Let's review some basic facts about paperless manufacturing. In discrete, highly-engineered production environments, paperless manufacturing saves time, money and resources. It has a fast ROI with recurring savings every year (3 times investment in less than 3 years) and paperless manufacturing makes employees more productive, less error-prone and happier.

• PDM can do it. No it can't except in very special cases. It is not a cost-effective or efficient solution.
• ERP can do it. Not well. The complexity of transaction-based systems do not "fit" shop floor processes.
• We don't have the money. The ROI is cost-effective in the current budget year. The savings repeat.
• We don't have the resources.  Implementation is less than 3 months with minimal internal assistance.
• We are too unique to buy an off-the-shelf system. That's exactly why you need one.
• We can do it ourselves. Our research shows this will happen about 50% of the time in about 5 years.

Do you have that time?

There are also real reasons that companies don't go paperless.

• They are afraid of risk. Change is imperative to stay competitive and paperless is a reliable cost savings.
• They think Microsoft Office can do it. There is no document control for the shop floor.
• There is no executive support. The disconnect between the shop floor and the e-suite is a reason to buy.
• They don't believe the ROI. We've proven it at every customer in the first year of implementation.

Quite frankly, you can't afford not to. The rest of the world is, and it's never a good idea to play catchup.