# Best ERP for Injection Molders: What to Check Before You Buy > Source: https://netray.co/resources/best-erp-for-injection-molders > Publisher: Netray (netray.co), AI and integration engineering for ERP and manufacturing systems. > Section: Knowledge Base ## Short answer What to look for in ERP for injection molders: mold and press tracking, resin lots, MES integration, scrap and regrind, and how DELMIAworks, Plex and Epicor compare. ## Category erp-general ## Content **Intro:** The best ERP for an injection molder is the one that natively handles molds as assets, presses and cavities as capacity, resin lots and regrind, real-time cycle and scrap capture from the press, and customer-specific quality and traceability. DELMIAworks (formerly IQMS), Plex, Epicor Kinetic and Infor SyteLine all serve plastics, with different strengths. Pick on how well each handles your shop's specific needs, such as mold-machine matching, tool ownership and MES data, rather than on a generic feature checklist. **Sections:** #### What Makes Molding Different From a Job Shop **Body:** A generic job shop ERP models a routing with fixed operations. Molding does not work that way. One part may run on any of several presses within a tonnage band, in a tool that is a physical asset with its own shot count, maintenance and ownership, with a cycle time that differs by press and a cavity count that sets output per shot. Resin arrives in lots, gets dried, blended with regrind and color, and is consumed at a rate that must reconcile against production. If the system cannot model these relationships, planners end up in spreadsheets and costing becomes guesswork. **Bullets:** - Mold as an asset with shot counter, PM schedule, location and customer ownership - Item-mold-machine relationships with approved presses and standard cycle per press - Resin, colorant and regrind consumption, with lot traceability - Real-time production counts and downtime from the press #### How the Common Options Differ **Body:** DELMIAworks has a long history with plastics processors and ships a manufacturing execution layer with machine monitoring, mold management and scheduling in the same product family. Plex is a cloud-native ERP and MES platform widely used by automotive and other regulated suppliers, with strong quality and traceability features. Epicor Kinetic is a flexible discrete ERP that molders adopt, often with MES add-ons and configuration work for mold tracking. Infor SyteLine (CloudSuite Industrial) is another discrete option with configuration depth. Verify each claim against a demo of your own part, mold and press. Vendors are changing their products, so ask for a reference at a molder of your size. **Bullets:** - Ask each vendor to show a mold-to-multiple-press scheduling scenario - Ask how regrind and runner scrap are costed - Ask how press data gets in: native monitoring, OPC UA, MQTT or a separate MES - Ask how customer-owned tooling is tracked and reported #### Press Connectivity Decides Whether the Data Is Real **Body:** Cycle time, shot count and scrap in the ERP are only as good as how they are captured. If operators type in production counts at the end of a shift, you will see standard cycle, not real cycle. Connect presses through the controller (Euromap 63 or OPC UA on newer machines, or retrofit sensors on older ones) so cycle time, downtime and good-part counts come straight in. That data fixes quoting, scheduling and OEE together. Budget for connectivity, because older Arburg, Engel, Husky, Milacron or Van Dorn machines may need a gateway. #### Costing and Quoting Fit **Body:** Check whether the ERP can store quoted cycle, cavities, resin price and scrap allowance and compare them to actuals by job, not just in total. Molders who cannot see quoted versus actual by part keep underpricing the same programs. Also check how overhead is applied: machine hours by tonnage band is more accurate than plant-wide labor hour rates. If your ERP does not support this out of the box, you can still bolt on reports or an assistant that queries the history. #### Where AI Layers On Without Replacing the ERP **Body:** Whichever ERP you choose, AI can sit on top rather than inside. A private assistant that answers questions such as which molds are past PM shot count, which jobs are running above standard scrap, or which presses are underutilized next week reads the ERP in read-only mode and shows the query used. Netray builds such agents over DELMIAworks, Plex, Epicor and SyteLine data, on premises when needed. It is not an ERP and does not replace the need for good master data. #### When You Do Not Need to Switch ERP **Body:** If your current system tracks molds, lots and production reasonably and the pain is reporting, switching is a large and risky project. Many molders get more value from connecting presses and improving data quality in the existing ERP than from a re-implementation, which can take 9 to 18 months. Switch when the system cannot represent your tools, resin or customer requirements at all. **Cta:** If you are weighing an ERP change or trying to get more from your current one, we can map what your molding data already supports and what an AI layer could answer. **Faq:** #### What ERP do most injection molders use? **Answer:** There is no single answer. DELMIAworks, Plex, Epicor, Infor SyteLine, JobBOSS, E2 Shop System and Global Shop Solutions are all used, along with SAP Business One or NetSuite in some shops. Many small molders still run QuickBooks with spreadsheets for scheduling. #### Do I need an MES as well as an ERP for molding? **Answer:** If you want real cycle times, downtime reasons and scrap by press without manual entry, yes in some form. Some ERPs include a molding-focused MES module, while others need a separate product or integration. #### How long does an ERP implementation take for a molder? **Answer:** Typically six to eighteen months depending on the number of plants, how clean the master data is and how much press connectivity is included. Data cleanup for molds, item-mold-press relationships and BOMs is the part most often underestimated. ## Related Slugs - how-to-quote-injection-molding-jobs-faster - how-to-estimate-injection-mold-tooling-cost - resin-price-increase-pass-through-injection-molding-quotes - injection-molding-production-scheduling-mold-machine-matching ## Search terms ERP for injection molders, best ERP for plastics manufacturing, DELMIAworks vs Plex, IQMS alternative, molding ERP mold tracking, ERP for plastic injection molding companies --- Talk to an engineer: https://netray.co/contact?intent=erp_ai | Machine catalog: https://netray.co/agent/catalog.json