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For a start-up manufacturer what should come first? ERP or PLM?
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4 Answers
I totally agree with Bill.
Couple of other factors would be how complex is your product and how much volume are you looking at initially? If your product is not too complex and your volume is not very high, I would suggest starting off with only a simple accounting application and using spreadsheets to manage your inventory and production data.
The moment you feel that complexity or volume is getting (or is anticipated) to cross a certain threshold, you should consider an ERP.
Otherwise it will just take every away energy from your core activities.
Hi Dan,
I need to know more about the company. For instance, what are you manufacturing? I'm asking because a startup in fashion may not need PLM right away, but if you manufacture components for planes or robots, you definitely will.
Also, what do you need the system for? If you need it to track most of your activities, from design, to inventory, sales, purchasing, financials, etc, then you definitely need an ERP. There are ERP solutions with PLM functionality and integration with CAD tools, like Lawson, Oracle or Infor, but they may prove to be too expensive for a startup. A good alternative is Plex systems, a cloud ERP solution which also integrates with CAD tools.
If this is really a start-up then you may want to consider the ERP application first. Although I work with a tier 1 app, many of the 2nd and 3rd tier apps contain some amount of PLM included into the backend application.
The reality is that the financials, reporting, and business process controls are going to be much more important for a startup than any product lifecycle management. The PLM function might make some sense after a little more overall business maturity and that business discipline and maturity will be promoted by an ERP application.
As a startup though even more important than some software solution would be your marketing plan, sales pipeline, and backlog. If those are all healthy then looking at some of the tools to support them would be a good option.
My humble opinion, I would focus on the strategic areas that generate competitive advantage for an organization. Especially for start-up companies, I would focus for any and every competitive edge to create and protect market share. For a manufacturer I would focus on PLM before ERP because PLM will have a direct impact on revenue generating business activities. In general, ERP focus on automating revenue-supporting business activities. Competitive advantages come from revenue-generating, not revenue-supporting business activities.
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