ERPNext Manufacturing Case Study: Production Planning That Holds Up

Bills of materials lived in a separate file and were often out of date. A run would start, then halt because a component was short, and the customer heard about the delay after the date had already passed.

• Bills of materials did not match what the floor actually used.
• Material shortages surfaced mid-run instead of before it.
• Purchasing ordered late because demand was never visible early.
• Delivery dates were a guess, so customers stopped trusting them.

Material requirements now come out of the plan, not a guess.

• Production plans pull demand straight from confirmed sales orders.
• Material planning flags shortages before a work order starts.
• Subcontracting is tracked, so outsourced steps stay visible.
• Stock, purchase and accounts post from the same records.

Then we went live in stages, stock and purchasing first, then manufacturing, so each team learned one piece at a time.

Go-live took twelve weeks, with a TCB lead on site through the first production runs.

Material waste dropped by nearly a third as shortages and over-ordering both eased. Planners spend less time firefighting and more time scheduling.