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Manufacturing

Work orders, materials and deadlines visible from office to shop floor

A small manufacturer replaces spreadsheets and paper work orders with an ERP fitted to its production, and a tablet app the shop floor uses to report progress.

Metal fabrication workshop, 35 people

Work orders today

  • CSteel frame, 12 piecesCutting
  • WRailing for a staircaseWelding
  • CMachine guard, 4 piecesCoating
  • AStorage rackAssembly
Tools we typically use
A custom ERP or Odoo, PostgreSQL, Next.js, React Native, n8n, Microsoft 365, Your accounting software

The build at a glance

1system from quote to delivery
4production stages tracked per order
6paper forms replaced
1approval step before a quote goes out

The sector

A small manufacturer makes to order.

Each job has its own drawing, its own bill of materials and its own deadline, and the profit depends on estimating it correctly and delivering it on time. The office plans, the shop floor produces, and information travels between them on paper and by word of mouth. When a customer asks about a deadline, the answer usually requires a walk through the workshop.

Where the time goes

Quotes were calculated in spreadsheets that only one person fully understood. Work orders were printed, and their status was known to whoever last saw them. Material was ordered when somebody noticed it was running out, which regularly stopped a job in the middle. The production plan was a whiteboard, and comparing the estimated cost of a job with the real one was not practical.

  • Quotes depend on one person and one spreadsheet

  • The status of a work order is known only on the shop floor

  • Missing material is discovered when the job reaches the machine

  • Estimated and actual cost are never compared

One system around how the work is done

Load per stage this week

Cutting
70%
Welding
95%
Coating
40%
Assembly
60%

Sample figures for illustration

  1. 01

    An ERP fitted to make-to-order production, built to measure or on Odoo, covering quotes, work orders, materials and delivery

  2. 02

    Quotes calculated from the bill of materials and standard operations, reviewed by an engineer before they go out

  3. 03

    An accepted quote becomes a work order with its stages, drawings and deadline

  4. 04

    A tablet app on the shop floor where workers open the drawing, start and finish a stage and report a problem

  5. 05

    Material reserved per work order, with a purchase proposal when stock will not cover the plan

  6. 06

    A production plan that shows the load per stage and the orders at risk of running late

How the project runs

Four steps, one process at a time

  1. 01

    Map the process

    We follow a few jobs from enquiry to delivery, on the shop floor as well as in the office, and collect the forms and spreadsheets in use.

  2. 02

    Pilot one process

    Work orders and the tablet app go live first, for one product group, so the shop floor sees the benefit early.

  3. 03

    Extend

    Materials and purchasing follow, then quoting from bills of materials and the production plan.

  4. 04

    Care

    We support the system in daily use, add reports as the data builds up and adjust it when the workshop changes how it works.

What changes for the team

  • Quotes follow one method and can be prepared by more than one person
  • A customer’s question about a deadline is answered from the screen
  • Shortages show up while there is still time to order
  • Estimated and actual hours and material can be compared per job

The office sees where every work order stands without leaving the desk, and the shop floor works from current drawings and priorities. Material is ordered against the plan, not against an empty shelf. Each finished job leaves a record of what it really took, which makes the next quote better founded.

A composite scenario based on typical projects in this sector. It does not describe a named client, and the sample data is illustrative.

The same working day, before and after

What a few ordinary moments look like once the system is in daily use.

BeforeAfter
A customer asks for a quoteMaterials and working time are estimated from an old quote and a spreadsheet.The quote is calculated from the bill of materials and current material prices, and reviewed before it is sent.
An order is confirmedA work order is written by hand and carried to the shop floor.The work order is created from the quote and appears on the shop-floor tablets.
Material is neededSomeone checks the shelves and phones the supplier.Material is reserved for the work order and a purchase is proposed for what is missing.
A customer asks when it will be readyThe office walks to the shop floor to ask.The stage of each work order is visible from the office.
A job is finishedWorking time and material used are reconstructed for the invoice.They are recorded as the work is done and handed over for invoicing.

Questions from this sector

Odoo or a custom ERP for production?

It depends on how standard your production is. If work orders, bills of materials and stock follow a common pattern, Odoo covers them. If your steps or planning are specific to you, we build those modules to measure.

Will people on the shop floor use it?

Only if it is simpler than paper, so the tablet screens show one job, its drawing and a few large buttons. We test them with the people who will use them before rolling out.

Does it connect to our machines?

It can, where a machine exposes its data, but we do not start there. Work orders, materials and deadlines usually bring more order first.

Does this replace our accounting software?

As a rule, no. Bookkeeping and fiscalisation stay in your accounting software, and the system hands over what is needed for invoicing.

How do we start without stopping production?

With one product line or one type of job, run alongside the current way of working until the team trusts it. The rest follows in steps.

Use cases in this story

Business automationCRM implementation

Quotes drafted from your price list

A quote is drafted from the deal, your price list and current stock, and waits for a salesperson to approve it.

Open use case Business automationAI integrations

The monthly report, assembled for you

Figures from accounting, sales and operations pulled into one report on a schedule, with a written summary.

Open use case ERP and business systemsBusiness automation

One stock figure in every system

Stock levels kept in step between the warehouse, the ERP and every sales channel.

Open use case

More sector stories

Wholesale and distributionStock, purchasing and quotes that run on one set of numbersA distributor moves stock, purchasing and sales into one ERP, connects the B2B portal to it, and gets quotes drafted from live prices and stock.Building-materials distributor, 25 peopleRead the story Accounting and bookkeepingClient documents collected, read and ready for the bookkeeperAn accounting office gets one place where clients hand in documents, an AI step that reads them, and a bookkeeper who confirms before anything is posted.Accounting office, 10 peopleRead the story E-commerce and retailFrom paid order to shipped parcel without copying dataAn online store connects the webshop, the warehouse, the courier and support, so an order moves on its own and customers can check its status themselves.Online store with its own warehouse, 15 peopleRead the story

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