I'm a small shop looking into erp as well. What made you decide to build your own versus going with something off the shelf like E2?
I am seriously looking at E2. I want to install the stand-alone / perpetual-license instead of the cloud version in order to be itar compliant. I'm not required to be itar certified yet but it may come up in the future. I also like the idea of owning my software as opposed to renting it.
I'd like to know the pros and cons to e2 and peoples experiences. I really dread building something from scratch.
(Hopefully I'm not hijacking this thread)
As a small shop as in just a few machinist and maybe a salesman and an office clerk I would say E2 is a bit overkill.
Ive used E2 as a shop owner, manager, and employee and as you go up in access it get overwhelming fast.
For just a machinist who has limited access such as printing out job routers and scanning operation barcodes it's wonderful, Almost takes the hassle of paperwork out of the equation.
Then you get the managers position and he's trying to do all the scheduling as well as material orders and tracking, Cutting tools, equipment downtime, and a host of all the other management requirements and it's easy to get lost and forget something.
As an owner it's an absolute PITA. There's 101 ways to create reports and it seems nobody ever shows up to meetings with the same paperwork. Then, when someone finally does get the paperwork right it may still be different because someone else just accessed and updated a delivery, a shut down, new order, deadline change, scrap, yada, yada.
It's a super powerful software capable of running the most detailed manufacturing companies but to me it needs a dedicated person for data entry. You cant depend on shadow board monitors all over the factory with color coded graphs to keep you up to date. Taking verbal planning and basic communication away is a recipe for disaster. Especially if you are a fast turnover shop and constantly shifting jobs around.