ERP Migration & SelectionFree assessmentPDF, Excel, Word exportJob Shop Machining

Job Shop ERP Selection Scorecard

Choosing between JobBOSS, E2 Shop System, Global Shop Solutions, ProShop, Fulcrum and similar tools starts with knowing how demanding your own requirements are. This scorecard turns ten shop-floor realities into a result you can use to frame demos.

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1. How do you quote work today?

Quote complexity drives estimating features.

2. How much of your work needs lot, heat or serial traceability?

3. How do you schedule the floor?

4. How do operators report time and progress?

5. What quality records do customers require?

6. How many users will need access?

7. Which integrations are must-haves?

8. How good is the IT capacity inside the shop?

Higher score means you can handle a more configurable system.

9. How do you want to host the system?

10. How much change can your team absorb in the next year?

How to use the scorecard

Answer for the shop you have in twelve months, not the shop you wish you had. Answer as a group if you can: the owner, the estimator, the shop supervisor and whoever handles quality will give different answers on quoting, scheduling and traceability, and the disagreements are useful. The result places you in a simple, mid-range or demanding band and lists priorities for vendor demos.

What the questions measure

The questions cover quoting depth, traceability, scheduling, shop floor data capture, quality records, user count, integrations, internal IT capacity, hosting and appetite for change. These are the areas where job shop systems actually differ. Basic job tracking looks similar across vendors in a demo. The differences show up in scheduling logic, quality and traceability, reporting and how much the system can be configured.

Turning the result into a shortlist

Do not pick a system from a scorecard alone. Use the band to decide how many vendors to demo and which scenarios to insist on. Send each vendor the same three real jobs, including one with outside processing and one with a certificate requirement, and ask them to run each end to end. Score what you see, not what the brochure says.

Use the same demo script for every vendor
Ask to see reporting on a closed job
Ask how updates, support and data export work
Talk to a reference shop of similar size

Common mistakes

Shops buy on price alone, skip the data cleanup, underestimate training, and choose features they will never configure. Another mistake is ignoring the exit: confirm you can get your data out in a usable format if you ever leave.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this scorecard vendor neutral?

Yes. It does not rank products. It measures how complex your own requirements are so you can decide what kind of system to evaluate and what to ask in demos.

How long does job shop ERP selection take?

Small shops often decide in one to three months: requirements, three demos, references and a quote. Rushing the demo stage is the usual regret, so insist on your own real jobs.

Do I need an ERP or is a job tracking tool enough?

If you only need to track jobs and time, a lighter tool can work. Once you need costing, purchasing, inventory, quality records and scheduling in one place, an ERP built for job shops earns its cost.

Should a small machine shop go cloud?

Most small shops without IT staff do well with vendor hosting. Choose on-premises or private hosting when customer contracts restrict data location or when internet reliability on the floor is a real problem.

If your requirements come out in the demanding band, or you are weighing cloud against private hosting, we can talk through the options. For simple needs, a vendor-led process is usually enough.

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