Counterpart ERP FAQ

• Decision makers have access to current costs they can compare to the budget and forecast for a project.
• Management has the information they need, when they need it to make informed choices should project costs become an issue. 
• Full transparency into the status of project costs.

COUNTERPART’s seamless integration with SOLIDWORKS and Inventor allows the ERP to use the BOMs that are directly generated by those CAD systems. The ERP pulls together all the information you need into a format that you are already familiar with.   

How it benefits you:

• COUNTERPART was built by engineers for engineers. We know what you need and have designed the ERP to deliver that. 
• Greatly increased efficiency by allowing engineers to break down complex machinery designs into sub-assemblies.
• Increased productivity for Designers and engineers as a structured BOM provides a rapid and organized way to find materials and manage change requirements. 

COUNTERPART provides a powerful search function to find old data. From Quotes created years ago to part purchase history, all historical information is easily searched and accessed for use when you need it.  

 How it benefits you:

• The ability to access material and labor costs is essential to Estimating when quoting new jobs.
• When engineering can access previously designed BOMs, they reduce their efforts for new jobs.
• Manufacturing can use past job commentaries to highlight production opportunities.
• Management can use previous data to reduce the risk in setting selling prices and target margins.
• Engineer To Order manufacturers are constantly faced with non-conformances and need a simple system to deal with the complexity of this process.
• Knowing how to avoid certain errors in the future will affect your company’s bottom line and improve product quality.

COUNTERPART provides a separate Procurement Screen that lists all the parts required by engineering BOMs, shop requisitions, and parts and service orders. This allows your purchasing staff to see the entire demand for any given part, as well as giving them the tools to group and arrange the parts in any order they need. There are many streamlining tools in the application to assist the purchasing agents with creating Request for Quotes (RFQs), Purchase Orders (POs), Inventory Allocations, and other everyday tasks, minimizing their efforts, and maximizing their results.

 How it benefits you:

• Engineers are free to design and not be burdened by procurement.
• Purchasing has better control over issuing RFQs, POs, and reserving inventory.
• Increased efficiencies to maximize your business and profit without having to add purchasing staff.

While COUNTERPART will allow you to generate reports, you will find its display of “live work queues” is even better. You won’t have to open a report because your queue is constantly updating throughout the day as people add demands to the system. There is no need for a static view that is run daily. Just refresh the page and you get the latest demands you can directly address.

COUNTERPART was created by engineers to handle the sell-engineer-manufacture-assemble workflow in the custom manufacturing world. COUNTERPART is designed for manufacturers who create unique and customized products.

How it benefits you:

• Easy to use as COUNTERPART follows the custom design workflow.
• The application is specifically designed for the Engineer To Order manufacturer.

COUNTERPART uses open database technology and supports the latest Windows Operating Systems. Our Engineer To Order (ETO) ERP software Integrates seamlessly with Solidworks, PDM, Inventor, and Quickbooks. Software updates roll out every couple of months, keeping your ERP business solution software up to date and working within the Microsoft OS environment.

Yes. Your BOM needs to be fluid. In COUNTERPART, your BOM can always be altered to reflect changes. COUNTERPART allows engineers to change their BOM as needed, including items they’ve previously released. COUNTERPART will communicate any material changes to procurement for released parts, assemblies, or even an entire BOM!

 How it benefits you:

• Engineering maintains total control of their BOM, even if items have been procured.
• Engineers can release assemblies or individual parts more quickly since COUNTERPART will handle over or under-procured items.
• Procurement receives immediate notification of items that need their attention This provides time to resolve any issue and also saves money by reducing purchasing of unnecessary materials or having extra shipments.