Requirements checklist
What to ask for when choosing software for bearing manufacturers.
A checklist built from how bearing manufacturers work, to print or save as a PDF and bring to any supplier meeting.
What the software should cover
Tick each one that matters to your business.
- Steel tube and bar stock
- Ring lots and routings
- Grinding and gauge records
- Balls, rollers, cages and seals
- Matching and assembly
- Noise, vibration and clearance tests
- Marking, packing and dispatch
Roles that need their own access
Who logs in, and what each person may see or change.
- For owners
- For sales and planning staff
- For grinding operators
- For assembly and test staff
- For packing staff
Reports to ask for
Ask to see each one with your own sample data.
- Bearings in stock by designation and clearance class
- Grinding yield and rejects by machine
- Test failures by lot and component batch
- Component stock for balls, cages and seals
- Orders open and late, by customer
- Rework and scrap by cause
- Bearings sold by brand and market
Systems it may need to connect to
Note which ones you already run.
- SMS
- Test rig file import
- Barcode labels
- Accounting export
Questions for any vendor
Put these to every supplier you are comparing.
- How does it support matching?
- Can we trace a failure to ball and ring lots?
- How is grinding drift shown?
- Can we run private label brands?
- Does it manage purchased balls and cages?
- Can it print clearance class on the box?
- What happens to rings that fail?
- Can the noise rig upload to it?
- What does it cost?
- Do we keep our own records?
Where the work usually breaks today
Circle the ones you recognise. They set the order of the project.
- Rings are matched by hand
- Grinding drift is noticed late
- Noise test failures are not traced
- Seals, cages and balls are bought in
- Packing mixes designations
Prefer to talk it through? See the bearing manufacturers page.