In the April edition of DM Direct managazine, the article The Missing Link: Manufacturing Intelligence Helps ERP Deliver Expected Value makes some useful observations in selecting manufacturing software.
"The heart of any manufacturing organization is the plant floor. ... Despite this, in many instances ERP has been force fit into the factory." Most ERP systems are related to financial activities dealing with purchase orders, invoicing, cost accounting, distribution, etc. In order to implement process change and measure improvement you must have systems in place to measure good/bad parts, machines used and their cycles, assets unavailable, capacity utilization, failure prevention activities, internal failures, etc.
When the required data is entered by hand using ERP input screens the operation is error-prone, labor intensive, inefficient, and non-value added. If this information is entered after the fact, the time lag forces diagnostic analysis of failures rather than failure prevention.
An Enterprise Manufacturing Intelligence (EMI) system can gather plant floor data and pass abstracted information to the ERP system. The EMI system has the understanding of the complex relationships on the shop floor and can assign meaning to the information for action by the production personnel.
"Much of the data managed within an ERP system originates on the plant floor. ... Without an interface to a plant-floor data acquisition system, this information typically has to be keyed into the ERP system. This leaves room for errors and data inconsistencies plus delays information getting to the people and systems that need it. Having this information available in the ERP system in a timely manner has great advantages. Interfacing ERP to a data collection system allows the ERP system to be updated with accurate data in real time."