One of the greatest resources of any job shop is its employees. You wouldn’t be able to finish any jobs without them. So, just like any resource, you want to manage it well. Making sure your employees know what to do is the easy part. Employee performance management is the hard part. You may have a gut…
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If you’re considering ERP software, whether you’re looking to change vendors or buy your first system, it’s helpful to think about what it should do for your shop. What will make a particular ERP system a good fit for your job shop? The four points below are a great place to start. Helps You Get Your Job…
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Getting answers to your business questions doesn’t have to be hard. All you need is good ERP software. It can keep your shop organized and make finding information a breeze. If you’re using spreadsheets or not using software at all, you could make a dramatic difference in your shop just by implementing an ERP; slash the time and effort…
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Spring is often the time we start cleaning out homes and making them look nice. This spring, consider cleaning up your shop’s operations and making them more efficient. Below are four tips to help you. Track Important Data To make your shop more efficient, you have to determine how you’re going to measure that. Do you want to send out more…
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This past year has been hard on small businesses. The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council partnered with TechnoMetrica to survey small businesses and find out what impact software on the cloud had on their businesses. Their cloud software helped a large majority in various ways. The two biggest ways it helped them were by keeping their shops open…
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Virtual meetings have become huge over the past year, and they’re here to stay. Even after we can gather in groups again, customers may still opt for the convenience of a virtual meeting rather than an in-person meeting. This means you might be making your first impression through a computer screen rather than in person. Make…
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Things change quickly in job shops, and it’s important to make sure everyone can keep up. However, it’s hard to talk to people on the shop floor while social distancing. The more your shop is optimizing for things like profitability and meeting due dates, the more often you might need to communicate with the folks on the…
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While legacy ERP software is better than spreadsheets, it’s not nearly as good as ERP software that is still getting updated. As technology continues to advance, having unsupported ERP software means that your shop is falling behind. You could also lose some of the functionality that you already have. Far from helping your shop, legacy…
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2020 was a year of change, especially for manufacturing. Shutdowns and supply chain worries were a big part of the year, and shop owners were looking for ways to be more efficient. This past year, Shoptech’s top ten most popular blog posts were about improving shops and learning new things. 10. 3 Tips for Scheduling…
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When you boil it down to essentials, a successful job shop sends out its jobs on time and makes money on every job. Getting to this point can be difficult, especially if your shop uses paper to track everything. It’s hard to know if you made money on a job if you don’t know how…
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On the surface, low volume, low-value RFQs from unfamiliar customers may seem like a waste of time for your machine shop. They’re too small to bring in as much profit as larger orders, and you don’t want to take time to figure out a quote for a new job. However, these jobs can be a…
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If you’re looking for a way to make your shop better, you’ve probably heard of ERP software. You’ve also probably heard that it helps with efficiency and that it helps get more jobs out on time. But that doesn’t really tell you what it is. It doesn’t have to be hard to get a straight…
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If you haven’t yet reached the deduction limit for section 179, there are less than two months to make your purchases. You don’t want to leave money on the table. There have been a few changes to this section of tax law for 2020 to continue to help businesses. This article gives a quick overview…
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2020 has hit hard. As manufacturers reopen and continue to find ways to keep their employees safe and their machines running, efficiency and improvements become even more important. Technology can help any job shop become more efficient and keep it running. Below are three ways ERP software can assist a shop post-lockdown to run even…
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No one wants a crisis to happen. However, preparing for a crisis instead of ignoring the possibility can save your shop money. Preparing plans for various crises takes time, but it’s worth it in the time and money those plans will save you when a crisis happens. As 2020 has shown us, huge problems can…
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When choosing ERP software, it’s important to consider support. Most vendors will have phone lines available for support, but there are times when different methods are better. Sometimes it’s best to make answering your question a group effort. Shoptech’s E2 Customer Community truly is a community of Shoptech customers that allows them to come together…
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Before you start looking at ERP software, it’s helpful to have goals for what you want the software to do. These goals act as your shop’s North Star when you’re looking at ERP software. Most ERP systems will make your shop better in one way or another. However, if you want to be sure it’s…
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Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software encompasses many things. You probably know it can help you run your entire job shop, but what exactly does that mean? In general, ERP software helps your shop operate more efficiently and gives you the data you need to run it better. Specifically, it can help improve your job shop…
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Over the years, ERP software has been changing to help fit its users’ needs. Most recently, those needs have made software that is safe, accessible, and smart. Imagine being able to hold all of the information you need to run your shop in the palm of your hand, and access it from anywhere. What if…
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Running a job shop is difficult work, and each has specific needs. However, there are four building blocks, along with a good ERP software, that can help any job shop. With accurate invoicing, a broad customer base, great customer relationships, and efficient scheduling, any job shop will have a great foundation to succeed. Accurate Invoicing…
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5S is a method for organizing workspaces and entire shops to be more efficient, effective, and safe. 5S started in Japan as part of the Toyota Production System, and it’s one tool used in lean manufacturing. However, you don’t need to implement lean manufacturing or know anything about the Toyota Production System to use 5S…
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Cost estimating software, in a nutshell, helps your machine shop send out estimates or quotes that are consistent and have the right profit margin for your shop. Being able to do this with software makes your life, and the life of your estimator, much easier. Using cost estimating software in an ERP system can help…
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Having great customer relationships is always important. Change is constant, so it’s important for your customers to know that they can count on your shop. The two steps to making strong customer relationships are communicating and building trust. Communicate Changes At the beginning of the pandemic, you probably received many emails about what various companies…
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There’s been a lot of upheaval and changes in the last few months. For some manufacturers, they have fewer employees working, but a similar amount of work to get done. Whether these employees are out on sick leave, were laid off, or any other reason, that leaves the shop owner to figure out how to…
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Depending on your location, it may be time to reopen your business. Reopening your shop probably feels like things are going back to normal. While some things will be familiar, other things in your shop will have to change. There are several principles that shop owners can apply. By keeping these things in mind, you…
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