E2 Shop System

Pros

This software has the ability to organize your business workings into manageable reports. Reports that you can tailor to you specific needs. The more you follow the simple rules of E2, the more benefits it can deliver. In my own business no two jobs are alike and no procedures for the jobs are identical yet E2 understands this principle and manages to sort data in such a clear manner as to help you with decisions going forward on all future work. I cannot give a higher recommendation on any other similar system.

Cons

1.) I wish I could control the "Markup Pct." column in the General Tab when entering parts. I feel this item should have strict control - administrator only! Any of my people entering a part has the ability to change this percentage at will. Many an argument has resulted from my becoming aware of someone making an adjustment to this column, I wish I could lock it!

2.) When processing a return, it writes back to the original Order and amends it. Now the "Order Total" changes. It should not change. The order total should still match the customer P.O. total. The simple code should be that the (Qty Ordered) X (Unit Price) goes to make up the (Order Total) UNLESS there is something in the 'Master Job Number' column. In this manner the customers P.O. amount would still match up to the Order Total

Pros

The way that E2 links all the different aspects together with various search functions. I can easily find ANYTHING i'm looking for and run so many reports to find out whatever information I want.

Cons

We still use the Access database version and it's only for PC. Two of us are dedicated Apple users, so that took some figuring out how to continue using Apple products with E2. There are only two reasons I haven't switched to the online hosted version - document type linking, and stable internet service.

Pros

What we like most about the E2 Shop System Software is the ability to expand and customize our databases. We purchased the SQL version which allowed us to put the E2 OEM program on steroids. We added custom fields and tables of things that were very specific to our manufacturing business. We also added a custom front end for our customers to access things like detailed part specifications, testing data, sales history, package tracking, and much more. We also added a custom backend for our employees to enter non E2 items into separate database tables and link the information to the customers and vendors already in E2. The best part is, we have a very high end custom solution at a fraction of the cost of some of the other solutions on the market. We have the ability to barcode scan, track employees time for payroll, calculate exact labor costs based on actual production times, track inventory, import our invoices into Quickbooks, perform accurate estimations / quotations and much more.

Cons

We started off with the Access database version which is limited in scope, but soon realized that the SQL version was much more powerful and allowed unlimited growth.

Pros

The user interface is easy to understand and navigate. The routing and BOM functions work well. Outgoing paperwork (packing slips, vendor returns, RMAs...etc) are generated easily. The quality module works well for us. Ultimately its a great software for smaller job shops; ie, less than 25 employees.

Cons

The scheduling system doesn't work. The system consistently puts out a schedule that doesn't make sense. We are a quick turn, CNC machining job shop, and need a software that enables us to understand our capacity. Often times, jobs that are due tomorrow are on the second page of the report, and jobs that aren't due for 6 weeks are at the top of the list. We worked with tech support and cannot get a resolution. We implemented E2 in 2003 and only started trying to use the scheduling module in the last year. It was a great software initially, but now that we have grown we need software that does what we need it to do. Beyond that, items frequently go corrupt. Unprocessing and reprocessing anything (work orders, purchase order, NCs, CAPAs...etc) risk corrupting the file. If you double click on certain things the system crashes. If two people are in an item at the same time, quantities and/or lines duplicate. Once supplies are received or product is shipped, the system will not allow certain changes to be made. The personnel efficiency reports generate numbers that don't make sense. We've visited this repeatedly and cannot sort out a solution. Just last week I reviewed the efficiency reports for our production crew, and a job they were given 4 hours to setup showed "ESTIMATED SETUP" time of 2.27 hours. Our settings are correct but for some reason the system comes up with understated estimates, despite what we tell it to do.

Pros

Value is great, and the Cloud Based version is easy to step into. E2 appears to be ahead of the curve with getting their platform onto a cloud system for their customers, and it was one of the deciding factors why we went with E2 instead of other ERP system out there. Because of the cloud-based nature of the system, we have enjoyed the frequent updates to the product, it feels like we should never get behind. This is a comforting benefit as a system ages.

The flow of work through the system is clearly organized to make the use of the system easy to understand for new users. We have background in a couple other standard ERP systems, and moving into E2 has been easy after a few pointers about how the system runs. The home-screen that shows work flow is easy to follow.

Lastly - one of our favorite features has been how easy it is to customize reports. Sometimes it can be tricky, or perform unexpectedly, but all-in-all it workable. A more advanced tutorial on report customization would be helpful

Cons

There are not many broad system cons that we have found. We find the system to be simple and that it does what it is supposed to do well. Mostly, we have noticed over the past 10 months features we wish were included making E2 a more feature rich system.

For example, inventory management could be more feature rich, including categories for non-inventory items (e.g. tooling, etc.) as a default option out of the box, or multiple pricing structures based on vendor, beyond the simple standard cost. We also wish it were were easy to reserve parts being made on a STOCK job to a newly entered sales order. There may be a way to do this, but it has not been immediately clear

For incoming material, it would be nice to have the ability to receive parts/material via the data collection terminal right on the shop floor, rather than having to use a full license to perform what is a basic transaction. Furthermore, the ability to print an "Incoming Material" report for each purchase order (service or otherwise) would be helpful for a shop management. This way there is a paper record of what is coming in on a PO.

For work flow, it'd be nice if there were options linking to create an invoice directly from a packing list (e.g. a save and create invoice option in the save button).

Some of these missing features we find to be inhibiting our efficiency of implementation, so far we are working around them.