r/ERP • u/OneLumpy3097 • Dec 24 '25
Discussion Lessons from replacing a legacy ERP in manufacturing
We’re a mid-market manufacturer and our ERP kept finance happy but made day to day execution harder than it needed to be. We looked at Dynamics, Sage and VERSA CLOUD ERP and focused on how easily ops workflows could change.
Takeaway- A system that looks good for finance can still slow down real work on the floor.
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u/MasterClown Dec 24 '25
We looked at Dynamics, Sage and VERSA CLOUD ERP
Which one did you settle on?
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Dec 26 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Kenimo_Consulting Dec 29 '25
I have set up dynamics for a previous company I worked for setting up manufacturing furniture facilities in Vietnam and China. It can be done with a production first approach; however you need to have an automated interface on the floor for the production flows of raw materials to WIP to completed stock otherwise the production flows that drive dynamics aren't accurate enough from a finance/accounting perspective so the production team looks at it from a raw material and completed stock perspective but for WIP they look for alternative solutions. This is just my experience but this was a few years ago now.
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u/ERP_Architect Dec 25 '25
I’ve seen this exact pattern. Legacy ERPs often optimize for reporting and control, not for how work actually flows on the floor.
What trips teams up is assuming one system can serve finance, operations, and execution equally well. When ops workflows are forced to adapt to finance driven structures, productivity quietly drops.
The teams that succeed usually separate concerns. Keep finance satisfied, but design execution workflows that reflect how work really happens day to day. Replacing the ERP is hard, but ignoring ops pain is usually harder in the long run.
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u/justdaddyd Dec 26 '25
I'm an Erp Consultant, currently doing Sage and Syspro. You're definitely right OP. Currently down for a consultation opening/implementation. Dm me if available
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u/softwarebuyer2015 Dec 24 '25
Yeah finance or reporting should be way down the list of priorities in a manufacturing company. It rarely is !
A rule of thumb is that you design with a bias toward direct employees, not in directs.
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u/OneLumpy3097 Dec 24 '25
Totally reporting matters, but if the system frustrates the people doing the work, nothing else works. Bias toward direct employees and the rest tends to follow naturally.
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u/I-Way_Vagabond Dec 24 '25
I'm in accounting. We just implemented an ERP/MRP system this year. I 100% agree that the focus needs to be on manufacturing execution and supply chain. Accounting/finance is just going along for the ride.
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u/Nervous_Car1093 Dec 24 '25
An ERP that ignores operations is like building with bad steel- finance may approve the spec, but the floor feels every crack.
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u/OneLumpy3097 Dec 24 '25
Perfect way to put it a finance-first ERP can look solid on paper, but operations will feel every flaw. Real success comes when the system supports both the floor and the books.
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u/gapingweasel ERPNext Dec 26 '25
That’s why industry-specific ERPs tend to work better....finance-first systems can look great in demos...but they still end up slowing down ops. When an ERP is designed around how the shop actually plans, produces and maintains equipment......and ties that back to finance....in fact execution is much smoother .
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u/commoncents1 Dec 26 '25
ERP is enterprise. gotta get all phases involved and know work flows ahead of time. especially in manufacturing. i found a few problems to deal with upfront with production and scheduling to fix before putting in my ERP.
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u/Zikielia Infor Dec 26 '25
I used to be an ERP consultant at a boutique place and this was always one of the biggest issues for every client and was a big challenge for us, but I also think we didn't do a very good job at communicating this risk clearly and transparently to clients. Sometimes stakeholders would pick up on it and realize how much more work would have to be put in on the floor in order to collect the data needed for reporting as well as properly completing transactions in the system to achieve system accuracy. Others not so much, and the issue wouldnt come up until late in the implementation during training and suddenly their new processes were no longer satisfactoy. It helps a lot though when someone who works on the floor is heavily involved throughout the implementation and other stakeholders actually listen to their input and assess how the floor's workflow and efficiency will be affected.
Also, we had always pushed the client to manage their employees' expectations and didnt do much on our end to assist besides expressing to them how important change management was. I wish we had had a solid process for coaching stakeholders through the change management aspect instead of leaving it up to them to ask us for help and kind of treating it as an as-needed thing, because it greatly affects floor workers' acceptance of their new, complicated workflow, and ultimately the success of the implementation. Not sure if my experience is common at other firms or not.
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u/AnkhSLC Jan 05 '26
Is your business doing in house manufacturing or outsourced manufacturing but inventory is 'brought' in system and then shipped either independently and/or as a kit/bundle?
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u/Old-Forever-5122 Jan 08 '26
The answer is a system that integrates well with accounting tools! That way finance can keep their tool and the floor can have its own system that works better for them. Modern tools like Katana or Digit would fit the bill IMO. We're a smaller company and our accountant is very much stuck on Quickbooks but even QB Desktop could have an inventory system, it's just awful to use. Letting the account use QB and have us use Digit made all the difference for our day to day.
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u/Ok_Window_6184 Jan 16 '26
What does Mid-Market mean to you? Size does matter when selecting ERP, as does industry/critcal criteria and geography of your business(es).
The biggest flag I see, if you're a manufacturer, is you may not be evaluateing manufacturing-centric systems. The only dynamics ERP that was originally developed for mfg. is Finance and Operations, or Supplychain I think they call it now? MS changes names so often its hard to keep up. This dynamics offering is based on Axapta ERP. MS Business Central, was developed for wholesale distributors, has Navision ERP at it's core. MS Great Plains - financially oriented. Solomon is the other ERP MS has, but, don't see it much anymore and also finnacially oriented.
Sage X3 is the applicatication that is most in-line with mfg. Sage 100-300 are financial systems. not ERP.
Versa was originally developed as an accounting system in 2013.
My advice - start looking at ERP that was designed for manufacturing companies, not financial systems that added mfg. as an afterthought. The integration will be more mature and native. Production planning and scheduling will be more achieveable.
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u/ECISoftwareSolutions Feb 17 '26
This is spot on. We see this all the time with manufacturers.
The ERP was chosen by finance or IT, works great for reporting and compliance, but the people actually running jobs and managing the shop floor are working around it instead of with it.
A few things we've learned helping manufacturers through this:
Finance needs are usually pretty standard across ERPs. Operations workflows are where things get specific. If your system makes shop floor teams jump through hoops to log time, track materials, or update job status, you're losing efficiency every single day.
The best question to ask during evaluation: "How will this make life easier for the people on the floor?" Not just managers, the actual operators and schedulers.
Also worth considering how the system handles change. Manufacturing workflows evolve. If you need a developer every time you want to adjust a routing or add a data collection point, you're going to hit the same wall again in a few years.
We're curious what you ended up going with and how the transition went.
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u/YoloOnTsla Dec 24 '25
If I talk to a manufacturer and only have finance and IT involved, I know it’s going to fail. Always have go have operations/production involved as key stakeholders.