Get a flawless manufacturing environment with DIY-ERP.
Get a complete Business Central implementation guaranteed go-live in under 20 weeks.
What Volume Does To A Manufacturer That Isn't Ready For It
Everything might feel manageable at the scale you're running now, but waiting to upgrade your software platform until the tipping point adds unnecessary risk.
Capacity and downtime break first.
Managing load across your people and your machines is the first thing to go as volume rises, and downtime stops being an inconvenience to become the constraint.
Buying accuracy degrades in both directions.
Over-supply on some products and short supply on others, with cash tied up in the wrong stock.
BOM errors stop being local.
Bills of materials multiply and drift out of date. One wrong component cost quietly distorts every finished good sitting above it, and nothing looks obviously broken.
Subcontracting duplicates itself.
Without a single view of what's outsourced where, you end up with several subcontractors doing the same work and no clear picture of what it's costing.
Underneath all four is the same thing. Nobody is maintaining the source data, so costs and variations move without anyone knowing why or how to fix it.
The Six Problems We Solve for Manufacturers
When production, planning and costing all sit in the same system, you can see what's happening as it happens; instead of invisible cost blowouts you only find out about after a job’s done.
Production Variances
Today's Production Reality
A job is quoted at an hour and a half, but nobody tracks the steps on each run. A weld that should take 25 minutes takes an hour, and nobody knows it happened.
The DIY-ERP Correction
Production orders capture actual time and consumption against expected at every step, so variance surfaces by job, by process, by person and by machine.
Costings That Drift Out of Date
Today's Production Reality
Without full bills of materials, routings and machine centres in one place, true cost is an estimate. Component prices move all year, and nothing keeps up.
The DIY-ERP Correction
BOMs, routings and machine centres are configured correctly and maintained by your own Super User, so true cost stays current across material, labour, machine time, overhead and subcontract.
Planning on a Production Board
Today's Production Reality
Without integrated procurement and advanced planning, the schedule can't flex with real demand, and just-in-time stays out of reach because the right stock isn't there.
The DIY-ERP Correction
MRP (Material Requirements Planning) and master planning read inventory, open orders, forecasts and BOMs, then generate production and purchase orders with the right timing, tuned to your real lead times.
Month-End Consumption
Today's Production Reality
Raw materials get written off at month-end rather than consumed as they're used. An engine gets forgotten, and the system shows overstock while the floor is short.
The DIY-ERP Correction
Consumables flush automatically, expensive components are selected manually, and materials move into work in progress in the period they actually moved.
A Configuration That Doesn't Match How You Build
Today's Production Reality
Contract manufacturers need production runs under a project. Make-to-order changes components every order. Some businesses break one raw material into many.
The DIY-ERP Correction
Business Central covers project, make-to-order, make-to-stock, assemble-to-order and disassembly, configured to the way you build, so the cost of changing a component is visible.
Traceability Held in Filing Cabinets
Today's Production Reality
When a customer or an auditor asks where a batch went, the answer sits between a spreadsheet and a filing cabinet, while four departments hold four versions of the truth.
The DIY-ERP Correction
Lot and serial tracking follows materials through production into finished goods and on into Service Management, so a batch traces both ways in minutes.
Australian Manufacturers Running It Themselves
Icepack: three years live, two support calls.
Three years on Business Central and two support calls in total. The number that matters more is commercial. Tighter inventory control means less capital tied up in stock, and because they can give suppliers accurate forecasts, they negotiate better terms.
Pentarch Forestry Group: more than ten manufacturing facilities, set up in-house.
The first company was configured alongside a DIY-ERP mentor. The remaining complex entities and all ten-plus manufacturing facilities were handled entirely by their own team, working from a single company template.
OZ Buckets: 14 weeks, no custom code.
A full manufacturing, warehousing and intercompany implementation in 14 weeks, with the Shopify integration done in one. Zero custom extensions, so everything runs on standard Business Central.
How DIY-ERP Implementation Works
Your team configures it, learns it, and owns it, with a mentor on demand
There's no time I've seen a manufacturing implementation done fully through the traditional method. It's cut down 100% of the time, even though it costs a lot.
Self-Prescribed Scope
You define your operational parameters upfront to instantly lock in one fixed price and a guaranteed go-live date.
Your BOMs and Routings, Built by the Person Who Knows the Product
Your own team builds the recipe and the steps for every product, not a consultant guessing at it. Get this right and every cost and schedule downstream is right too.
Your Team Learns MRP by Running It
MRP is the engine that turns your stock and orders into a production and buying plan. Most businesses get shown it once and go back to a spreadsheet. Yours runs it for real from day one.
Session-Based Training
Your Super User builds the platform alongside our mentors, learning how to troubleshoot the system, not just operate it, so the knowledge stays in your business.
Embedded LMS Inside BC
Comprehensive learning modules sit directly inside your active Business Central workspace; no scattered cloud folders.
Total Tenant Sovereignty
Implementation runs entirely within your secure Microsoft environment. Your production data and customer records never leave your tenant.
How DIY-ERP Delivers Differently, Depending on Where You Sit
Visibility runs the whole way from procurement to shipping, with manufacturing and the warehouse in the middle. That means something different to everyone it touches.
Production Planner
Sees how changing demand ripples through the rest of the schedule.
Procurement
Sees exactly what needs ordering, for which part of the business, and by when.
Warehouse Manager
Gets full visibility on the picks and put-aways manufacturing and shipping needs, because warehouse management and manufacturing are the same system.
Shipping and Dispatch
Know when a production order will be complete, so customers get accurate information.
Sales
Can see when a job is due to finish and ship, without ringing the floor.
Owner
Gets cash flow they can plan around, because purchase orders are raised at the right time.
Know What It Costs. Know What You've Got. Know When You Can Ship.
One fixed price, one date, and an environment your own team can run. Scope your implementation and revolutionise the way you run business.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, including phantom subassemblies.
Both, plus assemble-to-order, and project manufacturing for long builds.
Yes. Capacity planning and routings are native, loading your work centres against what's actually available.
Expected against actual across material, labour, machine time, overhead and subcontract, with the variances shown.
Yes. MRP and MPS turn demand, inventory and BOMs into planned production and purchase orders.
Yes. Lot tracking follows material from source, through production, to the sale, and into service and warranty afterwards.
Yes. Outsourced operations sit inside the production workflow rather than beside it.
It gets compared to Finance and Operations, but the proof is in who runs on it. There are multi-billion-dollar manufacturers doing exactly this.
You can, but it makes things harder rather than easier. You're still consuming raw materials and producing finished goods either way, so you're stuck doing month-end write-offs and write-ons and selling from stock. Doing manufacturing later adds complexity; it doesn't defer it.
That's what the method is built around. Your Super User learns by configuring the environment rather than watching, and learns to troubleshoot it, with a mentor on demand through the rollout.