From 11-Day Order Cycles to 4 Days Without Adding a Person

Sales logged orders in one file. Production tracked work orders in another. Dispatch managed shipments in a third. None of these files talked to each other, and none were updated in real time.

Every morning, the operations manager would spend the first two hours of the day calling each department head to piece together where things stood. By the time that picture was assembled, it was already out of date. Orders that looked on track were delayed. Parts that appeared to be in stock had already been used in another batch.

The average order took 11 days from confirmation to dispatch. Competitors in the same segment were delivering in 5. The gap was not a production problem, it was a visibility problem.

Customer complaints were increasing. One large buyer had already warned that they would move their account if lead times did not improve. The business needed a solution that could connect the whole operation without disrupting daily production.

• Sales confirmed orders without checking production capacity, causing last-minute overloads and missed dates.
• Inventory was counted manually once a week, so day-to-day stock levels were always guesswork.
• Work orders were created in a separate file from purchase orders, so raw material shortages were caught too late.
• Dispatch could not confirm shipment readiness until production physically handed over finished goods.
• Over 200 SKUs were tracked across multiple files with no single source of truth, leading to regular overstock of slow parts.

• Manufacturing: work orders linked directly to confirmed sales orders, with a live capacity view.
• Inventory management: real-time stock levels updated on every transaction across all 200+ SKUs.
• Purchase management: auto-generated purchase orders triggered when stock falls below reorder points.
• Sales order management: the sales team books orders against live stock and confirmed production slots.
• Delivery and dispatch: the dispatch team sees finished goods readiness without calling the floor.

Each phase built on the previous one, with staff trained in real workflows using their own data.

1. Discovery and data mapping (weeks 1 to 3). We audited all existing spreadsheets, mapped item codes and BOMs, and identified the exact handoff points between sales, production and dispatch where delays were occurring.
2. ERPNext configuration and data migration (weeks 4 to 8). Item master, BOM, supplier records and opening stock were migrated and validated. Manufacturing workflows, reorder rules and approval flows were configured to match actual factory practice.
3. Pilot with live orders (weeks 9 to 12). A batch of real orders ran through the new system in parallel with the old process. This surfaced edge cases in dispatch sequencing which were resolved before full cutover.
4. Full cutover and staff training (weeks 13 to 16). All departments moved to ERPNext as the single system of record. Role-specific training was delivered on-site. A 30-day hyper-care period followed with same-day support for any issues.

Overstock value fell by 35%, and over 200 SKUs are tracked in real time.