Sage 100

Does anyone have a recommendation for food processing? We have a customer that roasts/seasons/mixes nuts/pretzels/etc. then packages and sells them to grocery stores, etc. They have been using MAS 90 for ages but haven't upgraded since 4.05. They have had many CFO turnovers and each has plans to upgrade/install add-on solutions but then they leave. Now they are considering a product from SG Systems. I know there was a food manufacturing package at some point in time (I think I sat in a session when Insights/Summit/whatever was in Denver?). Any experience with something similar? Suggestions?

In a prior life I did an install for a snack food processor that made Chips, Pretzels, Snack Cakes, cookies, etc. But we used standard Sage100 work order/bill of materials. they had an exact recipe (measurements, cook times etc.) for every item which fit well to BOM and routings. We handled the byproducts with negative issue on the work order (they saved and re-used crumbs from the chocolate cookies for example) . This was about 15 years ago; and I'm no longer in touch with that company. I realize there have not been a lot of enhancements to work order and BOM since then but there has been a lot of advancement in manufacturing floor tracking add-ons and work order efficiency add-ons. Is there something unique about this food processing that Sage 100 Manufacturing modules won't handle?

Here's my 2 cents - I have a few clients that are involved with food and they have very simple mfg needs. MAS90 plus the add-ons for Multi-Bin and Mfg Automation and Vendor Lot Traceability from ACS Group (www.acsg.com) is a great fit. Talk to Ron Chompf and I'm sure he would be happy to help out.

You can contact Gary Willett at ICS - Innovative Consulting Services www.innovativeconsultingservices.net they have Food Distribution and WMS add-ons for SAGE 100 ERP. They might also have something related to food manufacturing too.

Thanks all!

I highly recommend NOT contacting Gary at ICS. We have many years of experience with him - none of it good. We are in the process of extracting our clients from his software - both Food and WMS packages. When I have some more time, I can provide details. The approach is dependent on the way they do production and how components are combined. We have a client that makes private label Mexican food using JobOps very successfully. They initially did just BOM, but needed more control over the production process. If there are complex recipes and various base ingredients, Batchmaster is still the answer. It integrates to both 100 and 300. The ACS route is the way we are going in the future. We are working on specs based on our many client experiences in the industry to review with Ron. We have a client who may partially fund this. It would be an extension of the enhancements ACS already has.

Food seems to have 2 main industry special processing needs - Byproduct and co-product manufacturing and catch weights. The answer as John suggested is dependent upon what unique requirements they have. FYI - Batchmaster recently setup a demo site on our cloud with B1 where, if I am not mistaken, the product is fully integrated into the application rather than interfaced as with Sage 100 and GP. I believe they have come a long way in flexible type pricing (subscription and perpetual) and have been working on making it easier to implement and maintain (with the caveat that I don't do the work anymore so everything is easier for me!).

@MichaelMcDonald Not questioning your recommendation, but we are done with ICS. You and I have discussed it and perhaps you have had better luck with Gary's responsiveness and the software.

@JohnHoyt I agree with your recommendation because my experience is the same for one client. I posted ICS as an option for @ThereseLogeais - Thinking maybe Gary has changed. The one client I used to have is now implementing SAP Business One.

@ThereseLogeais In reviewing SG Systems on-line, what they offer is very similar to BatchMaster. I have a certified BatchMaster consultant on staff, if you need someone to discuss this with. He used it for years with PFW and now has brought most of those over to 300. He does know food production.

@MichaelMcDonald No, Gary has not changed. Probably worse, in my experience.

One issue to address with food recipes in BOM is the decimal requirements. I've had a couple of companies need the expanded decimal precision to grab more decimals to the right of the decimal point.

@MichaelMcDonald - I would assume your client is doing SAP B1 with Batchmaster or Produmex which both work for food processing better than what you will get with Batchmaster interfaced to Sage or GP.

BatchMaster with Sage 300 is a better integration than with Sage 100.

SQL to SQL vs.... I was on the phone with a potential hosting partner who used to do Sage back in the 80's and was surprised I was hosting it. She asked, ""is it still a DOS product with a prettier user interface?"" I lied and told her not at all!

pants on fire! pants on fire!

@GaryFeldman What's wrong with a ""pretty"" blue screen, except it's the same blue as the BSOD. Interesting how 100 and 300 looked the same back in their DOS days.

@GaryFeldman Thanks! I hope they have an easier time implementing SAP B1 and any other add-n. They were a great client and I hated to loose them because of their disappointment with ICS.