ERP for Manufacturing
Manufacturing is where custom ERP is most often genuinely justified, because the thing being modelled is your process — and your process is frequently the reason customers buy from you rather than a competitor.
Discuss your projectThe bill of materials is the spine
Everything in a manufacturing system hangs off the bill of materials, and getting it wrong is expensive to correct later. A real BOM is multi-level: a finished product contains sub-assemblies which contain components, each with its own lead time and its own supplier. A single-level parts list looks adequate until you need to know what to buy to make forty units of something three levels deep.
It also changes over time. A BOM has versions, and a work order raised in March was built to March's version. If the system stores only the current BOM, you cannot reconstruct what went into a unit you shipped eight months ago — which matters for costing and matters a great deal more for a recall.
Then there is the gap between the BOM and reality. Yield is not a hundred percent, scrap happens, and substitutions get made on the floor when a component is short. A system that assumes the BOM was followed exactly produces stock figures that drift from the shelf within weeks. So consumption is recorded as what was actually used, with variance against the BOM reported rather than hidden.
Most off-the-shelf systems handle standard discrete manufacturing well. The cases where we build are process manufacturing with recipes and conversions, configure-to-order where the BOM is generated per order, and businesses whose routing genuinely does not fit a product's assumptions.
Modules, in the order we usually deliver them
Inventory and locations
First, because everything else depends on knowing what you have and where. Raw materials, work in progress and finished goods tracked separately.
Bills of material
Multi-level, versioned, with effective dates, so historical work orders reference the BOM they were actually built to.
Work orders and routing
Operations in sequence, with the work centre and expected time for each, and actual time captured against them.
Purchasing driven by demand
Requirements calculated from open work orders and stock on hand, generating purchase suggestions rather than waiting for someone to notice a shortage.
Shop floor capture
Operators recording completion, scrap and downtime at the point of work, on a tablet or scanner. If this is awkward it will not be done, and the whole system's data quality depends on it.
Lot and serial traceability
Which lot of which component went into which finished unit, in both directions. A regulatory requirement in food, pharmaceutical and medical device work, and a recall capability everywhere else.
Costing
Standard cost against actual — material, labour and overhead — so you know which products make money rather than assuming.
Capacity view
What is committed against what the work centres can do, which is what makes a delivery promise credible.
Common questions
Tell us what you need
Describe the problem and we will come back with scope, timeline, and a rate. No obligation to proceed.
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