ETO Institute Celebrates the Start of Year 3

A big problem for engineer-to-order (ETO) companies is that they have many unique requirements that make traditional ERP systems unsuitable. The engineer-to-order market is relatively small and the companies themselves also tend to be small. The result is that the larger ERP software companies are more focused on the needs of the larger and more numerous repetitive manufacturers.

In the manufacturing software industry the terms are clearly recognizable. The differences between make-to-stock, assemble-to-order, make-to-order, and engineer-to-order are clearly understood.

These distinctions are not so clear for those in manufacturing evaluating software systems for the first time. There is often a mismatch in how they describe their business. Companies may describe themselves as job shops or even make-to-order when they are really engineer-to-order.

Software vendors do not help the situation. Many vendors don