Ron Vogel, Co-founder & Application Architect

Rover Data Systems

If you’ve decided you need better inventory and shop floor control than you’re getting with QuickBooks, you’re not alone.

Lots of businesses are in the process of growing up past the startup phase where QuickBooks and smaller accounting packages could do the job. But when you start growing and have multiple inventory locations, multiple bins within a specific inventory location, lot numbers, serial tracking, barcoding—you name it—you need more robust software.  You need a complete ERP system.

Without an integrated shop floor management system, you start running into all sorts of problems: lost parts, not having parts on time, slow reaction time to customer requests, not hitting required dates, the list goes on. All of that translates into diminished customer satisfaction, and potential financial loss.

Whatever is being managed in somebody’s spreadsheet or whiteboard may not accurately reflect what materials are actually needed, or when, which opens the door to additional waste. You simply don’t get the visibility you need to keep up. This means you might end up paying rush charges to your vendor to get something delivered quickly in order to meet a customer date, all because you didn’t have the visibility into when or how much to order. In some cases, you’re not going to get the order from the customer because you can’t give them a date that makes sense. Or you might lose the second order because the first one missed the schedule or wasn’t done right.

The bottom line is you don’t have the information or the confidence that you can deliver on time based on historical data or what the team is capable of. And you’re potentially missing out on profitability because of waste or rush charges.

What does ERP mean?

The acronym ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning. To put it simply, it means a software product that will help you control your entire business operation. Acronyms have changed through the years as software companies and media try to stay ahead of the curve. What started as back office products like accounting packages, added inventory control, grew to MRP (Material Requirements Planning) systems to MRPII (what they used to call “closed loop MRP”) and then morphed into ERP. The software industry loves its acronyms and you can be assured that we are fully acronym compliant.

What you need is software that will help you determine which material is required, where you have the capacity to handle it and the ability to keep unlimited instructions on each step if the process.

This all ties into the concept of manufacturing requirements planning (MRP) and capacity requirements planning (CRP). You don’t just want to put work orders out there. You need to know when you need to start that work order, and based on your standards, when it will be fulfilled. You need to know when you need to place purchase orders in order to have them start in time. That whole planning mechanism falls under what is referred to as shop floor control. You’re planning everything from purchasing activities to manufacturing and labor—basically, the whole shop. Your team can sit down with a spreadsheet and a calculator and try and figure all this out, or they can use a complete ERP system to do it all for them.

Sound complicated? Don’t worry, Rover can help.

Rover specializes in offering complete operations, accounting, and inventory control solutions for manufacturers and distributors. With powerful features geared to your industry, a lower overall cost, and a superior service, we’ve got what you need to help your business grow.

There are lots of other companies that do these sorts of things. Some will have an MRP built on to an accounting package. Some will have another piece of software running the shop floor control. But it’s usually not all integrated. Rover can give you all those services in an integrated package while doing it faster and for less money. Many companies are used to their MRP running all night or over a weekend. We’ve designed our MRP so most customers can run it over lunch.

Rover also provides you with improved visibility. With Rover ERP, you know when a job can get done by tracking it on a schedule without having to go around and ask people where parts are on the floor. It’s all visible right from your screen. With Rover’s barcode integration, you scan items as they move step-by-step through the process to completion, so you don’t have to worry about typos on quantities or part numbers.

Getting started with Rover

Many customers are concerned that they need to understand everything about an ERP system from day one. We know your team is busy and they can’t shut everything down to implement an ERP system, so we try to make it as easy and seamless as possible. We’ll help you get better control and visibility right from the start, and tighten the screws down as you go. We’ll help you customize the solution to your needs, with training sessions for your team so they can get up to speed quickly.

We know that nobody likes growing pains, so we’ll work with you to get started as quickly as possible to migrate you to your new, modern platform. We’ll meet with you to whiteboard your company’s entire operation. Where are your connection points? What processes do you have? Where do your sales come from and who processes them? Where do they go next? We’ll work with you to figure out your entire process and see where Rover’s ERP system fits to help with those pain points and bottlenecks.

Talk to us today about how you can get started with Rover ERP.