SOLUTIONS // ERP // MANUFACTURING
ERP software for manufacturing, built around your shop floor.
We build ERP software for manufacturing businesses that plans production from real orders and real stock. Bills of material, purchase, job work, quality and costing sit in one system that your company owns.
THE PROBLEM
What goes wrong today.
Many small and mid-sized manufacturers run production from a whiteboard, a spreadsheet and one experienced person's memory. The accounts are in order, but nothing connects a sales order to the material, machine time and job work needed to deliver it.
The accounting package records what was bought and what was sold. It does not know that an order for brackets needs sheet metal still at the supplier, a powder-coating vendor holding last month's lot, and a press booked until Thursday. That knowledge sits with the production in-charge, and the plan changes every time a customer calls.
Bills of material are the usual weak point. The current revision lives in an engineer's head, so material is ordered against an old drawing. Stock issued to the floor is written in a register and entered later, if at all, which is why the raw-material figure in the books never matches the store. Costing is done after dispatch, when it is too late to requote.
A packaged ERP handles standard make-to-stock production well, and for some plants it is the right purchase. A custom ERP system earns its place when your routing, job work or costing method is the part packaged software handles badly.
Signs it is time
- The production plan is a whiteboard only one person can read
- Purchasing learns about a shortage when the line stops
- Material sent for job work is tracked in a challan book
- Raw-material stock in the books never matches the store
- You find out an order lost money after it has shipped
THE WORKFLOW
What the system follows, step by step.
A manufacturing ERP follows one order from the sales order to the invoice: material requirement, purchase, production order, job work and quality, then dispatch. Each step creates the next one, so nobody retypes a quantity.
- 01
Sales order and promised date
The order is entered once with item, quantity, drawing revision and delivery date. The system checks finished stock and open production before anyone commits to a date the plant cannot meet.
- 02
Material requirement
The bill of material is exploded against the order and netted against store stock and material already on order. Shortages appear the day the order is booked, not the day production is due to start.
- 03
Purchase and goods receipt
Shortages become purchase orders to approved vendors. Material is received against the order, inspected and put away with its batch or heat number, so a bill cannot be passed for goods that never arrived.
- 04
Production order
A production order reserves material and lists the operations in sequence, with the work centre for each. Supervisors record quantity made, rejected and reworked at each operation, which shows where an order is stuck.
- 05
Job work and quality
Material sent to a subcontractor leaves on a delivery challan and stays on your books until it returns. Inspection results are recorded against the lot, and rejected quantity cannot move into finished stock.
- 06
Dispatch and invoice
Finished goods are packed against the order and the invoice is raised from the dispatch entry. Actual material, job-work and labour cost is posted to the order, so the margin is known when the truck leaves.
WHAT WE BUILD
The modules this sector needs.
The modules that matter in a plant are the ones a general ERP treats as an afterthought: revision-controlled bills of material, a stores ledger the storekeeper can keep current, job-work tracking and order-wise costing.
Bills of material and routing
Multi-level BOMs with revisions, alternates and scrap allowances, plus the operation sequence for each item. Every new order picks up the approved revision.
Material requirement planning
Requirement calculated from open orders, stock, minimum levels and supplier lead times. The planner sees what to buy and what to make, by date.
Stores and raw-material stock
Issues, returns and transfers recorded at the store counter. Stock is held by batch and by stage: raw, in process, at job worker, finished.
Shop-floor entry
Screens built for a supervisor on a tablet or a shared terminal, with few fields. Output, rejection and downtime are captured at the operation.
Job work and subcontracting
A register of what is lying with each job worker, for how long, and what came back as good, rejected or scrap. Job-work charges are matched to the quantity returned.
Quality and traceability
Inspection plans for incoming, in-process and final checks, with results stored against the batch. A customer complaint can be traced back to the raw-material lot.
Order-wise costing
Estimated against actual cost per order: material consumed, job work, machine hours and overheads by your rule. Process plants get yield and loss per batch.
INTEGRATIONS
What it connects to.
A manufacturing ERP has to exchange data with the accounting package, the GST systems and the devices on the floor. We build each integration to your own account or device, and agree in discovery which ones are needed.
| System | What flows across |
|---|---|
| Tally or Zoho Books | Sales invoices, purchase bills and stock journals are posted to your accounting software, so the accountant keeps the tool and the ledgers they know. |
| GST e-invoicing and e-way bills | E-invoices and e-way bills are generated from the dispatch entry through your own e-invoicing account or provider, and the reference number and QR code are printed on the invoice. |
| Barcode scanners and label printers | Batch labels are printed at goods receipt and scanned at issue, production and dispatch, so the storekeeper scans in place of typing. |
| Weighing scales and weighbridges | Weights are read from the scale into the receipt or batch record, which matters for material bought and consumed by weight. |
| WhatsApp Business API | Purchase orders go to vendors and dispatch details go to customers from your business number, using approved message templates. |
QUESTIONS WE GET ASKED
Before you decide.
Which ERP suits a small manufacturing company in India?
It depends on how standard your production is. If you make to stock with simple bills of material, a packaged ERP such as Odoo may be enough and usually costs less, as our comparison of Odoo and a custom ERP explains. A custom ERP is worth considering when job work, multi-stage routing or your costing method is where packaged tools fall short.
Can the ERP handle job work and subcontracting?
Yes. Material sent out is issued on a delivery challan, held as stock at the job worker, and reconciled when it returns as finished, rejected or scrap. You can see at any time what each subcontractor is holding and for how long.
We already use Tally. Do we need an ERP as well?
Tally is accounting software with inventory features, and it keeps the books well. It is not built for daily production planning, operation-level tracking or follow-up with job workers, so many plants keep Tally for accounts and add an ERP for operations. Our comparison of Tally and ERP software shows where the line falls.
Does it work for process manufacturing as well as discrete?
Yes, but the design differs. A process plant needs formulas, batch yields, by-products and expiry dates in place of piece counts and routings, so we model the one you run.
How long does a manufacturing ERP take to build?
Weeks to a few months for the first modules, depending on scope. We start with a short paid discovery, then deliver module by module with working software every fortnight. You own the source code and database, with no per-user licence paid to us.
THE FULL PICTURE
This page covers one sector. Process, cost drivers, the comparison with packaged software and our published work are on the main page for custom ERP software development.
Further reading
- Custom ERP Development: A Step-by-Step Guide for Growing BusinessesStock in one sheet, orders in another, accounts in a third. A practical guide to deciding on an ERP, choosing custom or packaged, and delivering it module by module.
- Tally vs ERP: When Your Business Has Outgrown TallyTally keeps the books of a great many Indian businesses, and most of them have no reason to leave it. This guide explains how to recognise when operations have outgrown it, and why the usual answer is to keep Tally for accounts and put an ERP in front of it.
Where we work
We deliver ERP software for manufacturers from Infopark, Kochi, for businesses in Kochi and across Kerala, the UAE and Australia.
NEXT STEP
Tell us how the work runs today.
Describe the workflow and where it breaks. If a packaged product would serve you better than a custom ERP, we will say so.