While data security still is a concern to many cus-
tomers, Fetterman said most are satisfied after they view the scope of Plex’s data center operation at its Auburn Hills headquarters, where it maintains leased hardware that operates Plex Online for ERP customers. “Our big- gest servers have 32 quad-core processors,” Fetterman said, “and we’re up to about 44–45 TB of data that we’re storing and something like 25 or 30 million SQL transactions on a daily basis. “There are certainly some circumstances, where for
government-regulated privacy issues, you can only do it on-premises or in your own private data center,” he added. “But we have people that are building power systems for an advanced defense fighter, and for people who are building the batteries for the space shuttle still in operation. We have people using our system in DoD and government-related manufacturing.”
modules for scheduling, costing, and quoting func- tions. Epicor currently has about 150 customers in manufacturing implementing these types of systems, Meyer said, ranging from very small installations to companies with about $50 million in annual sales.
“If our system is down, factories close.”
Manufacturing-Centric ERP Demand for cloud-based systems is growing, said Chad Meyer, director of product marketing, of Epicor Soft- ware Corp. (Dublin, CA), a developer of ERP systems using the SaaS model. Just a few years ago, people dismissed the cloud. “Now, it’s a constant flow of pros- pects asking, ‘Do you have cloud-based ERP?’ I like to call it SaaS/ERP. At the highest level, there are general concerns about security of data. In manufacturing, it’s even tougher. There are not a lot of options.” Epicor’s software is positioned similarly to Plex’s, he said, and is focused on factory workflow. “The core of our manufacturing is built from the shop-floor costing area, then it moves into financials,” Meyer said. The software includes a manufacturing execution systems (MES) module that is tightly integrated with other
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Installing Manufacturing Best Practices Serving discrete manufacturing operations, Global Shop Solutions’ (The Woodlands, TX) One-System ERP Solutions offers global forecasting and shop management capabilities for small to larger manufac- turers in the automotive, aerospace, heavy equip- ment, oil and gas, and medical device industries. “Our goal, number one, is to implement best prac- tices,” said Dusty Alexander, Global Shop Solutions president. “Next, get rid of all their manual spread- sheets. It’s bad in the US, but it’s worse outside the US. People want American technology. Last is to go paperless in the office and the shop.” Since the BP oil spill, manufacturers have placed an increased emphasis on scanning material certi- fication data for the automotive and oil industries. “Now you’ve got to track everything with raw mate- rial certifications,” Alexander said. “When you go to ship your parts, it eliminates a lot of paperwork,” added Mike Melzer, Global Shop’s VP of operations. “Our software lets you do this elec- tronically on the network. With paper, the accuracy’s not 100%.” Barcode scanners enable workers to scan in the data quickly and accurately.
Global Shop Solutions’ customers mostly are using the company’s ERP with the on-premises model in- stead of relying on a cloud, noted Alexander. “We’ll do whatever the customer wants,” Alexander said. “If they want to host the server off-site, we do that. I’d say about 90% of our customers are on-premises.” The company’s most popular ERP software modules are scheduling, data collection on the shop floor, and more lately document collection for certifica- tion. “EDI [Electronic Data Interchange] is definitely
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