Digital manufacturing ecosystem developed by machinists

The company’s booth in McCormick Place East is 121645. The company’s goal at the show is to debut a new generation of shop management software ideal for Industry 4.0 practitioners and convey how much more wide-ranging and beneficial ProShop is to small and medium sized manufacturers compared to ERP systems on the market today. One of the most significant differentiators about ProShop versus other systems is that ProShop offers an integrated, comprehensive set of modules for managing the shop’s typical ERP operations and also includes MES and QMS functions such as ISO-9000, AS9100, API and ISO 13485.

“We want IMTS visitors to understand that ProShop truly is different for their manufacturing ecosystem,” says Paul Van Metre Co-Founder and VP of Sales of Adion Systems. “There has never been a shop management system so suitably designed for the machining industry until now.  This could be referred to as ERP 4.0 or perhaps a Digital Manufacturing Ecosystem as it embraces a completely paperless, 100% electronic method of managing the business with shop floor controls of inspection, work instructions, tool management, and doing it with a big data, manufacturing analytics approach.”

According to Van Metre, most conventional ERP systems are accounting-based that have very little functionality for managing and controlling the shop floor environment. Or, they are manufacturing monitoring type systems but still lack the full scope of information required in machining today.

In addition to the more typical ERP segments having to do with “front office” activities such as estimating, quoting and purchasing, ProShop also includes MES (Manufacturing Execution System) and QMS (Quality Management System) control, monitoring and collection capabilities. For instance, among the MES functionality is tracking machine utilization, cutting tool management, media-rich work instructions, part inspection data, and more, including integration with coordinate measuring machine data, which is unique to ProShop. Further, ProShop offers an integrated, comprehensive set of modules for managing the shop’s QMS such as ISO-9000, AS9100, API and ISO 13485. Among these include standards, equipment, users, training, audit reports, non-conformance reports, corrective actions and the like – all of the tasks required to be in compliance with the various quality systems in place at the worksite. The program may be hosted in the cloud or on site, depending on the customer’s preference.

“Typically, ProShop can replace five to six other software packages that companies use and that frequently do not communicate with each other,” continues Van Metre. “Of most interest to shop managers and owners, ProShop can have an enormous impact on improving profitability and throughput. Customers cite many contributors to this such as moving overhead labor to billable functions, gaining confidence to take on more complicated jobs, experiencing better on-time delivery performance and gleaning accurate profit margins on each project. In general they can make much more informed and conscious choices surrounding all of their business decisions.”

ProShop’s development history is notable – Paul Van Metre and his partners first developed the program in 1997 at their precision job shop to assist with complex customer requirements and manufacturing workflows. The system proved to be increasingly compelling and helpful as the founders kept adding capabilities. Ultimately the gentlemen sold the subcontract shop and established Adion Systems in 2014 to sell and support ProShop to others.