When evaluating ERP, you should only consider those solutions which are designed to work well in your business environment.
It's really not important exactly WHAT products or services you produce, but what is more important however, is HOW you produce.
When evaluation ERP solutions, it is less important what industry your are in, or what you produce, but what is important is how you produce, your business type or order-mode.
VISUAL is deployed across the world in thousands of businesses and in many different industries, and although it is not designed for a specific industry type, there are some which are more suitable, straight out of the box with no need for program customization - Vanilla ERP.
The planning and execution requirements of order-driven and forecast-driven businesses are entirely different.
Typically forecast-driven and make-to-stock manufacturers commence work BEFORE receiving firmed orders / delivery dates, and their ability to deliver on-time is normally constrained primarily by the availability of materials.
Order-driven, or Make to Order businesses however, typically only commence work and begin sourcing after receiving a confirmed order, and are almost always constrained firstly by their available capacity and only then by material availability.
These environments have special functional needs that are traditionally not met by standard ERP / MRPII packages including;
Manufacturing component parts and/or assemblies to customer order and customer specification. This type of company sells its capacity and its ability to deliver quality product, on-time.
Designs and builds to the customer order. Sells design expertise in addition to selling capacity and its ability to deliver quality product, on time.
Builds proprietary product to customer order. May manufacture common components/ sub assemblies and long lead time items to stock. This type of manufacturer typically cannot forecast accurately enough to build to stock. The inability to accurately forecast is a short coming due either to low order volume, or to broad variability of product characteristics. Build to Stock manufacturing may account for a portion of the business, usually high sales volume products, quick ship products, and spare parts.
An engineering services related business who provides materials and services for planned and/or unplanned maintenance and repairs.
Spare parts, materials, internal and external operations are often not known when the service order is initially released, and are only determined after the inspection survey and/or dis-assembly of the product.
The ability to add-to and change a work order after release is crucial to this type of business.
A blend of one or more of the other manufacturing environments.