An ERP Solution Tailored for ETO Requirements

Engineer-to-order (ETO) companies create value for their customers by putting specialized expertise, innovative engineering, and project manufacturing operations to work. However, many ETO firms are not yet taking advantage of the best of modern business management technology. In this series of blog posts, we consider several pressing industry issues and discuss how Sikich can help ETO companies get ahead by deploying Sikich HEADSTART for ETO, a solution based on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central.

Recently, we described the digital lag in the ETO industry and suggested Business Central as the foundation of an industry-optimized infrastructure. Today, we take a closer look at how the solution works and what its advantages are.

Business Central becomes an ETO management platform

Business Central is the starting point for our ETO software, Sikich HEADSTART for ETO. With this solution, you can gain many efficiencies by entering information only once, seamlessly linking processes, and making the business more transparent and manageable. You can do away with spreadsheets and multiple, specialized software tools as you direct and connect sales, production, and post-delivery services. From beginning to end, the solution unifies the many processes and actions involved in designing, manufacturing, shipping, and servicing an ETO product.

Our industry and developer teams created many features to fit Business Central closely to the common requirements we have documented in our work with ETO businesses. We configure and deploy it just as effectively for CTO companies. Most of our enhancements are in the jobs and manufacturing modules of the ERP software. Here are some of the capabilities HEADSTART for ETO adds to Business Central:

• The solution supports the most involved and challenging bills of material (BOM). If your multilevel BOMS have thousands of lines, some of which could themselves be complex components and subsystems, you always have complete visibility of the status of a manufacturing project. At a glance, you can review project performance in regards to the metrics that matter to you and your customers. You always have an accurate estimate of the time required to complete a project, no matter how extensively or how often change orders and other adjustments play into the undertaking.
• Comprehensive project management capabilities are specifically designed for the industry. For example, HEADSTART for ETO lets you estimate projects before they turn into jobs, calculating costs without impacting real BOMs and production workflows. You can compare projects from your business history to help in your planning and account development. You have the flexibility to adjust project structures, easily accommodating multiple purchase orders, specific billing milestones, and other conditions.
• HEADSTART for ETO makes it easy to accommodate engineering change requests by automatically updating BOM and project details for the new requirements. If you need to take additional steps, you have the visibility to intervene immediately at the right junctures of planning or production to adjust course, with clear projections on what the impacts on budgets, schedules, and supply chain dependencies are.
• Billing relies on system data, so it can always be complete, accurate, and timely. You can adjust it to what customers prefer, reflecting such considerations as project milestones, percentage to completion, and time and materials.
• Thoroughly tested third-party integration software tools allow you to transfer BOM and routing information from your AutoCAD system into HEADSTART for ETO. Without having to verify and re-enter data, you save time and can accelerate your process.
• You can define quality metrics for your products and product components and pinpoint variances in the manufacturing workflow. A standard non-conforming report points out deviations from your quality parameters and highlights effective corrective actions. You can promptly take the right steps to avoid customer satisfaction issues, minimize material or financial waste, and prevent quality flaws in future production.
• Engineering specifications and drawings, and documents related to processes, policies, machinery, facilities, employee training, or other aspects of your business can be available in the knowledge base of HEADSTART for ETO. You can update content as you wish, and use document versioning to keep earlier renderings available. You have a complete audit trail for document changes, and none of the insight or expertise reflected in documents are ever lost accidentally.
• At the end of the manufacturing process, you need to ship your product to the customer’s location. Requiring capacity and commitment from trusted logistics partners, shipping can be a high-cost, unpredictable activity. In HEADSTART for ETO, you can treat this essential step as a part of the project, planning engagements with shipping carriers, costs, and schedules together with production activities. You can include shipping for parts and subcontracted production items with the logistics management for complete items.
• You can automatically create service items once you ship a product, smoothly transitioning into after-sales care. You can set up and manage service contracts, track service histories and upcoming, scheduled services, and invoice at the right time.
• Using the field service functionality in HEADSTART for ETO, you can manage warranty services and other service work in a streamlined, uncomplicated manner, reliably dispatching technicians with the right skills to customer sites.

Prepare for savings and efficiencies

Our ETO clients don’t always see the need to allocate resources and time to document the return on investment (ROI) or the total cost of technology ownership (TCO) of their Business Central ERP, compared to what they used previously. However, Sikich consultants have interviewed them to understand their experiences and the ROI and TCO outcomes they achieve with HEADSTART for ETO. We find that deploying and managing HEADSTART for ETO will cost far less than acquiring, implementing, and owning several, specialized software tools. A ballpark metric would be an average cost savings of approximately one third.

Through years of use by your employees, you save costs and time every day because people can do their work in just one software solution that is designed to be easy to learn and comfortable to use for real-life business roles.

When it comes to costs and business productivity, we should more closely consider product configuration software and customer relationship management (CRM) systems, both important to many businesses.

The next step

If you want to have an exploratory conversation about our solution or arrange for a demo, here are some next steps:

• Read the previous and following blog posts in this series:
  • Technology modernization comes to the ETO industry
  • Choosing between embedded or standalone configuration technology for ETO companies
  • Why should ETO companies rely on CRM software?
  • Future-proofing your ETO business management technology
• Download our full ebook, Take Engineering and Production Excellence To The Next Level, for free.
• Contact the Sikich team.
• Watch a video about some capabilities of HEADSTART for ETO on our YouTube channel.
• Learn about Sikich CRM and ERP services.
• Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.