Manufacturing ERP

Part of the worlds-biggest-software-project initiative.

An open-source, AI-native manufacturing ERP combining MRP, shop floor control, IoT data ingestion, and dynamic scheduling in a single production-ready package.

Manufacturing ERP is a candidate project to build a discrete-manufacturing-focused ERP for SMB and mid-market manufacturers who are priced out of Epicor, Infor, and SAP, and underserved by general-purpose open-source ERPs. It targets plant managers, quality managers, and CFOs at $10M–$100M manufacturers who need real BOM management, MRP, shop floor execution, job costing, and ISO 9001-compliant quality workflows — without a $500K implementation.

Why Manufacturing ERP?

Commercial manufacturing ERPs are cost-prohibitive for SMBs. Epicor Kinetic runs $80K–$200K/year, Infor CloudSuite $100K–$300K/year, and SAP S/4HANA $500K–$5M+ to implement. Manufacturers under 50 employees are effectively excluded from the best tooling.
The leading open-source option lacks shop floor and AI capability. ERPNext (MIT) provides solid BOM, work orders, and quality inspection, but has no native OPC-UA or MTConnect IoT integration and no AI scheduling, demand forecasting, or predictive quality.
Static MRP plans cost throughput. Existing scheduling tools assume infinite capacity and static lead times; planners manually patch around machine breakdowns and material delays. The "plan vs. reality" gap costs an estimated 15–25% in throughput.
Shop floor workers are not ERP users. Job card completions and scrap reporting still go through kiosks or paper. Adoption and data quality suffer.
No fully open-source manufacturing ERP combines MRP, shop floor control, IoT data ingestion, and AI-driven scheduling in a production-ready package — a clear differentiated opportunity.

Key Features

BOM, MRP, and Production Planning

Multi-level Bill of Materials with revision control, effectivity dates, and engineering change tracking
Net-change and regenerative MRP with time-phased requirements and exception alerts
Planned order generation for purchase and production orders
Subcontracting workflow for outsourced manufacturing operations
Capacity planning with workstation workload visualisation and bottleneck detection

Shop Floor Execution

Work order management: create, release, track, and close production jobs with material and labour capture
Job card reporting for production completions, scrap, and time
Tablet-optimised shop floor interface designed for operators with no ERP expertise
Lot and serial traceability through the full production chain
Backflushing of raw material consumption on work order completion

Quality Management

Configurable quality inspection templates that gate stock movement until approved
Non-conformance tracking and corrective action request (CAR) workflow
ISO 9001-compliant audit trail; design path for AS9100 (aerospace) and IATF 16949 (automotive) extensions
First-article inspection records linked to work orders and lots

Costing and Financials

Job costing with actual vs. standard cost variance reporting
Work-in-progress (WIP) valuation
Quoting and estimating cost roll-up from BOM and routing for contract and job-shop manufacturers

AI and IoT Integration

AI-driven dynamic scheduling that re-optimises the production sequence in real time as capacity, tooling, and material conditions change, with explainable rescheduling decisions
Natural-language shop floor interface (voice or chat) for operators to report job completions, scrap, and material issues; the system handles the underlying ERP transactions
OPC-UA and MTConnect machine data ingestion for real-time shop floor visibility
BOM construction assistant that parses CAD drawings, PDF datasheets, and part specifications to generate draft BOMs with confidence scores
Predictive quality agent that ingests live machine parameters alongside historical inspection data to predict failures before they occur and trigger automatic work order holds

AI-Native Advantage

AI is integral, not bolted on. A dynamic scheduling agent continuously re-optimises the production sequence using live capacity, skills, tooling, and material data — closing the plan-vs-reality gap that costs incumbents 15–25% throughput. A natural-language operator interface replaces kiosks and paper, dramatically improving shop floor data quality. A BOM construction assistant accelerates new product introduction by parsing engineering artifacts, and a predictive quality agent shifts QC from after-the-fact detection to prevention by correlating OPC-UA/MTConnect telemetry with inspection history. None of these capabilities ship today in any open-source manufacturing ERP, and only fragments exist (Infor Coleman, SAP AI Services) in commercial systems.

Tech Stack & Deployment

The project targets self-hosted and cloud deployment to give manufacturers control over sovereignty and connectivity. Integration with shop floor equipment is built around open, royalty-free standards: MTConnect for CNC machine tool data and OPC-UA for PLC/SCADA communication. The design follows ISA-95 for the boundary between enterprise (ERP) and plant-floor (MES) execution. Product identification and traceability use GS1 / GTIN / UDI. A REST API surface is expected for enterprise integration, with EDI connectors anticipated for OEM customer document exchange. Quality workflows align with ISO 9001, with extension paths for AS9100 (aerospace) and IATF 16949 (automotive). Asset management aligns with ISO 55000.

Market Context

The global discrete manufacturing ERP market is approximately $7.13 billion in 2026 (Business Research Insights), with the batch/process sub-market at ~$2.05 billion. The overall ERP software market is $81.3 billion, with manufacturing the largest vertical at ~47% of adopters and growing at a CAGR of 9–11% (Fortune Business Insights). Pricing tiers run from open source (ERPNext, OFBiz: $0–$10K) through SMB cloud ($10K–$50K), mid-market ($50K–$200K), upper mid-market ($80K–$300K+), to enterprise SAP/Oracle deployments at $500K–$5M+. Primary buyers are plant managers and VPs of Operations at $10M–$100M discrete manufacturers, quality managers requiring ISO 9001 / IATF 16949 traceability, and CFOs at contract manufacturers needing job costing and WIP valuation.

Project Status

This project is in the research and specification phase.
Contributions, feedback, and domain expertise are welcome.

Candidate #052 · Complexity 9/10 · Demand: High · Domain availability: Low · Category: Manufacturing ERP

Contributing

We welcome contributions from developers, domain experts, and potential users. See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Important: All contributions must be your own original work or clearly attributed open-source material with a compatible licence. Copyright infringement and licence violations will not be tolerated and will result in immediate removal of the offending contribution. If you are unsure whether a piece of code, text, or other material is safe to contribute, open an issue and ask before submitting.

Licence

Licence to be determined. See discussion for context.