J-MOS System Frequently Asked Questions

What size company is J-MOS designed for?

Do we have to change our shop organization to meet your software needs?

We do not have a "Production System" in place, the way we convey our information from office to the shop is by "throwing it over the wall ." Can J-MOS help?

How would you configure J-MOS to help us?
 

Why don't you offer a financial package?
 

What about an Estimating Package?
 

What about hidden costs?

What about training?

What about the learning curve?
 

Is J-MOS the answer to all our needs?

When we call for help or suggestions will your support team be familiar with our software needs and our business?

What about Material Handling?

What size company is the J-MOS System designed for?

J-MOS is designed for companies of all sizes. If your company has 20 to 250 employees then the regular J-MOS System is right up your alley!

If you have less than 20 employees you may want to consider the J-MOS "Lite" version. This version is sold at a reduced cost and excludes capacity planning and hot tracking - which is typically not required for this size shop. Everything else in the J-MOS "Lite" version is full functioning and ready to go! (see comparisons for the differences)

As your company grows you can graduate from the "Lite" version to the "Regular" version. You will not have any issues with backwards compatibilty. Load and Go....

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Do we have to change our shop organization to meet your software needs?

J-MOS is setup to enhance your method of operation. We have strived very carefully to make J-MOS malleable enough to adapt into a currently active production system. Look at J-MOS as an enhancement to your existing scheme.

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We do not have a "Production System" in place, the way we convey our information from office to the shop is by "throwing it over the wall." Can J-MOS help?  
 

Yes. You can completely organize your processes, tracking abilities and capacity planning from the ground up using our program.

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How would you configure J-MOS to help us?

Actually, YOU will do all the configuring. We will guide you at first.
 

After you purchase J-MOS, you are sent a preliminary survey to fill out and send back to us. We will look at the results to get an idea of how you do things. Then we will call and follow-up a few times to more narrow the scope. When the trainer arrives, he will go over a few scenarios and together with you develop a starting plan. Once you are up and running and become more familiar with the system you can change your approach or enhance what you are currently doing.

Because most of our business is custom work and jobs are never really the same twice; J-MOS allows the creation of Millwork orders and baseline job setups to be different each time.

You may want to setup a job subdividing phases and millwork orders by a schedule of values, or perhaps by elevation, maybe by like products or due dates.

"J-MOS allows an orderly process for jobs that may seem to be in chaos."

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When we call for help or suggestions will your support team be familiar with our software needs and our business?

If you need J-MOS tech help you will speak with everyday users and/or the creators of the system. Getting a remedy to a problem is generally very quick. We take any type of down time very seriously and prioritize that, over anything else!

Considering our software is designed, programmed, maintained and updated by "lean" trained seasoned Woodworkers, Production Team members, Company Owners and Project Managers AND is physically located in a functioning Custom Architectural Millwork firm that keeps a pulse on the industry; your needs should be well understood.

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Why don't you offer a financial package?  
 

Most of the millwork firms and woodshops have bookkeepers and accountants that use very sophisticated financial software of their own choosing. Our goal is not accounting, its production proficiency.

J-MOS has export capabilities that most accounting software packages can understand when imported.

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What about an Estimating Package?

J-MOS is developing an estimating package that works side by side with Microsoft Excel. The J-MOS Estimator allows you the best of both worlds. You can use MS Excel to do all your creative estimating (but within some guidelines of course...) and J-MOS will take the information and coordinate reports, summarize materials and labor and allows for quick processing of work orders.

The J-MOS Estimator is Scheduled for release January 2012.

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What are the hidden costs?

WYSIWYG!

One of differences you are going to find between Jefferson Industrial Software and other companies is its openness and commitment to the woodworking industry. Thus, we treat a software sale more like a tool purchase than a software purchase.

J-MOS is licensed to each business address. Multiple addresses require multiple licensing.

After you have purchased the J-MOS System and are part of the support program, minor upgrades and SRPs are free of charge.

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What about training?

The J-MOS System is an "implemented" system.

Training is conducted at your facility with live online followups. Though J-MOS is easy to use and understand, it is in-depth. Learning concepts and program manipulation are a must to get complete fulfillment using the J-MOS System.

You will need to appoint a "Trained Trainer" that gets all the specialized training for the J-MOS System. This "Trained Trainer" will be the support contact for the J-MOS System and the trainer for your new employees.

Training for new products is a cost add that will be quoted at the time of purchase. Original training should be done at your plant but we can host training here in our facility if requested. New hire training can be done at our facility.

What about the learning curve?

One of the nice features about the J-MOS System is its ease of use. Each position in your business has their own area of J-MOS they need to understand. Generally, not a single person needs to know all about everything (except the "Trained Trainer"). Project managers have their areas of the program, production managers and shop supervisors have theirs and the shop personnel have theirs. All the J-MOS System is accessible to everyone on the system, but to get going and using it means just focusing on the specific areas.

For the people on the shop floor the learning curve is super fast. Typically a business with 50 floor personnel will be punching-in within 2 hours. A company with 10 floor personnel can be trained and punching on the clock in about half an hour or so.

Project managers and office personnel will take a few hours to half a day to learn the system. The trained trainer gets much more explicit training.

After data has been accumulated for about a month or two, continued training is done by way of live on-line demonstration, email training circulars and update notices.

Jefferson Industrial Software will not abandon anyone on the J-MOS System.

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Is J-MOS the answer to all our needs? 

No.

We don't claim to know all your needs nor are we going to invent a product and then make you believe you can't survive without it.

However, we can assure you we intend to be in business a long time and that means changing with the times and trends. Listening to our customers and trying to stay a few steps ahead can only accomplish this.

We will Keep Moving Forward!

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What about material handling?

With the J-MOS System material handling is easy. Project managers order items per job; then electronically sent to purchasing where a purchase order is created. Then when the items arrive they are checked in by touchscreen by the receiver and put into inventory.

Did we mention... touch-screen pull tickets?

All of this information is constantly feeding back through the system in real-time. A project manager knows exactly what is happening to his job materials, current status, cost, location and usage.