[DanBC]

I used to work for sub-contract electronic engineers. I was working there when almost everything was done on paper; I was working there when they transitioned to computer based systems. It was a fucking nightmare because nobody buying the new software bothered to speak to people doing the work; and then when the software was bought the people in charge of changing stuff didn't bother to understand how the data would be used.

Here's just one example: The software had an internal part number field, and 2 description fields. The guy in charge of part numbers and descriptions wanted 5 digit numbers and wanted the description to start at the top level and drill down.

Here's one description:

    RESISTOR MRS25 100K

That looks okay until you realise that people need to search on the descriptions, and the software only allowed searched on the first 16 characters.

    RESISTOR MRS25 1

That's a lot of components, and so people have to search through a bunch of stuff to find the item they want.

The first thing you must do is learn and understand the system. It works for them, and anything you replace it with is likely to break things and to make life worse.

Most places will have payroll software. And so a bunch of manufacturing software is an add on or extension to that software - maybe some accounts stuff for handling invoicing, and then for handling buying materials and stock, and then for handling stock internally. But accountants (who create this software) don't understand how shop floors run, and so you end up with frustrating weirdness.