The gap between spreadsheets and ERP
A manufacturer with twelve staff has genuinely outgrown a workbook and would spend six figures and eighteen months on an ERP implementation that mostly does not apply to them.
The middle ground is a focused system doing the four or five things that actually matter, built in three months for a fraction of the cost.
What it usually covers
- Customer orders with specifications and delivery dates
- Production scheduling against actual capacity
- Materials — what is needed, what is held, what to order
- Work in progress — where every order actually is
- Dispatch and invoicing, into the accounts
Bills of materials are the core
What goes into each product, in what quantity, at what cost. That single structure drives purchasing, costing, stock and production planning.
- Version them, because products change
- Include waste and yield, honestly
- Handle sub-assemblies properly
- Cost them from actual purchase prices, not from estimates
Shop floor visibility
The most common request from a manufacturer is simply knowing where every order is. That answer usually lives in several people's heads and a whiteboard.
A screen showing every live order and its stage, updated as work progresses, changes how the business is managed more than any other single feature.
Costing tells you what to sell
| Knowing | Lets you |
|---|---|
| Actual material cost per product | Price properly |
| Actual labour time per product | Quote accurately |
| Waste and yield by product | Find the problem lines |
| Which orders ran over | Fix estimating |
| Margin per product line | Decide what to promote |
Most small manufacturers price from historical habit rather than from measured cost, and the measurement usually holds a surprise.