Realtrac

Vantagens

It's user friendly for ShopFloor logging in and out of jobs and recording time. Timeclock is easy for HR, and tracking down where a job is in the manufacturing process from a remote location is easy as well.

Desvantagens

My primary beef with RealTrac is that there is no feature (or wasn't a few versions ago) that allows me to SPLIT AN OPERATOR'S TIME when they are logged into two jobs. If an operator is running two machines, or three, or four, all at once there should be an option (if not a REQUIREMENT) that their loaded labor cost and hours are divided amongst the machines they're concurrently logged into. In my company, one operator ALWAYS runs more than one machine in a bank, so not having their time split makes all my costing metrics utterly useless until I manually go into the work sessions to interrogate the data. This is nearly a deal-breaker making me consider another software. (Customer Service / Tech Support informed me this was intentional so that when looking at historical jobs you never under-bid a job). If this is incorrect, someone please call me ASAP!

The "Quality" feature is a horribly conceived module, slapped together as an afterthought, and the default reporting within there is awful, has poor formatting, and doesn't integrate well at all with the rest of the system. There hasn't been an update on this module in forever, but new PAID features (RightBoard) are being added and updated all the time.

Vantagens

1. Easily track the amount of time spent and cost of individual jobs. People out on the shop floor don't mind clocking in and out of operations because it's so quick and easy.
2. It is everything we needed without the unnecessary complexity. Finding that balance between functionality and complexity is hard and RealTrac nailed it.
3. Developers are very responsive to feature requests or the rare glitch. Great people to work with. They're very active in bringing useful updates.
4. It's a network license, you can put RealTrac on as many computers as you want. Plus logging in past your number of licenses still gives you up to 10 minutes, thus nobody gets automatically booted. Some network licenses (from other companies) won't even let you log on which means you have to go find who left the program up on a random computer. RealTrac's gives you grace, which is great.
5. Training is not pay by the hour, it's basically unlimited, plus we are easily able to do remotely; both of which saves thousands of dollars.

Desvantagens

1. Lacks a central analytics center for mining all the data we create (different sections of the ERP can create reports). However, as I write this I know they are releasing a new reporting platform to hopefully address this.

Vantagens

The software seems very comprehensive and is always improving. RealTrac queries customers and listens to suggestions and incorporates them as demand warrants. It is a statement to their dedication to customer satisfaction. The parts of the software I have used is very well done.

Desvantagens

It seems they "manually" configure the window instead of letting Windows do it. As a result, the minimize/maximize/close buttons have duplicates in the middle of the window and when I maximize the window, I loose a little, because it doesn't recognize the I have my task bar on the right.

Also, the report generator could be a little more user friendly. I am pretty computer literate/power user and I have not really been able to figure it out, or get deep enough to find out that its' easy, which is a testament to the difficulty .

Vantagens

Work step customization. Attaching files to jobs or part numbers.

Desvantagens

1) Time card time display is inaccurate and not fixable, therefore not being utilized. 2) For estimating Bill or BOM items, there is no way to uniquely identify per unit cost based on associated quantity discounts from suppliers. 3) Overall look and feel of the software and reporting sheets feel antiquated, like it was developed in the late 90's.

Vantagens

Looking up old and current estimates and jobs is very easy. There are numerous search fields that allow you to search by description, part #, drawing #, customer name and customer PO #. You can also look up jobs and estimates within a given date range. I also like the different reporting functions, including labor cost breakdowns per job, as well as being able to lookup and report on individual employee performance within any given date/time range.

Desvantagens

The GUI is somewhat dated aesthetically. Making changes to templates could be made easier to do. When populating and defining router steps on an estimate, the order of operations sometimes get switched around unintentionally, and have to be fixed.