just MAPICS

Gail,

I didn't forget SAP, I just haven't come across a single AS/400 SAP job in
the Southeast since I've been looking.  I vaguely remember seeing some on
Windows and Unix, but I didn't pay much attention since there didn't appear
to be much grocery money there for me, if you take my meaning. :)

Of course your bosses want something cheaper that can do everything for them
that MAPICS does now, right?  Just remind them of pie in the sky when we
die, and TANSTAAFL in the meantime - that's what I had to do at GNP every
budget season.

Apps to get running - well, this company makes Christmas ornaments, and
consequently builds large inventories at certain times of year.  All the
movements should be done via barcode entry and pumped through PM&C, right?
Not yet, it isn't.  Same for labor tracking, right?  Not yet.  You would
think that they would be using Forecasting, MPSP for rough-cut CRP, and MRP
for material planning, wouldn't you?  Not yet, not yet.  And there's more
stuff to do, this is just the tip of the iceberg.  Lots of fun coming!

"Grampa MAPICS", eh?  Does that mean I can start whacking all these kids
with my Japanese short staff now without getting prosecuted? :)  We began
our MAPICS I installation activities in September of 1980, and went live on
April 27, 1981.  We converted from MMAS (remember that?), which was already
up when I was hired there in September of '78.  When I left that company in
1988, I went directly to GNP, which had been half-heartedly running MAPICS
for a couple of years.  I didn't get a break from MAPICS until I left GNP in
July of '99.  I've been on this contract job for 7 weeks now, and it's as if
I never left.  I'm helping them kick start the COM to GL interface before I
start the new job, deja vu all over again.

I don't know if there's a need to have MAPICS sessions at COMMON or not.  It
made a lot of sense when there was no annual MAPICS conference, but now that
there is I think it's harder to justify.  What do the rest of you think?

Dave Shaw
MAPICS-L Moderator
Simpsonville, SC

----- Original Message -----
From: <gcrane@johansonmfg.com>
>
> Hey Dave, you forgot to mention SAP  <ggg> Gotta give them equal billing!
:-)
> Now from my understanding
> that really costs shops money.  As these other companies have downsized,
> disappeared, etc., did MAPICS
> pick up the pieces.  My bosses keep telling me to get something less
expensive
> than MAPICS.  They
> really hate ALF .... it is a mighty chunk of change for a small
manufacturing
> shop.
>
> What apps do you have to get going in this new job?  WOW, 19 years in
MAPICS!
> They're gonna start calling
> you "Grampa MAPICS" pretty soon.    I got dubbed "Gramma MAPICS" a while
back.
> I've been in MAPICS
> shop for 19 also.
>
> Do you feel COMMON should be covering MAPICS at their conferences?  In the
> sessions that is, not just the
> EXPO?