Basics for Free

The following article was published in 2000 - and since then we have given away hundreds of single-user manufacturing systems. Click on the links after the article for information on getting manufacturing software for your company.

Feldman Engineering is celebrating its 25^th year and we want to do something better than just throw a party. We looked back to see how the furniture and cabinet industries have changed and I am glad to say that most of our clients are still major players. What was most disturbing was how much more difficult it is today for small shops to grow into manufacturing companies. (The days are long gone when you simply built a company in the shadow of a lumbering dinosaur – outmaneuvering him with quick delivery and lower labor and overhead costs.)

Small shops can still get their foot in the door by finding a niche (including being a local supplier). If the owners want to do more than “buy themselves a job” they eventually need to grow their shop into a manufacturing company. The barriers to growth, however, are not equipment, space or factory flow but simply smarter competitors. To prosper, companies need to know their true costs and price products accordingly. They need to effectively control inventories and their labor forces. In the beginning, you can do this by “hands-on” management but sooner or later you must stop operating out of your head; standardize procedures, pricing, and measure results against projections.

To help small companies in this transition, Feldman Engineering will give away twenty-five “Basics” manufacturing business systems. These are not “demos”! They are complete systems and include three months of start-up support. Features include, Order Entry, Purchasing, Inventory Management, Costing and Shop Floor Control.

My heritage stresses helping others, but this is not the only reason for this giveaway. Incubator companies are the future of our industry. Barriers to growth and long-term profitability have never been greater. If we just sit back, we will watch the surviving dinosaurs convert themselves from manufacturers to mass-market importers, and in doing so, destroy the infrastructure and consumer demand (for specialty and individualized products) that sustains our industry.

Companies that we’d like to help are those with a “product line”, more than ten employees but fewer than forty and, in business for three or more years.

This offer is limited to 25 systems. Please contact us at 25@feldmanengineering.com to qualify your company!

Features that help your company	Examples from SIMplicity*	Discussion and Features
Customer Orders
	Order Entry Overview	<<< Please read this introductory overview first.
	Customer Details: shipping information, history, etc.	The utmost in options and feature controls. Automatic pricing with more than 400 variables (size, color, add-on's etc.) Simple to set-up and easy to use. More than an "Order Configurator": these variables interact with dynamic (parametric) bills of materials to create complete manufacturing documentation.
	Item Details	Options to enter and display product information.
	Order Entry Tools	Because we automatically transfer all pricing variables and "engineering limits" to Order Entry, SIM*plicity eliminates the typical delay for orders to first go to Engineering and Pricing prior to Order Entry.
	Batch Order Entry	Input Customer Order details directly from Excel.
	Order-Project Costing	Display actual costs during Order Entry or during "material takeoff" -Quotations.
	Order Progress (status)	Graphics display with real-time visibility of all in-process orders.
	Product Entry Instructions	Guidance to the operator in entering complex items .
	New Product Entry	Add new customers and products on the fly.
	Zip and Postal Code Tutorial	Factors in entering address data for uniformity and to ensure automatic freight calculation
	Sales Discounts and Commissions	Information on entering discounts and sales commissions.
	SPEED-UP	Tips to increase order entry productivity.
	Invoice Details - Setting Variables Order Entry Display Variables	Variables for printing (and exporting to accounting software) invoices Order Entry variables for display and printing
	Deposits and Payments	Record and display deposits and partial payments
MRP2/ERP Planning and Shop Floor Control	Advance Plan	Customer and factory (internal) orders create inventory and labor demand for specific days. SIM*plicity schedules individual machines within each work station/cell and generates material requisitions.
	Workstation Control	Planners can control and balance workload at every machine.
	Production Planner/Scheduler	Shifting production (date or workcenter) automatically updates all related processes. Graphics displays with drill-down" information effectively links Planning to Shop Floor Control.
	MRP2/ERP Tutorial	Workstation Control allows supervisors to fine tune schedules and report production.
Purchasing and Inventory Control	Requisition/Purchasing	New orders automatically updates long-term material plans. Shop floor control module interacts with purchasing to automatically flag needs that won't be met and adjusts schedules accordingly. Buy-out items are purchased as soon as customer order is processed - including automatic pricing of options and features.
	Inventory Details	Knowing the materials "on hand" and what they cost is not enough! SIM*plicity calculates the exact date needed, where it should be stored and details of its physical characteristics.
	Vendor Information	Access complete contact information on vendors and their employees.
	Purchasing Messages Inventory Adjustments	Adding Standard and Text Messages to an individual item Requisition or to an entire Purchase Order Tools to record and adjust physical invnetories.
Accounting and Cost Control	Product Cost Summary Options & Features Overview Order/Project Costing	Know the true cost of every item that you build! Automatically calculate the cost of "work -in-process" inventory. Instantly estimate the complete cost of every Order and Quotation. Change an option or feature and the cost is automatically updated! Please also read ABC Cost Control
Product Engineering	Bill of Material Flow Chart Dynamic Bills of Material Static Bill Display Glossary	Bills of Materials are the core of true manufacturing systems. They link together customer orders, manufacturing instructions with material and labor requirements. Dynamic (parametric) Bills of Material are used for entire families of products eliminating the need at most companies for 90% of individual Bills of Material. However, Static (Conventional) Bills of Material are still valuable and our system incorporates them with a full range of Options and Features
Plan and Perform	Project Takeoff Project and/or Product Estimate	Estimate and control complex projects.
Sales Management	Sales by Customer and Product Line Marketing Program Formats	Cost of Goods Sold report for every order. Volume and margin reports for each sales rep. For each customer select default discount programs, special product discounts and choose from multiple selling companies (OEM, etc.)
SUPPORT	Getting Started FAQ's - SIM*plicity Support Why Systems Fail Favorite Story	Training, customization and 24/7 real-time support by the developers of this software. A commitment to excellence - today, tomorrow and for the past 30 years.