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Book the callIndustries · Supply industry and discrete manufacturing
ERP for suppliers and discrete manufacturing: what matters for variants, call-offs and production data
For suppliers and discrete manufacturers, four things decide: bills of materials and routings with a clean revision status from CAD and PDM, variant logic in the standard instead of copied items, customer call-offs via EDI straight into planning, and real-time feedback from the shop floor. Whatever the standard cannot carry becomes custom development later – with all the consequences for maintenance and release upgrades.
- VDA · EDIFACT
- Call-offs and shipping notices via EDI
- Since 1992
- Vendor-neutral, independent
- DACH
- Germany, Austria, Switzerland
Selected clients from more than 30 years
What is different in discrete manufacturing
The bill of materials is the product. The call-off sets the pace.
In process manufacturing the product comes from a recipe; in wholesale it is bought in. In discrete manufacturing it is assembled: from assemblies, single parts and operations described in the bill of materials and the routing. Every design change alters both – and if the bill of materials is retyped from CAD, production works to a revision that engineering has already discarded.
For suppliers, the customer's pace comes on top. Delivery schedules and just-in-time call-offs from customers change constantly, arrive via EDI and must reach planning before the next shift starts. At the same time every variant asks the same question again: a separate item, or one version of the same configuration?
A reliable selection therefore does not start with a vendor comparison, but with the question of what your type of production, your range of variants and your customer call-offs really look like. How we build this in vendor-neutral ERP consulting and why process analysis comes before the system question, follows from this order.
Walk through your BOM and call-off logic with us →Where it goes wrong in this industry
Four failure patterns we see again and again in manufacturing projects.
Every variant becomes a separate item
Without variant logic, sales creates a separate item with its own bill of materials for every new combination of size, colour and option. After a few years there are thousands of items in the system that differ in a single attribute – and every design change has to be repeated in every copy. What the standard has to deliver: variant configuration with rules, from which the bill of materials and routing are created for each order.
The bill of materials is retyped from CAD
Engineering and ERP keep separate revisions. A change in CAD only reaches production when someone transfers it – or not at all. Production then works to a revision that no longer exists. What the standard has to deliver: an interface to CAD and PDM with change index, release and validity for each BOM item.
The call-off lands in the inbox, not in planning
Customer delivery schedules arrive via EDI or a portal, but are copied into a spreadsheet and matched against stock by hand. Every change to the call-off reaches material planning too late, and special deliveries become the rule. What the standard has to deliver: read call-offs and shipping notices directly in the customer's EDI format – VDA or EDIFACT – show changes against the previous call-off and take them into demand planning.
Planning knows no capacity limit
The ERP calculates demand and dates, but against unlimited capacity. The real sequence at the machine is decided in the foreman's Excel, and feedback arrives on paper at the end of the shift. Delivery dates are then estimates. What the standard has to deliver: capacity planning against machines and staff, and real-time feedback – in the ERP or through a connected MES.
Which systems the industry uses
Three system classes, three prices – no winner.
Each class solves the four requirements in a different place. The table describes where – and what you accept in return.
| System class | Where the industry logic sits | What speaks for it | The price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Industry ERP for manufacturing and suppliers | In the core of the system. Variant configuration, call-off processing, capacity planning and shop-floor data collection are master data and functions, not extra fields. | Shortest route from design to shop-floor feedback. VDA and EDIFACT call-offs, container management and production orders are built into the standard. | Smaller vendor, smaller market for partners and staff. Group finance and international roll-outs often weaker. High switching costs because variant and planning logic are not portable. |
| Standard ERP with industry add-on | In a partner's add-on on a broad base system. | Broad ecosystem, strong finance, staff available. Manufacturing depth where the add-on brings it. | Two release cycles that can drift apart. Dependence on the add-on partner. The depth of variant logic and call-off processing varies widely and must be tested against your own cases. |
| Generalist ERP without industry focus | In custom development or in connected specialist systems such as MES and detailed scheduling. | Greatest freedom of design. Fits group standards. Lowest entry barrier for simple series production without variants. | Variants, call-offs and capacity planning are built in-house or connected through interfaces – and maintained in-house. Every release of the base system tests this custom development again. |
What the table cannot decide: which type of production you run – series, make-to-order, variants or engineer-to-order –, how many variants you really carry, what share of your revenue runs through EDI call-offs and how many machines should report data back. These four answers decide the selection – and none of them is in a data sheet. For the assessment in the project we draw on our database of around 500 software vendors – vendor-neutral, without commission.
From our projects · Supplier to the office furniture industry
W. Ruhsi GmbH: from a purchased ERP to go-live in automated production.
W. Ruhsi GmbH, founded in 1949, makes supply parts for the office furniture industry with around 50 employees – above all table tops – as well as catering equipment. Production is highly automated and designed for fast changeovers.
The problem
A comprehensive ERP system had been bought, but the project never reached go-live. There was no requirements specification and no project plan describing responsibilities and processes.
What we did
Read the supply industry reference →
Dreher reviewed the project status and made recommendations, redesigned the processes in workshops and defined the requirements for the software, wrote a requirements specification from them and assessed possible implementation partners on the market.
Secured
The investment, with a revised implementation plan
per reference
Redesigned
Automated production control
per reference
Independence
No licences sold, no vendor commission. Our fee is the same whichever system is chosen in the end.
Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions about ERP in the supply industry.
Ten questions managing directors from the supply industry and manufacturing ask us before an ERP decision – on variants, bills of materials, EDI call-offs, MES, duration and cost.
Your contact
Dr. Harald Dreher
Managing Director & Owner · Dreher Consulting
Since 1992, Harald Dreher has supported suppliers and manufacturing companies in the DACH Mittelstand with ERP decisions – vendor-neutral, without selling licences. In a 30-minute conversation he assesses which system class fits your type of production, your variants and your customer call-offs, and where a selection is not needed at all.
LinkedIn · Book 30 minutes with Dr Dreher →
Last updated: 7 October 2026
1. Which ERP system is right for suppliers and discrete manufacturing?
The ERP system that carries bills of materials and routings with revision status, variant logic, customer call-offs via EDI and feedback from the shop floor in the standard – not as customisation. Three system classes do this in different ways. An industry ERP for manufacturing brings variant configuration, call-off processing and capacity planning; the price is a smaller vendor and partner market. A standard ERP with an industry add-on combines a broad base system with a partner's manufacturing logic; the price is two release cycles and dependence on that one partner. A generalist ERP gives the greatest freedom, but requires variants, call-offs and detailed scheduling to be built or connected through specialist systems. Which class fits is decided by four answers from your business: type of production, number of variants, EDI share and machine connectivity.
2. What is the difference between discrete and process manufacturing – and why does it matter for the ERP?
Discrete manufacturing makes countable pieces assembled from assemblies and single parts: machines, vehicle parts, devices, containers. Its master data is the bill of materials with routing. Process manufacturing makes quantities from a recipe – food, chemicals, pharmaceuticals – often with batches, co-products and fluctuating yields. An ERP built for one world usually maps the other only through workarounds. For the selection this means: the type of production belongs at the start of the requirements specification, not in a footnote. Many Mittelstand companies have both, for example mechanical machining with batch-managed surface treatment. Then the ERP has to show that it brings both logics together in one order.
3. How does an ERP handle variants without the item master exploding?
With variant configuration: a configurable product has attributes such as size, material or option, and rules for which combinations are allowed. From the chosen values the ERP creates the matching bill of materials and routing for each order, without creating a separate item for every combination. Sales configures in the quotation, production receives an unambiguous bill of materials, and a design change is maintained once in the rule instead of in hundreds of copies. In the proof of concept, use your most complicated product to test whether the rules can be mapped in the standard or whether the vendor needs programming. And test whether prices and costing follow the configuration.
4. How do customer call-offs via EDI get into planning?
Customers, above all in the automotive industry, send delivery schedules with medium-term demand and just-in-time call-offs for short-term delivery electronically – in VDA formats or in the EDIFACT standard with messages such as DELFOR, DELJIT and DESADV. The ERP must read these call-offs without manual entry, compare them with the previous call-off and show changes before they go into demand planning. On the way back it creates the shipping notice and the container labels in the customer's format. Container management often belongs here too: load carriers and empties that circulate between supplier and customer. Many suppliers run EDI through a service provider; then the interface between service provider and ERP is what counts.
5. What does the automotive industry require from a supplier's ERP?
Under IATF 16949 it is the quality management system that is certified, not the ERP. But the ERP has to deliver what that system requires: traceability through batches and serial numbers from goods receipt to delivery, controlled changes to bills of materials and routings, data for initial sampling, and complaint handling linked to delivery and batch. Add to that the customers' call-off and shipping notice formats and often customer-specific labels. In the proof of concept, test a real complaint: does the system find within minutes which deliveries contain the same batch? If the answer has to be pieced together from three spreadsheets, the standard does not carry the requirement.
6. Does a manufacturing company need an MES alongside the ERP?
Not automatically. Many ERP systems include shop-floor data collection and feedback that are enough for a manageable production with few machines. A separate manufacturing execution system pays off when production itself becomes the bottleneck: many machines with direct data connection, detailed scheduling by the minute, machine and process data for quality assurance, operator guidance at the workstation. Then the interface becomes the critical point: the ERP holds order, material and date, the MES the execution, and both must know the same status at every moment. The question therefore belongs in the ERP selection, not after it.
7. How do you connect CAD, PDM and ERP?
Through clear ownership and an interface that transfers releases, not files. Engineering holds the geometry and the engineering BOM in CAD and PDM; the ERP holds the manufacturing BOM with routing, material and cost. What matters is when a revision is released, who transfers it and how a change index affects running orders. Without this rule, someone retypes the bill of materials, and engineering and production work with different revisions. Where these rules are missing, the implementation often fails before it starts: at W. Ruhsi GmbH a purchased ERP never reached go-live because the requirements specification and process descriptions were missing – they were put in place before the project continued.
8. Make-to-stock, make-to-order, engineer-to-order: what does that change in the ERP selection?
Almost everything in planning. In make-to-stock production the ERP plans against a forecast and stock. In make-to-order production manufacturing starts with the customer order, and on-time delivery depends on capacity and material. In engineer-to-order the product is designed for each order; then the ERP needs project structures, order-specific bills of materials that keep growing during production, and post-calculation per project. Many suppliers mix these types: series parts on call-off, special parts to order. The selection must therefore be tested against the type of production with the largest share of revenue – and against the one that creates the most Excel today.
9. How long does an ERP selection take in manufacturing?
The time does not go into comparing systems, but into process analysis and the requirements specification: types of production, variants, BOM and change process, customer call-offs, machine connectivity. Only once these cases are described can a vendor show in a proof of concept how its system works with your data – and not with its demo data. We plan each stage separately – process analysis, requirements specification, market analysis, selection with proof of concept – and fix its scope before it starts.
10. What does independent ERP consulting cost a supplier?
The effort depends on the number of processes, types of production, sites and EDI customers, not on company size alone. A series manufacturer with one plant and few variants has fewer ERP-relevant processes than a supplier with three plants, variant configuration and call-offs from ten automotive customers. We therefore price each stage separately – process analysis, requirements specification, market analysis, selection with proof of concept – and fix its scope before it starts. You can stop, continue or adjust the scope after each stage. Our fee is independent of the system you choose in the end: we do not sell licences and receive no vendor commission.
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