Well, here I am again asking you guys for advice. All the other forums that I frequent while knowledgeable on that subject just can't help me.

I'm looking for software that would allow tracking of our products individually all the way from production/testing to shipping to returns for service etc. So someone could enter a serial number and find out exactly what has happened in the product's life including how it left the factory. It would basically get barcode scanned at every point with extra data entered as needed (fault info/setup data etc)

Free is nice (something like PHP+MySQL based) but I don't mind paying since we have nothing now and there are no plans in upper management to implement it. They are ignorant and we need it IMO.

We're talking quantities of anywhere upto 500,000 units a year so it would need to be scaleable and I can justify the appropriate hardware for it.

Ideas? I can't even seem to find anything really. Googling for '(product) tracking system' seems to mainly return bug tracking type systems.

TIA guys

Christian,

I believe what you're looking for is typically referred to as "auto id software". Try googling for that. I'm not aware of any open source solutions offhand, but you'll find tons of commercial software.

Good luck,
--Dan.

That type of functionality is usually bundled into an Enterprise Resource Management package, which are very, very far from free. These pacakges usually integrate warehouse management, production management, accounting and purchasing planning. The big players are Oracle, Peoplesoft and SAP. Mid-level players include Microsoft (Great Plains) and a few others. I'd google for ERP and start looking from there.

-Zeke

I've been in the Enterprise Software space for years. For a small manufacturing company, I would start by looking at MFG/Pro software from QAD.

FWIW,
Jim

Thanks guys. At least I now know roughly what I'm looking for exactly. I was kinda expecting big $$$s but maybe I'd get lucky for this fairly specific app since we don't need the other "Enterprise" type stuff like accounting etc.

Knew you guys would come through. Thanks again.

Good luck!

One parting word of advice - it's most important to get buy-in by everyone who's going to use the system and get their input. If a new system makes the jobs the people who have to use it harder (especially if they're not the people who get the benefit from the new system), then you'll be fighting an uphill battle to make sure it is used. Make the new system streamline something for the person who has to use it and you'll be way ahead.

-Zeke

Amen!