Editor’s note: The following letter address the article “Management software boosts efficiency” published in the March issue of Welding, and available at http://weldingmag.com/ar/wdf_79093/

E2 is good in very particular instances; (but) it will not work for a lot of shops who need flexibility because despite what your article states, E2 is not a flexible system.

Our office attempted to incorporate E2 into our system, as it was sold to us much like you article states, but most of this was misleading information.

This program is not flexible whatsoever and will not conform to any shop.

It does not work well with scrap metal or drops in its use for field work and its inventory system is virtually impossible to work with if you have any mobile work at all, or are not perfect in your entries. Your men are handed a lot more work as well as the office, and while it does indeed keep a Nazi grip on everything, this is not as useful as your sales pitch article makes it sound.

E2 will work nicely for a shop which does a lot of routine jobs and small scale production of the same products over and over, but any weld shop which does repairs, mobile work and troubleshooting will not be helped by this product.

And, you can forget about that guy who just needs this little thing welded on a Friday afternoon before the end of the day, you might as well just turn him around, because you have more work to process that 30 min job than it was worth.

Another down side to E2 is it will take about one month to three months of direct attention and management downtime to get the program running properly which will stall your ability to have a seamless conversion.

I also notice you fail to mention is the rather large price tag on a system like E2. There is the yearly maintenance fee along with the few thousand dollars for the program and all the additional amount you may need to pay for the technical support needed to get the system running properly in your shop and in a fashion which will actually work for you.

And then all of the peripherals you need to buy to really have the system work in its full capacity, you are looking at probably something over $20,000 to get this running at full steam in the first year. And there will be more to pay each year. Most companies would better spend this money on a piece of equipment which will speed up production time as opposed to a system which will slow down the speed in which an office can process information.

Because E2 is so rigid in its operations, it takes a lot of Shop Tech help to adjust the system to fit your needs, which it may not have the capabilities to fit.

You see E2 is not flexible like something as simple as Excel because Excel is very easily manipulated to fit whatever the end user needs.

QuickBooks and Peach Tree both also follow this “flexible” nature because you do not need an outside consultant to adjust the functioning of the program to fit your needs.

E2 is good if you are a person who likes bureaucracy. You need to walk through several steps for even the smallest jobs, it does not link up to QuickBooks well at all and it is a hulking beast of a memory hog. Another thing which really bothered me about E2 was you cannot do two things at once. This does not work with a busy shop.

It works for a large company which only do large repeat jobs, but you better dot all your I’s and cross all your T’s or E2 will come back and bite you in the ass later.

Jacob Long,
Welding Project Manager Pennsylvania.

Plan for career path You pose a very good question. I can share with you a possible career path for welders based on my own life experiences. The military provides excellent opportunities for entry level individuals interested in welding, especially the US Navy. (http://www.navy.com/careers/enlisted/construction/) Civilian shipyards offer apprenticeships in many job categories including “welder” (http://www.marad.dot.gov/nmrec/links/usshipyardsr.html) Unions also offer apprenticeships where entry level individuals can earn and learn. These groups include, Boilermakers, Pipe Fitters “UA”, Iron Worker, Sheet Metal Worker, Electricians, Carpenters. (http://www.constructionweblinks.com/Industry_Topics/Labor__Employment_and_Safety__/Labor_and_Employment__Labor__E/union_list/union_list.html) Of course one can always start at a small shop, learning as you go and changing career path as opportunities present themselves. Regarding ads requiring experience. I think attitude is 90 percent of everything. Therefore if an individual were to go to potential employers and discuss with them face to face what they can do and how it would benefit the employer, I think most companies would give them an opportunity. Of course that is assuming they have the basic welding skills learned from a technical school or community college. Then too, welding may just be the beginning of the career. After welding for some time an individual may decide to pursue, shop supervision, weld inspection, quality control/NDT, robotics technician, welding technician, welding technologist or welding engineer. I think that a successful career is made up of at least three key factors: Preparation (Education), Positive attitude and Experience. Having two out of the three will put you 66 percent the way down the road to employment. But, as I said earlier, I think that attitude is 90 percent of everything when it comes to obtaining employment. Hope you find these comments helpful, James F. Harris A senior welding engineer who lives in Dublin, Ohio.