The Problem: Missed Deadlines and Idle Machines
A custom furniture manufacturer with 50 employees was fighting daily chaos. Sales would promise a two-week lead time, but production never knew what jobs were priority. Machine operators would grab the next order from a pile of paper work orders, often skipping urgent jobs. The result: 30% of orders shipped late, and overtime costs soared as the team scrambled to catch up every Friday.
How ERPNext Solved It
The company implemented ERPNext’s manufacturing and production planning modules. The key changes were:
- Master production schedule (MPS) – ERPNext created a realistic production plan based on current orders and available raw material.
- Work order prioritisation – each job received a priority score based on customer due date and revenue impact.
- Shop floor tracking – operators clocked start and stop times on a tablet, giving real-time visibility into bottlenecks.
- Material requirement planning (MRP) – ERPNext automatically suggested purchase orders for wood, hardware, and finishes to avoid shortages.
The Improved Result
On-time delivery jumped from 70% to 95% within 90 days. Overtime hours dropped by 40% because work flowed evenly through the week. The production manager now sees a live Gantt chart in ERPNext showing every work order and its progress. “We used to rely on shouting across the factory floor,” he says. “Now the system tells everyone what to do and when.”