Manufacturing process automation
Production orders, materials and quality, without spreadsheets and paper
We automate the office side of production: production orders start from the customer order, material requirements are calculated from bills of materials, quality checklists are filled in on a tablet, supplier documents have a place of their own, and the management report builds itself. We work with manufacturers of 10 to 250 people. It starts with a short diagnosis.
Today and after
One production order, from the sale to the Friday report.
An example built for this page: a 60-person furniture workshop releasing around 120 production orders a month. The numbers are working assumptions, not a client’s results.
Illustrative example
Today
The customer order is rewritten as a production sheet Manual
From the email or the ERP, by hand, into a spreadsheet template. In the example: 15 minutes per order.
Material requirements are worked out in a spreadsheet Manual
A sheet full of formulas that one person understands. Shortages show up when the line stops.
Quality checklists are filled in on paper Manual
And typed up at the end of the week, if at all. Tracing a defect back is hard.
Supplier certificates sit in email Manual
When a customer asks for a batch certificate, someone searches the inbox.
The management report is built on Friday, by hand Manual
From three spreadsheets and a few phone calls. By the time it reaches you, it is out of date.
In the example: 120 orders × 15 minutes = 30 hours a month for production sheets alone, plus materials, typing up quality checklists and the report.
After
The production sheet is generated from the order Automatic
Product, quantity, due date and bill of materials come straight from the customer order.
Material requirements come from the bill of materials Automatic
From each product’s bill of materials and the ERP stock. Shortages show before you release the order.
The quality checklist is filled in on a tablet Manual
On the line, with required fields and photos. The data lands in the same place as the order.
Supplier documents are linked to the batch Automatic
The certificate received by email is filed with its goods receipt and batch; you find it by batch, supplier or date.
Deviations go to a person Human check
A missing material, a value out of tolerance, an expired document: each goes to the person who decides.
In the example, the planner checks the sheet instead of writing it, and the report exists on any day, not only Friday. The real numbers are measured in the diagnosis.
When this fits
When it is worth it, and when it is not.
It fits if
- Production orders are written by hand from the customer order, into a spreadsheet template.
- Material requirements live in a sheet that only one person understands.
- Quality checklists are on paper and reach a computer late, or never.
- When a customer or an auditor asks for a batch certificate, finding it takes hours.
- You learn how the week went from a Friday report built by hand.
It does not fit if
- The problem is on the line, not in the office: machines, changeover times, raw material quality. That needs a process engineer, not us.
- Bills of materials and stock in the ERP are not kept up to date. Automatic requirements would be wrong, so we start with the data.
- You want a full production planning and execution system. We can help you choose one, but implementing it is a transformation project, not an automation.
- You run a few orders a month. A good template and a clear rule do more than a project.
What we build
The components, one by one.
Each component can be delivered on its own. The diagnosis shows which one is worth starting with.
- 01
Production orders from customer orders
The order from the ERP or email becomes a production sheet, with product, quantity, due date and bill of materials. The planner checks and releases it instead of rewriting it.
- 02
Material requirements from bills of materials
The calculation starts from each product’s bill of materials and the ERP stock, not from a spreadsheet of formulas. Shortages and purchase orders show at release, not when the line stops.
- 03
Digital quality checklists
Paper checklists become forms on a tablet or phone, with required fields, tolerances and photos. A value out of tolerance alerts the person responsible right away.
- 04
Supplier documents
Certificates, declarations of conformity and received invoices are linked to the goods receipt and the batch, and documents about to expire are flagged in time.
- 05
The management report
Orders released, late and delivered, material consumption and quality deviations, in a report updated daily, with nobody building it by hand.
- 06
The link to your ERP
Data is read from and written to the ERP through an API, database access or scheduled imports. The ERP stays the source for stock and invoicing.
Do the math
What do paper and spreadsheets cost your production today?
Enter your own numbers. The result is the time spent today on documents written and retyped by hand, not a promised saving. How much of it goes away is what the diagnosis measures, on your documents.
Estimate
- Manual time per month
- 100 hours
- Cost per month
- €3,000 per month
Per year: €36,000
Assumptions
- With the starting values: 600 documents × 10 minutes = 100 hours a month. At €30 an hour, that is €3,000 a month.
- 600 documents a month means, for example, 120 production orders, each with its sheet, its material calculation and three quality checklists. Count the documents in a normal month.
- The minutes cover writing, retyping from paper and checking. Time a few real documents before you pick the number.
- €30 an hour is a starting value for the full cost of an hour of work, not an official average. Use the real cost in your company.
- The estimate leaves out the cost of stoppages from missing materials, of defects found late and of time lost searching for documents.
- It is an indicative estimate, not a quote and not a guaranteed saving.
How we work
From today’s paper to data you see every day.
The first step is The Diagnosis: we follow a few real production orders from sale to delivery, including on the shop floor where the checklists are filled in, and choose together what is worth automating first.
- 01
Diagnose
We see how production orders start, how materials are calculated, which checklists are filled in and by whom, which documents arrive from suppliers and which report you need to see.
Output: flow map, measured volumes and times, priorities.
- 02
Design
We pick the process with the biggest gain and agree, with the people on the floor, what the forms look like and what stays a person’s decision.
Output: the new flow, sketched forms and an owner for deviations.
- 03
Build
We build it on one line or one product family, alongside the paper, until people trust the system.
Output: the first process in production, checked on real orders.
- 04
Scale
We extend it to the other lines and the next processes, and hand over the documentation and the management report.
Output: documented processes and an owner on your team.
Risks
What can go wrong, and how we handle it.
Wrong bills of materials and stock
Automatic requirements are only as good as the bills of materials and stock in the ERP. We check them in the diagnosis on a few real products and fix them before we build.
Tablets nobody uses
If the form is slower than paper, people go back to paper. We build it with the people who fill it in, test it on the line and remove every field nobody needs.
Shop floor connectivity
Signal is weak in many production halls. Forms can be filled in offline and sync when the connection is back, so no checklist is lost.
Data and access
Bills of materials, prices and suppliers are sensitive. Access is limited to the people who need it, and we sign a data processing agreement for any data we can access. Everything runs on your servers or in the cloud, in EU data centers.
Questions about automation in manufacturing
Do we need a dedicated manufacturing execution system?
Not necessarily. Many companies of 10 to 250 people first need production orders generated from customer orders, requirements calculated from bills of materials and digital checklists. A full system makes sense when volume and complexity call for it; we tell you honestly in the diagnosis whether that is the case.
Do we have to change our ERP?
Usually not. If the ERP has an API, accepts imports or allows database access, we keep it, and it stays the source for stock and invoicing. We replace it only if it cannot be connected at all. The decision is made in the diagnosis, with the cost of both options on the table.
What about the quality records customers and auditors ask for?
They stay, only digital: the same fields, with date, author and batch. You can export or print them at any time. We keep the format your customers or your quality standard require.
Can supplier certificates be read automatically?
Yes, with AI, for documents that arrive in different formats. Key fields such as batch, date and supplier are extracted automatically, and a person checks wherever the system is unsure.
AI document processingHow does the report reach me?
Where you already read things: by email, on your phone or on a simple screen. We agree together which numbers matter to you, and you see them daily, not only on Friday.
What if people on the floor do not want to use the tablet?
It happens often, and usually for a good reason: the form is too long or too slow. That is why we build it with them, start on a single line and adjust it before we extend it.
How long until the first process works?
It depends on how many lines and product families you have and how clean the bills of materials are. We set the duration in the diagnosis and write it into the proposal. We work one at a time: one process reaches production before we start the next.
Does it connect to invoicing?
Yes. The delivered order can generate the invoice and its e-invoice submission automatically, from the same data, with no retyping. In Romania that means RO e-Factura.
e-Invoicing automationFurther reading
Read more on this.
Tell us how a production order starts today.
Describe the route from customer order to delivery in a few lines, and where the paper and spreadsheets come in. We reply honestly on whether a diagnosis is worth it, and what it would cover.