I work for a company that are a fabricator of steel and sheet metal products - multi process, thousands of discrete customer parts with complex boms and routes.
We have been live on E10 since November 2016, having previously used Vantage 6 and use the system for most business functions. One exception in estimating/quoting where we use a product called Radan E2i to create estimates and quotes. E2i is a full, but limited ERP system. However it is a niche product to the steel/steel fabrication industry and the parametric engine/product configurator, the only bit we use, is an excellent fit for our business needs for estimating.
The one massive problem is that for every single successful quote (100âs per year) we have to rekey the bill and route from E2i into E10 - this rekeying can take anything from a few minutes for simple brackets to days for a complicated product such as generator set.
We parked doing anything about this issue until after E10 go live but I am now revisiting and looking to lean out the rekeying. Two things I am looking for some help onâŚ
First thing is highly unlikely, but is there anyone else using E2i/Epicor and doing any regular/automatic data transfers between the two system - basically if quote successful, the part/bom/route is transferred from E2i to E10
Second thing is to find out about experience with Product Configurator, specifically folks whose boms/routes have a similar degree of variety and complexity as us. The perception is that the E10 configurator will not be as good a fit as E2i by itâs very nature as a vanilla, can be used in any industry tool.
James,
I am not a user of E2i, but I work in a custom metal manufacturing company (or signs). I feel your pain with the thousands of discreet part numbers.
The Radan website speaks of E2i exporting. I would look into that avenue, first. If you can get anything orchestrated to export in csv Excel files you have automation options. DMT is great an consuming csv files en masse. Or for extra integration and fees, Service Connect would be a good direction for you.It sounds like you are doing double work re-keying everything.Iâm not talking down about Product Configurator. It can just be time consuming to build configurations that accommodate many variations of custom manufacturing.They are great for minor variations of a standard production line, IMHO
Hope this helps,
Ben
The Epicor Configurator has changed a lot over the years, even from 10.0 to 10.1 (mostly under the hood). Iâm not sure which version youâre on but, like you said, itâs generic and probably doesnât have the built-in calculations that a steel layout system will.
Another option, if youâre just trying to avoid rekeying, is to use DMT to import the MOMs into an Epicor Quote. This would give you a chance to add new part numbers and massage the Method into shape before using it on jobs or creating Engineering records. Just a thought.
I agree with Mark (whom I went thru Epicor BOOTCAMP-consultant training with⌠)
EPI-Configurator is nice âIFâ u are basically ERECTOR-set/Frankensteining-things (or for u young folk - LEGO-making âstuffâ), but the product-configurator requires extensive logic-definition to matching and aligning relationships/rules.
The E2i application is (already quite) effective⌠but loading BOM detail is time consuming:
E2i output, formatted per correct columns can be dumped into GRID-view in Engineering Workbench.
DMT (if u have it)
Some CAD/CADRA or other apps can interface directly to EPICOR per IMPORT of a BOM (as long as the necessary RG/Resource/Op exists in EPICOR
I work at a metal fabricator and we are currently moving from 8 to 10.1. We just started down the path of the configurator, but based on my research, I am very confident that it can do what we need and more.
On a side note, if you have anyone at your company that is an expert in C#, you can have them create the whole thing bypassing the GUI screens us non-C# programmers use.