01
The dilemma
The factory tracked work in progress across 16 personal Excel workbooks. Bill of materials changes lived on paper clipboards that never matched procurement. Actual job margin was calculated about three weeks after shipment.
What was breaking
- Sixteen versions of the truth. Each workbook had its own layout. Nobody could see floor stock without asking the person who owned that file.
- Paper that never caught up. BOM changes on clipboards did not reach purchase orders, so the floor and procurement disagreed about what was being made.
- Margin arrived too late. Job cost was reconstructed after the shipment had already left, which meant a bad job was finished before anyone could see it.
The cost of standing still
Export work depends on knowing what is on the floor and what a job actually cost. A three-week delay on margin, and stock that lived in personal files, made both of those questions a project.
02
The idea
The plant did not need another spreadsheet with better formulas. It needed one record for the order, the bill of materials, the floor movement and the cost, with the shop floor scanning stock instead of writing it down.
The principles we worked to
- One bill of materials. Revision tracking lives in the ERP, so a change on the drawing is the change procurement and the floor both see.
- Scan at the machine. Stock moves when someone scans it, not when someone later types a workbook.
- Cost while the job is open. Margin is a state of the job, available when the work finishes, not a report compiled weeks later.
What we ruled out, and why
| Option considered | Why we did not take it |
|---|---|
| A shared Excel file | They had already tried personal workbooks. A shared file still has no scan, no permissions and no revision history on the bill of materials. |
| A custom shop-floor app with no ERP | It would have tracked the floor and left purchasing, stock and cost in the same disconnected books. |
03
The build
Odoo held the commercial record. A small barcode app held the floor.
Odoo as the system of record
Odoo 17 Enterprise on a dedicated server, with hourly database backups. Sales orders reserve stock when they are confirmed.
Bills of materials with revisions
Multi-level BOMs keep a revision history so a drawing change does not silently diverge from what procurement buys.
Shop-floor scanning
A Flutter app on industrial tablets with 2D scanners. Scrap is logged at the machining center instead of on a clipboard.
Trial migration before cutover
Historical accounting was reconciled in a staging run, and each role (cutting, machining, QA, packing) got a recorded training library. Hypercare covered the first monthly close.
04
The impact
| Measure | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Floor stock | 16 personal Excel workbooks | One ERP, scanned at the machine |
| Bill of materials | Paper clipboards | Revision-tracked BOM in Odoo |
| Job-cost margin | About three weeks after shipment | Available within 2 hours of completion |
| Work orders | Paper | Issued and closed in the system |
Beyond the numbers
- The floor and procurement share one change. A BOM revision is no longer a conversation between a clipboard and a spreadsheet.
05
What comes next
The system is in production. These are the sensible next steps.
- Supplier lead-time tracking against the same BOM revisions.
- A packing-stage check that blocks shipment when QA scans are incomplete.
Engagement delivered by the Ideentrix founding team. Technologies, scope and outcomes as recorded at project close, published with the client's consent.
