Below is a Q&A session with David Ferguson, Owner and President of MIE Solutions, Inc. David has a long history in both the manufacturing and software industries. He developed his first manufacturing control software at the age of 14 to help his father, David Ferguson, Sr., with quoting orders more efficiently for his sheet metal shop. Since then, David has become well-known throughout the ERP and manufacturing industries as an expert in both manufacturing software development as well as manufacturing processes. He and his father currently run a sheet metal fabrication business in Orange County which also gives David Ferguson, Jr. firsthand insight into the world of manufacturing and fabrication.
What is MIE Trak Pro?
MIE Trak Pro is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system that manages everything from shop floor data collection to front office order management and accounting. Most importantly, it is an all-in-one option for manufacturing companies that gives them the tools they need to make, assemble, and ship parts while tracking everything from start to finish.
What problems does MIE Solutions solve for its customers?
Lack of proper communication and workflows are major time-consumers holding most businesses back from growth. With MIE Trak Pro taking you from quote to cash, it reduces the amount of back-and-forth between departments while increasing visibility of the overall operation, helping with costing, quality, and scheduling. It increases traceability of jobs and materials (which can help with ISO-9001 or AS-9100 certifications, winning contracts, etc.), giving your team the optimal environment to plan for demand, schedule jobs and machines, and provide your customers with accurate lead times.
What is the difference between MRP and ERP?
MRP is a standalone system that blends inventory control, forecasting, and scheduling. This is a great option for startups with few complexities to consider. However, as your business scales, it may become difficult to manage business processes in the long run. Within a true ERP system, like MIE Trak Pro, MRP is one module or function that is integrated with other departments including Accounting, Quality Control, HR, etc.
Most manufacturing ERP systems are designed with MRP capabilities. A key differentiator between MIE Trak Pro and others, however, is that most of our competitors’ ERP systems are accounting-based which often lack the true MRP needs of modern-day manufacturing. Viewing demos side by side clearly highlights this.
How do manufacturers manage their operations without this type of software?
It is not easy nor efficient to run an operation without the tools included in an ERP system. While a company is growing and building revenue, it is understandable that their team may use spreadsheets and some sort of accounting package (QuickBooks, Sage, etc.), to run the business. However, as a company grows, it becomes evident that spreadsheets and physical timecards are difficult to manage and, in the case of physical timecards, easily misplaced. For many of our customers, they were using these methods before implementing MIE Trak Pro and often had issues with multiple people accessing the same spreadsheet, changes not being saved properly, and an overall lack of communication between different departments and staff members. While spreadsheets are extremely useful for many businesses, it is not the best way to track the production process of a growing company.
What industries do you serve?
We largely focus on 4 manufacturing-related environments, including Made to Order, Engineer to Order, Made to Stock, and Engineer to Stock. Most of our customers consider themselves mixed-mode manufacturers with a variety of requirements ranging from Kanban inventory, assemblies, configurations, adaptive workflows, and a slew of other mission-critical tasks. We’ve implemented a number of businesses, from startups as small as 2 admin users, to multidivisional corporations that operate in multiple countries.
Is the data hosted on the Cloud or On-Premises?
Data security is of utmost importance to us. Most of our customers have MIE Trak Pro running on their internal systems, which allows us and our customers to protect their data together. Our software is password-protected and offers multiple levels of security. For customers on The Cloud, we either host their data on AWS Cloud or AWS GovCloud depending on their security requirements. In short, we offer both, depending on the needs of each individual company.
How do I know what I need for my business?
There are a lot of variables to consider when making purchasing decisions for your company. Every business is unique with their own sets of requirements and problems to solve. Some things to take into consideration are your company’s business model, size, future plans for growth, deployment (Cloud vs. on-premise), and current bottlenecks in your organization/production process. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, and we understand this. Contact our team of experts and receive a free consultation to determine if implementing MIE Trak Pro (or ERP, as a whole) is the best step for you and your team.
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