A COMPARISON OF TWO WIDELY ADOPTED ERP SOFTWARE

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1 Michael Hamby - College of Business, Department of Management Ohio University, Athens, OH, 45701, Mh203709@ohio.edu, ABSTRACT There are many professional Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems available for businesses to purchase. How do they decide which system is best for them? Plex and Exact are two examples of ERP that will be compared against one another. Each system has been analyzed according how they operate in the respective companies. Plex has been implemented in Inteva and Eaglepicher Technologies, while Exact has been implemented in Richard Childress Racing and DataSpan Technology. The comparisons provide some insights for companies using the MRP aspects of these ERP implementations. INTRODUCTION Two examples showing implementation of each ERP system will be given in the automotive and hardware manufacturing industries. The purpose is to compare case studies in the effort to determine if there is a better ERP system for similar manufacturing processes or if situations are distinctly unique. Jimmie Brown, John Haren and James Shivnan in their book Production Management Systems claim (Comparison Studies) tend to be based on specific sets of data used in simulation models and are, therefore, only true in so far as the data used is representative of real life situations. Case study information about the systems, the companies, and how successful the results were in the implementation process will be the criteria that are used to devise an opinion of which ERP system is the better choice. Finally, five characteristics of each ERP system will be ranked. MATERIAL REQUIREMENT PLANNING SYSTEMS To begin the comparison we will start with what a basic MRP system should entail and what Plex and Exact systems implement. MRP is product oriented, future focused, involving time phased requirements, priority oriented inventory control system, that is focused on purchasing/manufacturing orders (Brown, Harhen, & Shivenan, 1996). The data in Table 1 displays basic MRP characteristics. Plex and Exact systems in addition to inventory control and lead time management encompass many other features such as financial and customer management

2 Sequence of Events Hamby Table 1 Inventory master parts file Open purchase orders Master Production Schedule Open Shop orders Bill of materials Gross Requirements Lot Sizing and offsetting Planned order releases Purchase Plan Manufacturing Plan Source: (Brown, Harhen, & Shivenan, 1996) Table 2 Inteva Products - Automotive Manufacturing EaglePicher Technologies - Technology Manufacturing Richard Childress Racing - Automotive Machine Shop DataSpan- Technology Manufacturing Plex Systems JobBOSS Macola Manufacturing Pro Version Always Current 11.6 ESv9.5 Price Range $5K + per month- $995-$200K $5K-40K User Range Multi Site Yes No Yes Multi National Yes UK English, Dutch & Spanish No Server OS Linux, Windows, Unix, Novell Netware, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, Compatible With All Windows Windows Materials Management Sales Order Management Production Management Inventory Summary Lot and Serial Control Bill of Material Inventory Tracking Material Control Inventory Management Bill of Materials Manufacturing Cost Accounting Bar Coding Material Requirements Planning Job Tracking System Standard Costing Material Requirements Planning Commission Tracking Job Entry Advanced Distribution E D I Sales Order Processing Designer Customer Orders Order Entry Sales Order Purchase Order and Receiving Order Entry & Tracking Barcode Labeling Quality Management Master Scheduling Capacity Planning Shop Floor Control Production Order Processing Labor & Time Tracking Shop Floor Control PLC Machine Integration Standard Product Routing Preventative Maintenance Visual Shop Floor Planner Production Scheduling Overview Warehouse Management System (WMS) Shop Floor Control Capacity Requirements Planning Supply Chain Management Online Order & Tracking ShopView Bar Code for Distribution Problem Control Supplier Quality Supply Chain Overview Source:

3 PLEX & EXACT OVERVIEW Plex serves industries such as automotive, food & beverage, technology hardware manufacturing, and others. (Plex, 2013) Exact has four main products that serve many different clients. The two that will be analyzed are JobBOSS and Macola Manufacturing Pro. These products serve clients ranging from automotive, metal fabrication and technology hardware manufacturing (Exact, 2013). System Comparison Analysis How do manufacturing companies choose whether Plex or Exact is right for them? Looking at Table 2, notice the features are essentially the same for MRP, production management, and sales order management in Plex and Macola. However, Plex has certain features focused on a broader scale sometimes stretching across the globe. It enables the job floor and executive team to view information in real time. The system also allows for financial comparisons with other job sites across the organization. This allows upper management at the headquarters to know exactly how the company is achieving its goals. Plex Plex has some features that are unique to the system. The program is updated automatically to reduce maintenance. This is done through cloud computing to store information in the cloud as compared to on a particular hard drive. Cloud computing allows the program to run on a variety of operating software instead of just Windows. Taking into account the fact that Plex s customers are larger corporations, every job site may not have similar technological products running the system, especially for global companies. Exact Manufacturing Pro When looking at the system s capabilities, Exact s Macola Manufacturing Pro may be the average ERP software giving only basic requirements. Macola approaches a different market than Plex. They usually attract growing or smaller sized companies. It would be useful for companies that do not have any official ERP system in place. The amount of users is limited to 150 compared to Plex s This indicates that the program needs to stay confined to one job site, or job sites in close proximity to each other. Macola may be better for customers looking to keep cost at minimum. Their product is maxed out at $40,000 in a one-time fee. Plex is paid with greater than or equal to payments of $5,000 per month. Growing companies may not be able to afford a pricey monthly fee. Exact JobBOSS Exact is a system that provides valuable assets to industries that produce unique items. The very name JobBOSS gets its basis from the term job shop. American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS) defines job shops, also known as work centers, as organized around similar processes rather than around product flow. JobBOSS focuses on made-to-order (MTO) manufacturers for customer satisfaction. Customers of these job shops using JobBOSS are

4 usually looking for an accurate quoting experience for highly detailed items (Capterra, 2013). These companies may not produce as much quantity but have a product that needs to be tailored according a customer s needs. Looking at the features provided by JobBOSS, there are a few highly detailed capabilities operated by as little as one user. The system operates in real time to provide the best information for people like the owner, shop foreman, or bookkeeper/controller (Council, ). The financial requirements are as low as $995 to provide an option for those companies smaller in market value than Macola. CASE STUDIES: PLEX Research has been conducted on two examples of implementation by Plex and two examples of Exact ERP systems. The comparisons will look to find similarities and differences of each system in terms of adaptability and overall contribution to the customers. Plex gives many tools that allow a large corporation to be as efficient as possible. How each company chooses to use them may correlate with how their company directs their attention on the market. EaglePicher and Inteva Both companies chose Plex systems to make their operations more efficient. EaglePicher Technologies is a manufacturer of batteries and a leading innovator of technologies in the battery industry. They are constantly looking to stay ahead of the competition through adapting to modern ideas of smaller but more powerful technology solutions. Inteva is a supplier for automaker delivering products such as interior systems and motors. They also provide service directly to consumer market. While these companies differ in the markets they pursue, they match up perfectly with Plex. Plex is a great tool for them to manage their companies and stay ahead of competition. Operations Comparison Analysis EaglePicher Technologies (EPT) had already been a customer of Plex systems by using the system for Software as a Service (SaaS). EPT wanted to expand their relationship with Plex and provide an automated supplier consignment inventory system. Consignment inventory is inventory that is in the possession of the customer but is still owned by the supplier. EPT was required to provide this service by one of its customers, the U.S. government s aerospace and defense products. The Plex system was very beneficial to EPT because it allowed a simplification of inventory management process. EPT tracked payment of their inventory every time it was used up for a customer in the fiscal reports. For example, there could be 100 units in a warehouse but only 10 going to a certain customer. Those 10 units are what showed up in the financial because the other 90 is still in possession by the customer. The Plex system was also able to correlate easily with the accounting methods. The whole system was fully integrated in nine months and increased profits by $1,000,000 while reducing inventory costs by $350,000 (Council, )

5 Inteva had branched off from Delphi Corp. and had twelve months to find an ERP system that combines all the various systems across Inteva. Inteva had manufacturing plants around the globe. They needed a system that could reduce information technology costs from 2 to 1 percent. Plex allowed every system to be compiled into one program where different departments can check out others through different interfaces. For example, the purchase associates can know exactly how much funding is available. Specifically at manufacturing locations, top floor management can see the inventory levels and purchase plans in real-time. The system has been especially beneficial to the supply chain management of Inteva s customers. Inteva has 300 suppliers of which are graded for their service and informed about specific plant constraints. The system reduced costs to 1.32% for the IT department (Council, ) Plex has been a perfect match for both Inteva and EPT. While EPT only used some of the features offered by Plex, it was all that was needed to improve the company s operations. Inteva implemented all the features and are nearing their goal as a result. There may be no reason for Inteva to change systems in the near future because it is always current. Plex has a solid system that makes the type of good being distributed, irrelevant. CASE STUDIES: EXACT Exact has proven to be a valid database for growing companies. As stated before, Exact focuses on keeping costs low while providing exceptional services. JobBOSS and Macola Manufacturing Pro are two different products provided by Exact to tailor to the different needs of the customers. Richard Childress Racing and DataSpan Technology Richard Childress Racing is a respectable operation in Nascar sponsoring drivers like legend Dale Earnhardt. Their job shop in North Carolina focuses on creating the best mechanical parts to give their drivers the performance enhancing opportunities they need during races. The whole organization comprises of about 400 employees (Richard Childress Racing, 2013). DataSpan is in the data protection business. They have helped Fortune 1000 companies and start-ups alike acquire, distribute, backup, archive, and secure their data. They offer thousands of reliable products from over 2,000 leading manufacturers of data center supplies and equipment (DataSpan, 2013). Operation Comparison Analysis Richard Childress Racing needed to reinvigorate the organization after Dale Earnhardt tragically passed away. From a business aspect, they needed a competitive advantage to excel them back up to the top in order to attract sponsors. Attention was focused on creating higher performing car components at their job shop in North Carolina. JobBOSS by Exact was the answer. It provided real-time information for the product engineers to update and keep current with one another (Council, ). The detail involved in measuring the parts has to be perfect, and JobBOSS was able to collaborate the information into an automated paperless database. This speeds up the process of finding solutions to particular problems. Since Richard Childress

6 Racing has implemented JobBOSS, they have acquired drivers such as Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, and Jeff Burton. DataSpan Technologies wanted to improve their operations by focusing on more customer oriented goals rather than dealing with system database technical malfunctions. There were multiple databases that failed to synchronize properly. Macola Manufacturing Pro helped DataSpan through providing a solid ecommerce application that incorporated all the databases. The system has been successful in providing customers a convenient experience which in turn increases the chances that the customer will repeat business. Since the implementation, internet sales have increased from an average of $67,000 per month to $208,000 (Council, ). The database proves that making the customers experience as stress-free as possible will help continue to make customers repeat business. Exact has been successful in providing its customers a collaborated database in an effort to make material requirements planning as simple as possible. It may sound like an obvious answer to have one database for the whole company, but the actual implementation process could prove to be too complicated for less experienced operators to handle. Calling in a profession group like Exact ensures that the job will be done right. OVERALL COMPARISON Table 3 below provides a ranking of the ERP systems from 1-3 with 3 being the best. Overall comparison is based off the information provided in Table 2. The highest total provides a definitive winner of the three systems. The systems are compared on five characteristics defined as such (Hoffer, George, & Valacich, 2011): Functionality: The tasks that the software can perform and the mandatory, essential, and desired system features. Viability of vendor: can the software adapt to changes in systems software and hardware Flexibility: how easy it is to customize the software Vendor support: whether or how much support the vendor can provide Cost: The most inexpensive option will be ranked highest. Table 3 System Functionality Viability of Vendor Flexibility Vendor Support Cost Total Plex =Exact JobBOSS =Exact- Macola

7 Functionality: Plex offers the most amount of modules that can be added to the system while JobBOSS is limited in project scope. Viability of Vendor: Plex has a feature that updates the system automatically leading to a significant competitive advantage. JobBOSS is not a multi-site system and has features that only help that one site. Flexibility: Plex can support the largest amount of users and is compatible with all types of servers. Macola is only available in one language, English. Vendor Support: Plex is licensed annually to help pay for support and is available multinationally. Macola supports more sites compared to JobBOSS. Cost: Macola is the least expensive system because it is more functional than JobBOSS and is not paid for annually like Plex. CONCLUSION When trying to figure out if one ERP system is better than the other would really depend on the customer s opinion. Each company has different needs and financial capabilities. Plex would not be a good fit for Richard Childress Racing s job site in North Carolina because it would be overkill on what the company actual needs of the technology. It may be a stronger database, but this particular company needed to fix a specific collaboration problem. Exact would not be adaptable enough work at the multinational magnitude that Plex s customers need, but it is a perfect match for smaller companies. In terms of system capabilities, Plex is the strongest software by far. REFERENCES APICS. (2013). The Association for Operations Management. Retrieved March 5, 2013, from Brown, J., Harhen, J., & Shivenan, J. (1996). Production Management Systems. Harlow, England: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. Capterra. (2013). =Exact JobBOSS. Retrieved March 5, 2013, from Council, A. ( ). Top10ERP. Retrieved Februray 18, 2013, from DataSpan. (2013). dataspan. Retrieved March 31, 2013, from EaglePicher Technologies. (2013). Think EaglePiche. Think Power. Retrieved March 7, 2013, from Exact. (2013). MAX ERP/MRP Manufacturing Software. Retrieved March 5, 2013, from

8 Hoffer, J. A., George, J. F., & Valacich, J. S. (2011). Modern Systems Analysis and Design. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc. Inteva Products. (2013). Insight. Inside. Inteva. Retrieved March 7, 2013, from Plex. (2013). Plex Online. Retrieved March 5, 2013, from Richard Childress Racing. (2013). RCR. Retrieved March 31, 2013, from