PlateShop is our flagship product. We get many questions about it: Can it do this? Will it be able to do X?
The answer is always the same: YES. PlateShop is custom configured to your needs - all the features you must have without the clutter and complexity of features you don't want or need. There is literally nothing it can't do.
Typically, you are faced with three choices when looking for a new system for your shop - Custom Made, Off the Shelf and Hybrid:
|
Type |
Pros |
Cons |
|
Custom Made |
Fits your needs exactly. You can own the code, but probably won't. |
Long development and education time for the programming team – typically a year or more. Costly – very costly if the programming team leaves in the middle of your project. Sometimes uses obscure technology that few programmers work with. Long term support problems due to programmer inattention. Not always well documented (usually extra $). Programmers usually keep source code. If your Programmer goes away, no support is available. |
|
Off-the-Shelf |
Ready to go out of the box. Usually well supported and documented. Full featured. |
Expensive - solutions start at $20K. Fixed solution with changes offered maybe twice a year as updates or upgrades. Costly yearely licensing subject to random price increases. Steep learning curve for users. May not meet all your needs or be too complex to use. Training and support sometimes limited and $$$$. May not be able to import all your existing data. You must fit in their box and use their system the way it works, not the way you need it to work. |
|
Hybrid from PlateShopSoftware.com |
Fits your needs exactly – starts with a base of commonly used functionality and is expanded on as needed. Common programming languages with no or low cost licensing. Costs less since most shops use 90% features already integrated. You own the code.
Free support for the first year. |
Can take a bit longer to implement than an Off-the-Self solution – from 60 to 120 days including importing your existing data, but training and implementation is much faster. |
Full customer order tracking with multiple billing and shipping addresses
Generation of NADCAP/ISO 90001:2015 compatible travelers (work orders), delivery tickets and certifications
Integration with Quick Books (integration with other accounting packages available)
Full quotation generation and tracking including pricing calculator based on material costs and shop hours per part (optional)
Purchase Order/Parts importing from Excel
Web Site Integration / Customer Portal - allows customers to see their order status online (optional)
Parts control
Image and document linking with images showing on Travelers, Quotations, Certifications or Delivery Tickets (optional)
Internal Inventory (optional)
Paperless Job Processing using Bar Codes or RFID tags (optional)
Process control - unlimited - with detailed rich text format steps for each area (can use ASF calculations)
Fixture control with lot size calculation (optional for those using ASF calculations)
Quality Control with the ability to Hold and Approve jobs to ship, track rejects and return parts with DMR creation (optional)
Works with voltage and time or surface area (ASF)
Can calculate load size based on surface area and max load size (optional)
Handles precious metals like gold and silver with special reports and processing
Automated customer PO importation from text files or Excel spreadsheets (optional)
Preventative maintenance
Equipment Calibration
Employee training
Rework control and extensive Rework reports
User control with ability to limit user interaction or see specific data for any part of the system
Scheduling (optional)
Masking Control including Job ETA calculation based on masking time and work schedule (optional)
Customer Statistics showing ordering trends and ranking (optional)
FAA Repair Station forms and tracking (optional)
FULLY OPEN SOURCE - You own your own code and can modify it at any time
Integration with major accounting packages (Quick Books integration standard - we currently support versions 2018 to 2023)
Bar code scanning stations on shop floor for order tracking
Separate shipping module for a shipping department
Automatically emailed reports - daily and monthly for both Customers and Key Personnel
Masking Module for shops with dedicated masking departments
Customer Dashboard with Ranking, Order History by $ and # of Jobs with charts
Tank Chemistry Control – a separate program to keep track of you tank chemistry parameters and produce Excel spreadsheets like X-bar-R, Histogram, Run History. CLICK LINK TO SEE MORE>>>https://plateshopsoftware.com/tank-control
Web page for customers to see order progress (customers must login web page to view orders)
Local server (Linux or Windows) or server-less peer to peer networks for smaller shops
Hosted solutions (Internet based for large or geographically separated organizations)
Marketing Packages including mailings, emails, YouTube videos (LINK to 8 Reasons Why Video Works)
Custom Web Sites (from simple one page presentation sites to full responsive content managers)
Preparation for NADCAP Audits - see latest pre-audit checklist (NADCAP Pre-audit checklist 2018)
Total Quality Management package - separate program for the QA department that integrates with PlateShop Pro - too many features to list - please call for more information or visit the TQM website.
Let’s start with the most important information – if our software won’t more than pay for itself in less than 18 months, we won’t sell it to you. Period. We do a full systems analysis – FREE – that will allow us to determine if PlateShop is the right product for your needs.
The future is closer than ever with new standards and customer requirements coming fast and thick – you must have a system that can be quickly changed to meet these needs. No longer can your business rely on some fixed solution that will lead you to a bottleneck and a costly replacement system in short order.
You must be able to control your own destiny – that’s why all our customers actually have ALL the original code so that they can change it if needed. We, of course, can do this for you probably less expensive than anyone else, but you have the option of letting other programmers and power users modify your system as needed – PlateShopSoftware.com is currently the ONLY company that offers this.
Costs: Our systems run as low as $12K and up to $120K depending on shop size. Typical shops spend about $15K to $20K. Note that larger systems can support hundreds of users and span across several time zones, but we work with mostly medium and smaller sized business.
Payment Plans: Made to fit your needs, typically 3 even payments over a 90 day period.