ERP and Management Software refers to the various software tools that do not control any specific piece of equipment in the machine shop, but instead ensure that all of a shop’s resources are deployed in an efficient and profitable way. ERP stands for “Enterprise Resource Planning.” Some of the functions associated with ERP and management software include: ■ Costing or estimating, which means accurately predicting how much it will cost a shop to produce a particular part. ■ Scheduling, which has to do with assigning the various operations of various jobs to the shop’s various machine tools in an order that makes the most sense in terms of urgency, setup and machine availability. ■ Tracking, or logging each step in a part’s progress through the shop, so a part’s current status can be immediately known. ■ History, meaning the histories of particular parts in terms of personnel or machines, or the histories of particular machines in terms of outputs and in-cycle times, can be analyzed in search of trends. ■ Maintenance, or scheduling, tracking and alerting personnel to the routine maintenance needs of the various pieces of equipment in the shop.