Best Job Shop Software of 2026

Job shop and machine shop specialties are limited-scale manufacturing, including prototyping and single unit production or “one offs.” Margins can be very thin, so successful firms balance their time spent on manufacturing with time on maintaining inventory and fostering customer relationships.

Job shop software is essentially an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system with a limited scope. In fact, it's is often part of ERP if the shop is a small part of a larger organization. Broadly speaking, the system is used to automate many of the tracking and scheduling duties within the company.

A prime requirement for job and machine shops is manufacturing resource planning (MRP), the system that schedules the manufacturing of each customer’s order. Inventory and order entry are important and must be integrated with the MRP system, particularly with the pipeline management system.

Screenshot of E2 Shop System scheduling whiteboard

Contract manufacturing is a relationship-based businesses. As such, owners should use customer relationship management (CRM) to track sales history and to market opportunities targeted at specific customers. Strictly speaking, payroll is standard. However, one of the resources tracked by MRP is worker time spent per work order. This allows owners and managers to measure the profitability of each employee.

General ledger, accounts payable and accounts receivable are standard. Most job shop manufacturing systems are installed on premises. The computerization and networking of tools and the associated costs means that most of the infrastructure to support job shop scheduling software is already in place, negating the hardware cost arguments for cloud-based installations.

Here's what we'll cover:

What Is Job and Machine Shop Software?

Common Features of Job and Machine Shop Software

Market Trends to Understand

What Is Job and Machine Shop Software?

Job and machine shop software provide necessary, real-time data that is related to manufacturing and other operations, such as job scheduling, finance, estimations, employees, sales, materials, engineering, job accounting and job management. They also provide job data related to competitors, vendors, customers, marketplace and the overall supply chain.

A job and machine shop solution helps manufacturing units reduce waste, enhance productivity and improve the bottom line. The solution helps users meet the specific requirements of job shops that cannot always be achieved using traditional manufacturing solutions.

Common Features of Job and Machine Shop Software

In addition to core business functions, it's important to evaluate the following functions to meet the company's unique requirements:

Market Trends to Understand

In the past several years, many major trends have influenced the manner in which job shops operate in the manufacturing sector, and will continue to impact in the future. New technologies, such as advanced robotics, data analytics and mobile devices will enable small job shops to compete with larger enterprises that have state-of-the-art infrastructure.

To keep up with the latest developments, job shops must be aware of the key trends:

Fully digital supply chain. The digitization of operations in a supply chain is about to become obligatory, leaving no scope for paper-based work. In this situation, paperwork is unacceptable in even the smallest of job shops. An all-digital supply chain increases productivity and efficiency and minimizes the chance of errors.

Artificial intelligence and predictive analytics. The back office requires a finer and better grasp of the big picture for uninterrupted operation. Many low-cost analytics platforms in the market quickly gather data in the warehouse, on the shop floor and through customer communications. This information is then assessed through predictive analytics to shape various supply orders for the upcoming months. It also helps predict which machine is likely to fail soon and which customers to pursue in the immediate term.

Augmented reality. A few years ago, the concept of augmented reality services, such as Google Glass, was in hype but it vanished quickly due to the high price of these services and devices. However, the concept has great potential. In the coming years, the cost of wearable hardware linked to such concepts is expected to reach a more realistic level. It will create plenty of opportunities in inventory management and enable quicker response to overall processes and operations on the job shop floor.