You landed on this page for two reasons: you need new manufacturing software and want to learn more about open-source manufacturing ERP software. You’ve come to the right place!
Our top-rated, analyst-curated list covers the best open-source manufacturing software with the most relevant features. We also discuss choosing the right system for your production practices and the benefits of open-source and traditional manufacturing ERP.
Compare Top Manufacturing ERP Software Leaders
Table of Contents
Best Open-Source Manufacturing ERP
Our comprehensive list offers five top-rated open-source manufacturing software. You get a full rundown of each system’s features, benefits and limitations.
Compare Top Manufacturing ERP Software Leaders
ERPNext
This solution streamlines open-source manufacturing practices with BOM, item variants, MRP, capacity planning and stock replenishment tools. ERPNext serves all company sizes in retail, distribution, education and other industries.
A preview of ERPNext’s pipeline tool.
Top Benefits
- Manage Numerous Languages: Work with more than 80 languages via community support for international collaboration and access. Enter the translation portal for a complete list of dialects.
- Simplify Navigation: Use a user-friendly UI, GUI and UX with limited instruction and knowledge for smooth operations.
- Access a Test Drive: Gain a 14-day free trial to determine if this system meets your needs.
- Improve Accessibility: Access created fields as API interface points across the system for streamlined communication.
- Maintain Data: Repackage and upkeep delivery and installation data for your needs.
Primary Features
- BOM: Work with a hierarchical layout with the completed project at the top. Manage product codes, part descriptions, quantities, costs and more parameters.
- Shop Floor Management: Use job cards, operations and workstation tools to document daily shop floor routines. Review real-time job statuses for manufactured products, workstation sites, employee duties, work order statuses and pending steps.
- Item Variants: Store primary items as templates and deviations as variants. Add colors, shapes and other attributes as variants.
- MRP: Track serialized or batched inventory consumption for effective fee and resource management.
- Batched and Serialized Inventory: Assign serial numbers to pinpoint units. Obtain a real-time view of product availability for batch and expiration dates and more information.
Limitations
- Has limited product development documentation capabilities.
- Android app has self-hosted sign-on issues.
- Experiences upgrade issues with customized versions.
Platform:
Company Size Suitability: S M L
Odoo
This open-source manufacturing software works with all company sizes and serves sectors like consumer electronics, apparel and fashion, industrial automation and more.
Top features include order management, scheduling and planning, PLM, quality management maintenance and a work center control panel.
An example of Odoo’s expense tools.
Top Benefits
- Spend Less Time Searching for Products: Access track-picking moves to detect specific lot or serial numbers and review all moves associated with that lot to save time and find what you need quickly.
- Upkeep Production: Use the master production schedule tool to plan daily and weekly production routines by reviewing warehouse forecasted and safety stock items.
- Increase Efficiency: Work with PaaS and Odoo.sh to toggle between deployment types for better productivity.
Primary Features
- Order Management: Use barcodes to supervise all manufacturing processes, from lot and serial number scanning to triggering maintenance requests and more. Disassemble finished goods and recover components for unbilled orders.
- Master Data Craft multi-level BOMs by setting one BOM within another. Develop new routings for work orders to sequence production by used routes. Perform product evolutions and include additional, configurable options when developing orders.
- PLM: Track product versions, ECOs and files in one centralized hub. Store plans and worksheets directly into BOMs and routings.
- Quality Management: Perform quality checks with automatic triggers across your manufacturing department. Deploy statistical process control checks. Organize work with a Kanban view of quality alerts.
- Reporting: Gain complete upstream traceability reports for used manufacturing process components. Track production order costs according to components, operation expenses and more.
Limitations
- Lacks stock movement corrections after you perform them.
- Doesn’t support assigning multiple serial-numbered items in a range.
- Lacks job-level production control, capacity resource planning and production floor management.
Platform:
Company Size Suitability: S M L
Flectra
This open-source manufacturing ERP serves all company sizes across the railroad and electrical manufacturing, automotive, business supplies, and other sectors. Access this system on Windows, Linux, Mac OS and Android mobile devices.
Top features include BOM, resource management, activity monitoring and reporting, quality and compliance management, and more.
A preview of Flectra’s dashboard.
Top Benefits
- Gain Numerous Training Options: Work with several training methods for specific demographics, backgrounds and requirements. Training options include modular, functional, technical, management, administration and process documentation.
- Work With Demos: Access web browser-based demos and a 15-day free trial without a credit card for a complete test drive of this open-source manufacturing platform.
- Save Money: Obtain a free plan for up to five users and limited features to reduce costs.
- Toggle Between Deployment Options: Switch between cloud and on-premise deployment to meet your needs.
- Manage a Simple Interface: Access a user-friendly UX/UI interface with a limited learning curve for easy usage.
Primary Features
- Predictive and Preventive Maintenance: Establish optimal equipment performance for procedures and obtain automatic notifications. Estimate maintenance requirements by failure rates.
- Multi-Site Activity Management: Consolidate production, maintenance, inventory and warehouse management in one hub.
- Quality and Compliance Management: Receive quality monitoring and compliance features, including inventory inspections, conformance certificate generation and management, lot and serial number assigning and tracking, and more.
- Real-Time WIP Movement Visibility: Track raw material, WIP and finished product movement. Track work order progress via the web portal. Pinpoint and prevent the use of wrong or defective materials.
- Activity Monitoring and Reporting: Supervise and evaluate manufacturing operations with real-time and historical report insights.
Limitations
- Lacks an app for iOS devices.
- Lacks live customer support line.
- Doesn’t offer account reporting for specific countries.
Platform:
Company Size Suitability: S M L
Dolibarr
Dolibarr allocates open-source manufacturing functionality for all business sizes and industries, from computer and network security to information technology, business supplies and more.
Top modules include BOM, manufacturing orders, stock and warehouse management, and more.
An example of Dolibarr’s main interface.
Top Benefits
- Boost Cybersecurity: Establish thresholds for automatic email notification triggers after breaches for better security.
- Access Expandable Details: Personalize custom or mandatory fields to gain more values or information.
- Streamline Global Communications: Work with forums in numerous languages for more straightforward collaborations and discussions, including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Greek.
- Simplify Sign-Ins: Add features for one-time password (OTP) or two-factor authentication support with solutions like Google Authenticator for easier log-ins.
Primary Features
- BOM: Build BOMs to establish how to use raw materials or services to create manufactured goods, i.e., quantity to consume, efficiency, stock impact and more.
- Manufacturing Orders: Reuse templated BOMs to create manufacturing orders. Make orders in one or several steps. Calculate virtual stock in real time while considering all open orders.
- Lots and Serial Management: Activate this tool to define product lot numbers. Follow production by lots and obtain stock movements for specific lots, such as production worksites, customer shipments and more.
- Purchase Orders and Procurement Management: Access the procurement management wizard to provision and stock warehouses according to established optimal quantities. Track inventory with the stock dispatching wizards to obtain products for warehouses.
- Stock and Warehouse Management: Make mass changes for inventory, stock and transfer-ins. Use the stock transfer page to document multiple stock transfers in one transaction.
Limitations
- The free, on-premise version lacks service and additional support.
- Lacks an iOS application.
- The inventory report doesn’t have a printer-friendly format.
Platform:
Company Size Suitability: S M L
ADempiere
This open-source ERP system is a 100% free, cloud-based program that runs on PCs, tablets or smartphones. This system combines ERP, CRM and supply chain management (SCM) support in one platform.
ADempiere caters to the manufacturing, distribution, retail, government, agribusiness and education sectors. Top features include trade management, workflows, BOMs and formulas, resource management, and more.
An example of ADempiere’s interface. Source
Top Benefits
- Strengthen Overall Security: Manage safety controls based on user roles, access control windows, reports and procedures. The user must provide a username, password and optional language role before accessing data.
- Detect and Address Issues: Repeat or recreate all transactions. The system pinpoints most failures, and users can solve problems. The error is isolated, and the rest of the system will work if unresolvable.
- Ensure Better Performance: Use this system’s Smalltalk MVC Architecture, consisting of a model-view-controller approach and the explicit rules engine to handle intricate transaction logics and enact safe-fail recoveries. Each object is as independent as possible from other things, such as transactional deviation.
- Boost Financial Monitoring: Supervise banks and bank accounts in different currencies and handle all payment types, checkbook controls, document printings, batch check processing and bank reconciliations. Manage multiple payment and deposit types like cash, transfers, third-party checks and more.
Primary Features
- Manufacturing Management: Obtain real-time transparency of expected demand and production plans. Develop timely requisitions and manufacturing orders, review open orders and adapt to supply and demand changes. The solution also pinpoints variations between standard and actual expenses.
- Resource Management: Predict capacities and choose different resources, including workstations, production lines, workshops or plants usually integrated between them. Compare capacity calculations against existing resources to evaluate your production plan’s sustainability.
- Bill of Materials (BOMs) and Formulas: Work with several BOM templates and reports that provide a clear snapshot of parts and raw materials.
- Cost Management: Supervise fees for organizations, accounting schemes, warehouses, resources, product groups and more.
- Human Capital: Gain availability details from employees and establish training visions. Craft career development plans and goals for workers. Automate recurring calculations, overtime processing, loan management, tax processing, income taxes and employee contributions.
Limitations
- Lacks free trials.
Platform:
Company Size Suitability: S M L
Open-Source vs. Traditional Software
You may wonder what’s better, traditional manufacturing software or open-source manufacturing ERP.
Here are a few reasons why open-source manufacturing software is the better choice:
- Save Money: If you choose an open-source system without vendor support, the solution is free of cost. No licensing fees. Most vendor-supported software offers subscription fees that vary among companies.
- Access Better Customization Options: Open-source software means you can tailor a system’s source code and add as many features as you want instead of investing in a mainstream system that may or may not have all the features you want.
- Gain Community Help: Most open-source solutions offer community forums where different users can converse and troubleshoot common issues.
On the flip side, traditional manufacturing software can:
- Reduce Costs: Most manufacturing solutions offer automation to expedite routine tasks, saving time and money on mistakes. You also save money on TCO because you’re investing in a solution dedicated to one company sector. Buying an ERP platform has a suite for numerous company departments.
- Simplify Company-Wide Collaboration: Gain real-time collaboration tools to keep everyone on the same page and gain all the right features. If you’re missing a few capabilities, you can ask vendors if their products integrate with other tools for better centralization.
- Provide Expert Customer Support: Community forums are great, but if you’re looking for expert advice and help, a mainstream vendor’s support team is the way to go.
Open-source and mainstream manufacturing software offer pros and cons. Choosing the system that best aligns with your company’s goals and production practices is essential.
Compare Top Manufacturing ERP Software Leaders
Choosing The Right Software
How do you choose the best open-source manufacturing software for your business needs? You can tackle this task in numerous ways, but we offer a nine-step methodology called Lean Selection.
This technique helps you find a solution for any industry or company size. Here’s a brief breakdown of each step.
- Establish: Evaluate your current workflows internally and ask why you need new software. What problems are you facing, and how can a new system fix them?
- Collaborate: Assemble a software selection committee of stakeholders, department leaders, end users, IT personnel and more for improved collaboration.
- Define: Discuss with your software selection team the vital features and requirements that you’re looking for in a new open-source manufacturing software. Create a thorough requirements list.
- Distribute: Review potential open-source manufacturing vendors and compare how they stack against your requirements list.
- Justify: Determine if you need a brand-new solution, add-on modules for your existing software, or to stop this process altogether.
- Prove: Ask open-source manufacturing software providers for demos, proofs-of-concept (POCs) or use cases to demonstrate their products adequately.
- Rank: Score and rank vendors by the total cost of ownership (TCO) and demo rating. You should have at least two to three potential choices at this stage.
- Negotiate: Discuss with your top-rated vendor about terms and agreements. Seek additional legal advice if needed. Repeat this step if you can’t reach a compromise.
- Sign: Review and sign with your vendor and develop an implementation plan.
Compare Top Manufacturing ERP Software Leaders
Next Steps
Open-source manufacturing ERP software allows you to streamline production processes and drive better results for more profits and client retention at a reasonable price.
Not sure where to go from here? Our free, in-depth comparison report makes it easy to see how leading systems stack up.
What pain points do you want open-source manufacturing ERP to address? What are you looking for in an ideal product? Let us know in the comments!
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