Production planned from orders, not from a feeling
A tableware manufacturer
Production ran off a weekly sales spreadsheet; price lists were versioned by email; inventory was counted monthly and always wrong. Now production plans from open orders, and the price list is one link that's always current.
01
What was broken
Production was planned from a sales spreadsheet updated weekly — so the kiln schedule answered last week's demand. Finished-goods inventory was counted monthly, disagreed with the sheet by the second week, and wholesale promises were made against numbers nobody trusted.
Price lists went out as email attachments. Which customer had which version was anyone's guess, and every stale PDF eventually became an awkward conversation about price.
02
What got built
- 01Production planning driven by open orders and minimum stock levels, not a weekly export
- 02A kiln and firing schedule that sequences batches against due dates and capacity
- 03Live inventory across raw materials and finished goods, adjusted as production closes
- 04A wholesale price-list generator — one current link per customer tier, no attachments
- 05An ordering portal for wholesale accounts, priced from that same list
03
What changed
The kiln runs against actual demand plus deliberate stock, instead of last week's guess. Inventory counts reconcile because the system moves stock when production and shipments do — the monthly count became a check, not a revelation.
The price list is one link that's always current, so the stale-PDF conversations ended. Wholesale customers order against real availability instead of a hopeful email.
Related demo
A fictionalized version of this kind of system is in the demo library — see Thornwick Goods, a wholesale demo.
Open the Thornwick Goods demo page →Recognize your Monday in any of this?
Tell us what's breaking — six questions on the studio page — or start with a call.