Excellent customer service and value - MFG user

Pros

Excellent customer service with support on software and hardware questions. I have had consistently outstanding support from the customer service group supporting the E2 MFG system. Good value for the product provided. Accounting module works well for us and allows us to use one system for our manufacturing processes and our accounting functions.

Cons

Some of the changes made through upgrades have been pretty frustrating and seem to be focused on a select few customers and don't make sense for the rest. (most recent example: Purchasing Module - addition of required Location entry for Receivers as a default instead of a choice to be made within the company preferences.)

Transitioned from QuickBooks to E2 MFG

Having no prior first-hand experience with an ERP system myself, as a company we are overall very satisfied. The reduction in phone calls between offices throughout the day to gather bits of information, the elimination of duplicating work or "copy and pasting", the decrease in errors due to not having to transcribe information any longer are all very welcome improvements. We hired an outside consultant to help with our implementation project. While this had its benefits at times, the real strides and progress came when we would occasionally bring in a ShopTech employee for the day to help with troubleshooting, brainstorming, and otherwise "head-scratchers". Once you've had a session with an on-site ShopTech consultant that you like, only schedule that consultant for every other session! That being said, all interaction we've had with ShopTech support & sales staff, prior to and post Go-Live, has been positive, but our consultant was just top-notch during every single call, email, and visit.

Pros

Improvement of inventory tracking coming from an Excel-based, manual process that'd grown to be quite cumbersome. MFG's capabilities eliminated many spreadsheets and many hours maintaining those spreadsheets. Visibility throughout the organization of order status; pieces completed, what's in-process, what's already shipped, etc. Searchable criteria in MFG is quite robust. Prior to MFG we were only able to search via customer part numbers, this left a lot to be desired. Now we can search based on many, many more variables.

Cons

The biggest hurdle/challenge in learning and implementing MFG was understanding a whole new terminology; allocations, transfers, material/job requirements, processing, etc. and how those functioned in MFG specifically. As well sometimes, certain terms are used interchangeably in certain places and this can lead to temporary confusion. There are many ways to accomplish a single task. This flexibility is nice once you're used to the system but can be overwhelming in the beginning.

Over thought and over engineered nightmare

Pros

Customer support is good. You can always get someone on the phone. They do work with you to try and get things figured out. Although you may be on the phone a long time, so plan accordingly.

Cons

Everything pretty much. It's the least user friendly software we've encountered. It's not a visible system, everything is buried deep within. It takes many different clicks and screens to see what is needed to see. Doing any retail type business with different price levels is very troublesome. Information that should be simple to look up in near impossible. This system also puts your parts from a PO in the order they want to, not how you entered them. you can't customize any reports without paying or going through a bunch of trouble. We have stumped our techs several times with simple issues that can't seem to be resolved. You can't just hit print on any screen, you have to "generate a report" Creating parts in the system is cumbersome as well. You have to close one window to open another when creating the part, you can't check from one part to another to compare. There's several errors that pop up. The cost of this software was far too high for how much time it added to our work day and work load. We also had to upgrade our main server and some computers to accommodate this software. All in all, this system is not a simple system.

Very detailed, excellent Tech Support

I am very happy my company switched from E2 Pro to E2 Mfg, this new system has much more versatility, detail, and is a lot more user friendly. Very happy with the new E2 Mfg product.

Pros

This software is very detailed and makes it easy to make changes that keep production going. There are a lot of different steps to assist with making sure changes are correct, which helps with accuracy and decreases human error.

Cons

I wish there was a grid in the Order Entry tab to search for the Part Number. When I need to see what orders are open on which parts, I have to use the binoculars to search and there is no part number available until I go into edit those orders.

Metalfab Manufacturing, Inc. Review

Overall its been really good, it takes a lot of figuring out, but it really does put all our information together and keep things organized in a way to produce usable data and reports.

Pros

The ability to bring everything together in one place, where all management and supervisors can access it has been great. I like to ability to use shop floor terminals for data entry and the ability to generate reports from that data.

Cons

A regular challenge I face is trying to figure out the right location or combination of steps it takes to change certain items within the system. There are not explanations of pathways. For example, the other day I wanted to pick specific lots of material for a job we were running. I thought I would be given the option right at job material processing. Nope. I can see the different lots, but the numbers are locked, I couldn't change them. After many failed attempts. I finally called support. Long story short. I have to process, go into details, unprocess the line, go into the sub-details and type in the amount for each lot. That's an example of a common frustration I find in the system. There are lots of locked numbers. I understand some are necessary, but others just don't seem to make sense. The process to then alter them does not always follow a discernible pattern. You can often find the same information in multiple spots, but finding the place it drives from is a shot in the dark.