Manufacturing is an inventory problem before it is a production problem. The businesses that scale are the ones that can control
raw materials, work in progress (WIP), yields and rejects, unit costs, and the
flow of components and finished goods across warehouses and plants.
Stok.ly is an inventory-centric cloud ERP designed for inventory-led operations across retail, wholesale, warehousing and manufacturing—supported by built-in AI planning.
What manufacturing ERP is ·
Raw materials, WIP and finished goods control ·
Forecasting inventory requirements ·
Visibility across suppliers and plants ·
Automating purchase and transfers of raw materials ·
Managing manufacturers, yields and rejects ·
Scheduling manufacturing runs ·
Work in progress (WIP) and consumption discipline ·
Receiving finished goods and capturing yields/rejects ·
Accurate actual cost per unit at goods receipt ·
Automated picking of raw materials (rules + Stock App) ·
How Stok.ly fits ·
Overview video ·
Explore related pages ·
FAQs
Manufacturing ERP fails when production is disconnected from inventory reality. If you cannot forecast raw materials, control transfers to subcontractors,
capture yields/rejects, and turn production receipts into accurate unit costs, you end up with stock drift, margin confusion and chronic shortages.
Foundations: Inventory-Centric ERP ·
WMS ·
AI functionality
Manufacturing ERP is the operational system used to plan, execute and account for production while controlling inventory end-to-end:
purchasing components, moving materials to plants, consuming raw materials into WIP, receiving finished goods, and capturing true yield, rejects and unit costs.
Related: Stok.ly Manufacturing (product page).
The baseline requirement is a clean, location-level inventory model across warehouses, plants and subcontractors—so the business knows what it truly has, where it is, and what it is committed to.
Multi-location foundations: Multi-location inventory
Manufacturing planning becomes manageable when demand signals (sales history, forecasts, seasonality) drive what you need to build—and therefore what you need to buy.
A manufacturing ERP should provide a clear view of material requirements tied to demand and lead times.
Forecast demand and convert it into manufacturing requirements by SKU, by location and by time period—so production aligns to service levels.
Translate the finished goods plan (BOM explosion) into raw material requirements, accounting for lead times, minimum order quantities and constraints.
Identify what will be short, when it will be short, and what action is needed (buy, transfer, reschedule, substitute).
Planning pages: AI demand forecasting · AI functionality
If you manufacture in more than one place—or use subcontractors—visibility across locations becomes essential. The ERP should show:
what is on hand, what is in transit, what is inbound, and what is reserved for production.
Once requirements are visible, execution should be automated. Manufacturing ERP should reduce manual planning by generating purchasing and transfer actions based on policy and constraints.
Generate purchase proposals for raw materials based on forecast-driven requirements, reorder policies, supplier lead times and minimum order quantities.
Move raw materials from central warehouses to plants/subcontractors with traceability, ensuring production sites have what they need when they need it.
Every movement should have an audit trail: create → pick → ship → receive → reconcile.
Subcontractors and internal plants are not interchangeable. You need performance data to manage capacity, quality and true cost.
Scheduling is where planning meets reality. A manufacturing ERP should support deciding what to run, where, and when—based on demand, material availability and capacity.
Prioritise runs based on demand urgency, service levels and constraints, and create a clear forward plan for production teams.
Confirm raw materials are available (or transferred/inbound) before starting runs to avoid mid-run shortages.
Provide a view of upcoming runs, WIP status, and projected finished goods receipts into warehouses.
WIP becomes a black hole when consumption is not controlled. The ERP must support disciplined issuing of raw materials to production (or subcontractors) and visibility on what is in process.
The goods receipt step is where control is won or lost. Manufacturing ERP should capture what was actually received, what was rejected, and where finished goods landed—so inventory stays accurate.
Receive finished goods into the correct warehouse/bin and update availability immediately for sales and replenishment.
Record actual yield vs planned yield, and reject quantities with reason codes where useful for continuous improvement.
Receipts should automatically unblock backorders, pre-sales and allocations when stock becomes available.
Fulfilment pages: WMS · Pick, pack and despatch
Forecast costs are helpful. Actual costs are decisive. Manufacturing ERP should be able to calculate an accurate unit cost at the point of goods receipt by incorporating:
component costs, yields/rejects, and relevant production or subcontractor costs.
Accounting integration page (if applicable): Accounting integrations
Raw material movement is where mistakes compound. The goal is to make issuing components to production predictable, scan-led, and policy-driven.
Stok.ly is designed for inventory-led operations, including manufacturing and kitting. It connects demand, raw material control, production execution, warehousing and fulfilment into one platform—supported by AI planning to reduce manual workload.
If production is driving stockouts, write-offs or margin confusion, validate an inventory-centric manufacturing ERP.
Book a demo and we’ll map your raw materials, WIP, yields/rejects, goods receipt and costing workflow end-to-end.
A short overview of how Stok.ly supports inventory-led operations across warehouses, retail, wholesale and manufacturing.
Inventory truth. If raw materials, WIP and finished goods are not controlled with disciplined movements, yields and receipts, forecasting and costing become unreliable—and the business ends up firefighting shortages and margin surprises.
Yield and reject rates change the effective unit cost and the quantity available for sale. Capturing actual receipts and rejects at goods receipt is critical for inventory accuracy and true margin control.
You need visibility of raw material stock at the subcontractor location (or what is in transit), traceable transfers, manufacturing order tracking, and disciplined receipts with yield/reject capture when finished goods return to your warehouse.
Yes. AI-supported forecasting and planning can reduce manual workload by informing what to build and what to buy, under constraints such as lead times, minimum order quantities and capacity.