Open Source ERP Guru

We continue our series of reviews of ERP manufacturing modules by the leading open source ERP vendors. Last time we covered Compiere’s manufacturing module, and this time we’ll review Opnebravo’s manufacturing, called Production Management.

Openbravo, similar to Compiere, provides a comprehensive manufacturing solution for discrete industries. All the usual suspects are supported – configuration of work centers, operations, machines, cost centers are all done in the manufacturing module.

In the product level, you will define your B.O.M and relevant costing. Openbravo provides a details costing mechanism, where you can load cost of just about every operation and resource used in your production run. It’s important to note that costing is a real challenge every manufacturer faces – not only in terms of functionality required from the software solution used, but also in terms of how to load different expanses to accurately reflect production costs and later calculate actual sales margins. Openbravo does a good job of providing a flexible costing framework.
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One of the most frequently asked questions I get is “which open source ERP solution is the best”. There is no straight forward answer, but to solve this problem, I’ll try to use a very common technique – break a large problem to smaller ones. I’ll be reviewing the leading open source ERP software solutions by different modules – manufacturing, sales, accounting, e-commerce, warehouse management etc. That will make it easy for anyone looking to implement one of the review ERP systems .

We will start with reviews of the manufacturing module of Compiere, and in future posts we will cover support for manufacturing by other ERP vendors.

Compiere Manufactuting

Compiere provides a comprehensive manufacturing solutions. Basic manufacturing functionality is fully supported. Like any other ERP manufacturing solution, you  first have to setup the manufacturing module, describing your shop-floor’s objects and processes. That means defining work centers, Bill Of Material, routing and costing information.
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