Learned a lot on this website. We manufacture custom inspection systems and balance technological development with delivering custom systems (that don't break).
I was looking at the job checklist from four years ago and comparing it to what we are working on now. It seems like we are dealing with the same issues (though we are much further down the road on these issues) e.g. this week we have an engineer at a compliance testing house documenting our product performance, four years ago I was trying to find a part time EE to identify the problem.
I use a electronic lists to manage technical development / product redesign which is ok as we tend to bundle improvements to batches.
For organizing jobs, we have a online ERP which has basic BOM functionality. We use one page pdfs to manually document what we actually build. Works ok, but has some limitations, especially when we don't update them. We mostly build to order and make design revisions all the time which is difficult to manage in itself, though with this process our products have improved considerably in the last four years.
I have been looking at MRP systems that could help us manufacture better. I am looking at including SOPs and capturing our build processes with photos etc. Proshop and Fulcrum Pro seem to have the best ability to do this. Our machinist / design engineer suggests you can't make electronic process you don't already have.
TLDR Looking for good practical books (or other resources) on how to organize and manage small shops that make custom mechanical and electronic components? We specifically need to manage our technical development with our sales. Customers like to buy the same thing years later, but we are in a rapidly developing space.
I was looking at the job checklist from four years ago and comparing it to what we are working on now. It seems like we are dealing with the same issues (though we are much further down the road on these issues) e.g. this week we have an engineer at a compliance testing house documenting our product performance, four years ago I was trying to find a part time EE to identify the problem.
I use a electronic lists to manage technical development / product redesign which is ok as we tend to bundle improvements to batches.
For organizing jobs, we have a online ERP which has basic BOM functionality. We use one page pdfs to manually document what we actually build. Works ok, but has some limitations, especially when we don't update them. We mostly build to order and make design revisions all the time which is difficult to manage in itself, though with this process our products have improved considerably in the last four years.
I have been looking at MRP systems that could help us manufacture better. I am looking at including SOPs and capturing our build processes with photos etc. Proshop and Fulcrum Pro seem to have the best ability to do this. Our machinist / design engineer suggests you can't make electronic process you don't already have.
TLDR Looking for good practical books (or other resources) on how to organize and manage small shops that make custom mechanical and electronic components? We specifically need to manage our technical development with our sales. Customers like to buy the same thing years later, but we are in a rapidly developing space.
