not interested in fixing its bugs or updating it to work better with it's own Inventor add-on software.

So, if anyone has some comments, good or bad, I'd like to hear them.

Thanks in advance!

Bob

[falkmassmann]

It depends on your ERP System mostly I would say.

If I understand you correctly you´re looking for an interface directly from Inventor to your ERP-System.

Most companies use another program inbetween data transition from CAD to ERP which is a PDM-System.

From my background there are a lot more companies using a PDM-System before they transmit the data to ERP.

There is a plethora of PDM-Systems available for Inventor, Vault to be named first because it has a very high level CAD-Integration for Autodesk Products. But there are others which not only have an interface for Inventor but other major CAD-Systems as well like CATIA, Solidworks, Creo (ProE), NX, Solid Edge.

For example Pro.File has a wide support of CAD-Systems.

But in my experience third party PDM Systems mostly are using the Inventor API for their CAD-Integration and that´s where functionality sometimes lacks.

So it really depends on your needs and by no means can this question be answered in a forum thread.

In your position I would contact companies that either implement ERP/PDM-Integrations or even create them.

The topic is complex and someone experienced in this field will help you a lot.

Best regards

[blair]

We use "Syspro" for our ERP system. There is a 3rd party plug-in to interface with Inventor. We have implemented this 3rd party plug-in due to the nature of our manufacturing process. A great number of our products are weldments and we don't need part numbers for these individual components that make up the weldment. Since we burn/cut the items in-house our selves.

These components are not used in other units and would never be sold by them selves, so we need to make decisions at each component as to whither it requires a Part Number in our ERP system of not. If one of the components in the weldment is used in other weldments, then it would get a Part Number in our ERP system. The items that don't get a Part Number, are cut/burned from steel plate, so our ERP system would list the required amount of steel plate and the pattern number to use with the quantity to be cut.

We've been on different versions of this software since 1994, don't know how we could function without it.

[Greatwhitenorth]

@falkmassmann

We're actually looking for a replacement ERP system that has the ability to interface with Inventor's Bill of Material.  Our current ERP does it, but it's not functioning as it should.  The developer's not interested in fixing the issues.

@blair

I'll check out Syspro and see if it has what we're looking for.

Thanks for your comments.

A colleague was talking to Caleb Funk from Imaginit last week.  He asked him what others are using.  His response was AS/400 and something called Syteline.  Does anybody know or use Syteline?  If so, how is it working for you?

TIA

Bob

[falkmassmann]

May I ask what ERP system your company is using?

Right now I can only come up with one Software that has a direct integration from Inventor to ERP and that is CAD-Desktop for SAP. There might be other Systems that are capable of this.

Here is a PDF for a quick overview of the Inventor Integration.

http://www.cideon-software.com/backstage_09/documentpool/software/flyer-eng-cad-integration-/SAP%20P...

I´m not trying to promote SAP in any way, it´s just the only direct ERP integration I know of at this point.

PDM to ERP interfaces are a complete different matter and most likely are available for the major ERP Systems.

All the best

[Greatwhitenorth]

We're currently using Questica SE.

And thanks for the pdf link.

[shohelasia]

What is ERP Software/what is the task of ERP Software?

ERP Software:  ERP (Enterprise resource planning) is business management software, usually a suite of integrated applications that a company uses to manage business processes.

Including:

•   Product planning and development
•   Manufacturing
•   Marketing and sales
•   Inventory management
•   Shipping
• HR

ERP Software can help you to run your Corporation in one platform from where you can manage your total business.

 ERP Software Bangladesh

[blair]

We use Syspro, currently on release 6.1

[morrisangelo]

 Blair,

What's the 3rd party program you use to connect Inventor & Syspro?  We're killing ourselves with manual data entry and we desperately need a way for Syspro to bring in BOM data from Inventor.

[mcgyvr]

---

@morrisangelo wrote:

 Blair,

What's the 3rd party program you use to connect Inventor & Syspro?  We're killing ourselves with manual data entry and we desperately need a way for Syspro to bring in BOM data from Inventor.

---

Google says its called "CADtalk" 🙂

Blair can confirm.. 

[morrisangelo]

I found CADtalk from SolutionsX and a couple of others.  Just looking for clarity...

[blair]

Yes, but care must be taken, the part numbers must be exact in Inventor. Not really sure if we will continue on with the add-in. Not that much longer to do it manually. Plus any of our NC-Profile cut parts that we do in house you need to manually set them up anyways. We need to set the amount of steel plate required as well as the NC tool-path file for processing the part.

[morrisangelo]

Entering manually gets the job done, but I find working in SYSPRO extremely tedious and, at times, headache inducing.

On our larger assemblies, the manual entry effort becomes significant and it all but brings the engineeers here to a halt while other projects get pushed out.

We have Inventor generating the stock codes based on what's been set up through our Content Center files, so I don't see part number/stock number issues being a problem.  We're just looking to get 2 hours of manual data entry down to 20 minutes.

[mcgyvr]

I've found "CAD/BOM importing" addins for ERP systems to be very pricey.. We couldn't justify it at this time.. 

But if you do a lot of that the cost should easily be justified.

[bhavesh.kQ542L]

At its most basic level, ERP software integrates these various functions into one complete system to streamline processes and information across the entire organization. The central feature of all ERP solution is a shared database that supports multiple functions used by different business units. There are many ERP software available in market. Here are list:

• Oracle NetSuite
• Epicor ERP
• SAP Business One
• Sage 300
• Microsoft Dynamics 365
• Odoo
• NetSuite

[sebastianstan212]

ERP software (enterprise resource planning) is a business process management software that allows different companies to use a system of integrated applications to improve their existing business processes and track their projects and resources.

These functional areas of ERP Software are:

• Financial accounting
• Management accounting
• Human resources
• Manufacturing
• Supply chain management
• Project management
• Customer relationship management
• Data services
• Access control

Alternatively, there are ready-made industry-specific ERP software products also available in the market. Some of them are highly customizable and seamlessly adapt to the requirements of any organization.

If you want looking for ERP software for your manufacturing business. Check out this ERP Software

[gauravnsingh7]

ERP Software is the core of an enterprise because without it, you will be like flying blind, but the critical thing is to make use of your ERP software effectively. My recommendation would go with ebizframe web based ERP India software, as it will make sure that your employees are involved in productive work and the software helps you achieve integration of different business processes across business functions in your enterprise. The Ebizframe ERP Software is a perfect fit for all industry types. Though, there are myriads of ERP software’s’ available in the market, but getting the most reliable one has become a daunting task. Hence, identify your priorities and then choose one that fits your industry.

[doug.johnston]

We currently use ERPVisual, but are soon to upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics.

There is no link with our current process, but we are implementing Vault and Dynamics very soon that we will hopefully connect to each other through Vault.

The requirements we need at the moment are linking part numbers & part descriptions between Inventor and Dynamics, with more automation in the future. 

[I_Forge_KC]

I'd throw out there Autodesk Fusion Lifecycle. While technically a PLM solution, the actual platform was designed to capture nearly any business process. It has a well documented API system and can be made to sing in concert with tools like Fusion Production and Vault to become a powerhouse PDM-PLM-MRP-ERP system that all uses the same data source (your CAD data!) for it's engineering information management. There are also built-in tools that manage things like tool calibrations, safety checks, RMAs, 5S/lean audits, etc.

I work with a customer currently who is using it as a soup-to-nuts management tool for their internal technology ventures group. It handles customer interactions, data management, project management, material ordering, job processing, etc. Each functional group has their own swim lane(s) that enables multiple divergent workflows across the different internal divisions.

[NigelHay]

We use Sage 200 Pro. but it's not a perfect system, takes a bit of tinkering to run it properly. Bill of material entry is manual, in theory you could export an Inventor BoM into Excel & import into Sage but you have to do so much fiddling with columns, titles etc. that it's easier to just type the info in. Once loaded it generates works orders for the factory & tracks stock, work in progress etc. It integrates with Sales, Purchasing & Finance.