The Problem
Your production manager knows what happened on the floor today. Your ERP won't know until someone keys it in — usually days later, sometimes never. That gap between what's happening in production and what your financial systems report is where margin disappears.
Labour hours are tracked on paper timesheets or basic clocks. Material consumption is reconciled at month-end. Machine downtime isn't recorded anywhere useful. By the time a job cost report comes out of SAP Business One, MYOB Exo, or Pronto Xi, the job shipped two weeks ago and the numbers are a best guess.
We connect your production floor to your ERP so costs are captured as they happen — not estimated after the fact. Real-time job costing, actual vs estimated comparisons before the job ships, and OEE data your operations team can act on.
What We See
After working with manufacturers across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia, these are the patterns that keep coming up.
Job Costs Are a Guess
You don't know if a job made money until weeks after it ships. Labour in one system, materials in another, overheads in a spreadsheet. The "actual" cost is really just the estimated cost with some adjustments.
Scheduling Lives in Heads
Production scheduling relies on one person's knowledge and a whiteboard or spreadsheet. When they're away, nobody knows what's actually planned. Machine breakdowns mean manual replanning that takes hours.
BOM vs Reality
Bills of materials in the ERP don't match what's actually used on the floor. Substitutions happen, stock levels are wrong, and production stops while someone walks to the warehouse to check what's actually there.
Paper Quality Records
Quality inspections on paper forms. Traceability data in filing cabinets. When a customer complaint comes in or an auditor visits, it's hours of searching to pull the right records.
Challenges
Manufacturing has unique technology challenges that generic business software doesn't solve.
Real-Time Job Costing
Production Scheduling vs Capacity
Material & BOM Accuracy
Quality & Traceability
How We Help
We don't sell software. We connect your existing ERP — SAP Business One, MYOB Exo, Pronto Xi, NetSuite, or Epicor — to your production floor so data flows where it needs to go.
Real-Time Job Costing
Connect shop floor data capture (barcode scanners, time clocks, machine PLCs) to your ERP so labour, materials, and machine time are recorded against jobs as they happen. Compare actual vs estimated costs before the job ships, not weeks later.
- Automated labour time capture from floor terminals
- Material consumption scanning at point of use
- Machine time and setup cost allocation by actual usage
- Actual vs estimated cost dashboards updated hourly
Production Planning & Scheduling
Integrate your scheduling with ERP capacity data, material availability, and real-time machine status. When a machine goes down or materials are delayed, the schedule adjusts automatically and the ERP knows about it.
- Capacity-aware scheduling linked to ERP work orders
- Material availability checks before production starts
- Automated work order generation and sequencing
- Visual production dashboards for floor and office
Inventory & Material Management
Keep BOMs accurate with version control and real-time consumption tracking. Automated reorder points based on actual usage rates, not manual min/max settings that nobody updates. Integrate with supplier systems for lead time visibility.
- BOM management with engineering change tracking
- Barcode/RFID scanning for material movements
- Automated reorder triggered by actual consumption
- Supplier lead time integration for planning
Quality Management & Traceability
Digital quality management that connects inspection data, test results, and non-conformance records directly to production orders. Full lot traceability from raw material receipt to customer delivery — meeting TGA, HACCP, and ISO 9001 requirements without the paper trail.
- Digital inspection and test recording at each station
- Full lot and serial number traceability
- Non-conformance, CAPA, and SPC management
- Audit-ready compliance reporting (TGA, HACCP, ISO)
Real Results
What actually changes when manufacturers connect their systems.
Metal Fabricator — QLD
Connected barcode scanners and time clocks to SAP Business One. Labour and material consumption now captured against work orders in real time instead of keyed in weekly from paper timesheets.
Outcome: Job cost accuracy improved from estimates to actuals. Two loss-making product lines identified and repriced within the first month.
Food Manufacturer — VIC
Integrated HACCP monitoring, lot tracking, and quality inspections with MYOB Exo. Digital quality records replaced paper forms across three production lines. Full batch traceability from raw ingredient to shipped product.
Outcome: Audit preparation time dropped from 3 days to 4 hours. Recall simulation completed in under 2 hours (previously a full day).
Plastics Manufacturer — SA
Connected machine PLCs to Pronto Xi for real-time OEE tracking. Production scheduling integrated with material availability and machine capacity data. Visual dashboards on the factory floor.
Outcome: Machine utilisation visibility improved overnight. Unplanned downtime causes now tracked and categorised — maintenance scheduling shifted from reactive to planned.
Related Services
Manufacturing companies we work with commonly need these services.
Related Comparisons
FAQ
What systems do Australian manufacturers typically need integrated?
Most manufacturers need their ERP (SAP Business One, MYOB Exo, Pronto Xi, or NetSuite) connected to shop floor data collection, production scheduling, quality management, and inventory systems. The biggest gap is usually between what happens on the production floor and what the ERP reports — labour, materials, and machine time tracked separately or not at all.
How much does manufacturing system integration cost?
Simple ERP-to-shop-floor integrations start around $10,000-$20,000. Full multi-system integration across production scheduling, job costing, quality management, and inventory typically ranges from $50,000-$150,000 depending on complexity. Our $2,500 Health Check maps your current systems and identifies the highest-ROI integration opportunities before you commit to a larger project.
Can you integrate SAP Business One with shop floor systems?
Yes. SAP B1 to shop floor integration is one of the most common projects we deliver for Australian manufacturers. We connect barcode scanners, machine PLCs, time clocks, and quality inspection stations to SAP so production data flows in real time — no manual data entry at the end of each shift.
How long does a manufacturing integration project take?
Simple two-system integrations (e.g. ERP to barcode scanning) take 2-4 weeks. Full MES-to-ERP integration with quality management and scheduling typically takes 8-16 weeks. We always start with a discovery phase to understand your production environment before committing to a timeline.
What is OEE and how does integration improve it?
OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) measures how well your machines are being used — combining availability, performance, and quality metrics. Most manufacturers track OEE manually or not at all. Integrating machine sensors with your ERP gives you real-time OEE data per machine and per shift, so you can identify bottlenecks and downtime causes as they happen, not weeks later.
Do you work with food manufacturers and businesses needing HACCP compliance?
Yes. We work with food, beverage, pharmaceutical, and medical device manufacturers that need integrated quality and traceability systems. We connect HACCP monitoring, lot tracking, recall management, and compliance reporting to your ERP so audit-readiness is built into your daily operations — not a scramble before an inspection.
Not Sure Where to Start?
Our $2,500 Systems Integration Health Check maps your current manufacturing technology stack, identifies the gaps between your ERP and production floor, and gives you a clear roadmap. Or take our free 5-minute assessment to get an instant score.
Or get in touch directly — call 1300 470 091 or email [email protected]
Free Resource: Manufacturing Operations Efficiency Toolkit
Download our free guide to identifying and eliminating the hidden gaps between your ERP and production floor. Includes an operations assessment worksheet and integration roadmap template.
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