Manufacturing Software Vendor Selection
Manufacturing Software Market
The global marketplace for enterprise-class manufacturing software is complex and constantly evolving. Sure, there is no shortage of vendors competing for your business, but with dozens of companies all claiming to offer best-in-class products, how do you choose the right solution? You want to choose something that meets your current needs and will leave you room to grow without paying for bells and whistles that you'll never use. An incorrect choice could prove costly and cause more harm than good. Engineering Group's Engineering Industries eXcellence team can help you navigate the plethora of manufacturing software vendors and solutions out there to find the one that is best suited to the specific needs of your organization.
Best Practices in Software Selection
- Based on well-defined business requirements
- Unbiased and open to all potential vendors and solutions
- Inclusive of your key stakeholders
- Committed to creating a consensus, not endless discussions
- Focused on making the best overall selection for the business
- Supported by expert partner who understands your manufacturing process and has experience implementing system(s) in scope
- Clear understanding of "as-is" vs. "to-be" process
Our Manufacturing Software Expertise
- Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM)
- Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)
- Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)
- Manufacturing Quality Management & SPC
- Sales & Operation Planning (S&OP)
- Production Planning & Scheduling
- Manufacturing Intelligence & Analytics
- Asset Performance Management (APM)
Our Software Selection Methodology
Phase 1: Requirements Definition
Our expert consultants will start by analyzing or, if necessary, writing your user requirement documentation in order to ensure that all stakeholders have a clear understanding of the business objectives for the proposed IT solution.
- Our team will visit the project site for a survey of the existing processes as well as any legacy or supporting systems in place.
- Our consultants will conduct alignment workshops with your Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to identify points of pain, understand short and long-term needs, as well as the overall strategic company initiatives.
- Our team will provide high-level training on solutions in scope to help educate SMEs on features, functionalities and benefits of the system (i.e. ISA-95 overview).
- Our team will work with your SMEs to prepare a User Requirements Specification (URS) document that lists and ranks the expected features and benefits of the solution.
- Our team will prepare a Request for Information (RFI) document that can be sent to potential software vendors in order to solicit information about each of their products.
Phase 2: Data Gathering & Send Back
Once documented, your business requirements will drive the rest of the process as we help you identify, solicit information and compare the vendors and software solutions that best fit your specific needs.
- Our experts will recommend potential vendors but will also ask for your input based on prior due diligence. The RFI will be issued to each potential vendor and each vendor is given the same amount of time to respond.
- Our team will review, grade and report vendor responses with a gap analysis. This report will highlight which of the requirements can be covered by each vendor’s off-the-shelf solution, as well as those which would require customization for the requirement to be met.
- After the RFI responses have been evaluated, a small number of the best-performing vendors (short list) will be invited to the project site to perform a full product demo based on the URS/RFI.
Phase 3: Data Analysis & Final Selection
The final phase is aimed to help answer any remaining questions you may have, as well as for our expert team to make a single software vendor recommendation for your organization. The final software selection is made by you, of course!
- Our team will prepare and present a final report recommending which manufacturing software vendor is best suited for the implementation.
- Our team will answer any final questions, then it is up to you to make the final decision on software vendor.
Engineering: Your Vendor Selection Partner
When navigating the complex landscape of manufacturing software vendors and solutions, you need a partner with the industry, technology and market experience required to sort through the noise and guide you through the pros and cons of each option. You need a partner who can cut through the sales pitches and help you perform an apples-to-apples comparison among the available vendors and software solutions, so that you can make the best decision for your business. This is where the Engineering team comes in. Our vendor-neutral approach combined with our real-world experience implementing manufacturing IT solutions means we can provide the insight you need to first understand the true capabilities of each vendor’s proposed solution and then choose the one that best meets the needs of your business.
Software Decision Factors
- Features and capabilities
- Cost factors (total cost of ownership)
- Technology stack
- Flexibility
- Scalability
- Integration
- Supportability
- Business operations
- Industry expertise/client base
- Compliance
