Greenwood Village, CO -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/19/2012 -- Scheduling one-of-a-kind products and projects in engineer-to-order environments is quite different than scheduling for repetitive manufacturing. Production schedules are necessarily fluid in the ETO environment because the end-user customer is constantly making changes to the actual product.

Engineering changes always occur in the ETO space, presenting ongoing scheduling issues. If there is a miscalculation, even one day, a week, or a month, all the profit margin can be lost. The only way for ETO manufacturing to guard against money-losing jobs is to accurately estimate costs and production schedules based on previous jobs that were similar.

AX 2012 is organized the way ETO manufacturers get paid when incremental benchmarks are met and delivered. There may be ten or more payment metrics in an ETO project that are triggered when certain aspects of building the product are achieved. If they are off a month, the company just lost profit. So it becomes very important that the ETO manufacturers stop focusing on their product and start identifying their process.

The Catch-22:

ETO manufacturers bid; to win the job they bid low. If there is too much variance within the bid (variance in the margins), the job may be assigned to another ETO manufacturing firm. Bidding a job must ensure that the bid is won and the variance can accommodate all the unforeseen changes.

Streamline Systems helps ETO manufacturers take steps to minimize schedule slippage. Setting up parameters and boundaries on which changes will and will not be permitted is essential. Too often the end user client will try to get away with all the whims and all the changes that come into their minds without realizing that there are real costs associated with these changes.

ETO manufacturers must clearly identify the time frame in which changes will (and will not) accept changes. That conversation must take place early in the negotiation – not just to bid it to win the job but to bid it in a way that ensures a reasonable process. Streamline Systems is the AX 2012 expert that best understands the ETO sector and can help to ensure profitability in the way jobs are bid and scheduled.

The Streamline Systems’ ETO blog has quickly become the leading source of information about how AX 2012 serves engineer-to-order manufacturers. This content rich conversation is found at http://www.streamlinesys.com/blog/.
Additionally Streamline Systems just published a vital tool for Engineer-to-Order manufacturers; the white paper is objective and looks at the history, trends, and future of ETO manufacturing. The Streamline Systems ETO ERP white paper may be requested at: http://www.streamlinesys.com/engineer-to-order.php.

The most important interactive resource being offered currently is the engaging daily conversation about the unique characteristics and challenges of ETO manufacturers via Twitter. Tweets reveal how Dynamics AX 2012 is the most powerful, agile and simple ERP available.

Followers of ETO Tweets go to Twitter @StreamlineSysAX.